Carla Dunham has held many impressive roles in the past, including high-level executive positions at Kate Spade and Amazon Fashion, and her last gig as chief marketing and merchandising officer at Foxtrot.
But when she started in her current position as CMO of DTC luggage brand Away, it came with a lot of…well, baggage.
The company was valued at $1.4 billion in 2019 after raising $100 million. But since the early days of the pandemic, Away has gone through major layoffs and furloughs after its sales dropped by more than 90%. It was reportedly even considering sale options earlier this year but has since shifted from that idea and focused on expanding its brand.
That’s where Dunham, who joined Away in late 2022, comes in. Her latest project is the re-release of Away’s Classic suitcases in seven new colors, which were developed through a “sustainability-first” lens, according to a company release, and are created with a higher portion of recycled materials in its components.
Dunham told Retail Brew that right now, her focus is “really connecting all facets of the funnel,” to not only engage Away’s core audience but also acquire new customers.
“The new reveal of our latest Classic Collection—that certainly is an anchor moment for us,” Dunham said. “But even prior to that, from 2020 to 2022, our offering increased by about 70%. So being able to really unpack all the communication channels that we have at our disposal, and to do so with intention—backpacks and different travel bags and travel accessories, as well as core luggage—that’s been a core area of focus for the marketing team.”
Meeting of minds: The brand’s marketing efforts also include collaborations with other designers and influencers, like the Brooklyn-based designer Willie Norris, who created a special collection of Away luggage in honor of the LGBTQ+ community to celebrate Pride this year.
“This idea that we’re really squarely in that space of inspiring and also embracing it has really been the energy of the brand,” Dunham said. The use of artificial intelligence has been another facet of the brand’s renewed efforts.
Most recently, it used AI to power Away’s “Extraordinary” campaign, where the brand invited customers and audience members to Venice Beach for an activation that “allowed them to dream up their ideal travel location through an interface that was connected to an AI model,” Dunham said. The audience was prompted to input answers to fun questions, such as “What’s your favorite food?” The AI artists worked to create the platform to input the questions and then produced an image that was shared on a postcard.
“It was this idea of, “How does AI work and operate in our world?’” Dunham said. “We ultimately had a lot of fun with the whole space by capping it off with a celebration of beautiful places in the real world. We do believe that the best experiences happen IRL, and we wanted AI to be a moment to kind of introduce that idea.”
As the retailer continues with its expansion, which also includes opening two new stores and adding new product categories like backpacks and additional accessories, per Dunham, its ultimate focus is customer engagement and conversion through various channels of the “upper funnel,” including social media. “For us, it’s about marrying the right message and the right audience to the right point within that funnel,” Dunham said.—JS