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- Away: Scaling a DTC brand to $125 Million
Away: Scaling a DTC brand to $125 Million
Google Ads, Influencer Program, and Brand Positioning
Hey team,
I’m all about a good lifestyle brand. They keep the love going with customers way past the first buy. For the brand, it’s all about knowing those repeat purchases are coming—a win-win for everyone.
Today, I’m diving into Away, a brand that’s all about the travel life.
Sonny Vaccaro, the marketing legend who signed Michael Jordan, nailed it with his quote on the same topic.
A shoe is just a shoe until somebody steps into it. Then it has meaning. The rest of us just want a chance to touch that greatness. We need you in these shoes not so you have meaning in your life, but so that we have meaning in ours.
— Dev
In today’s edition:
Google ads: How Away captures high intent customers.
Influencer program: How they distribute their story through travellers
Content Marketing: Brand positioning through storytelling
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FEATURE CASE STUDY
Away Luggage

Away was founded in November 2015 by Jen Rubio and Steph Korey. The idea for the company originated from a personal experience Rubio had when her luggage broke at an airport in Switzerland, spilling her belongings onto the floor. Frustrated by the lack of durable and affordable luggage options, Rubio reached out to her former colleague at Warby Parker, Steph Korey, to discuss creating a better suitcase.
Key timeline of their brand’s growth:
First-Year Success: Away made $12 million in its first year and was profitable by the end of 2017.
Product Line Expansion: By the end of its first year, Away had launched three more suitcases: The Bigger Carry-On, The Medium, and The Large.
Retail Presence: Although primarily an online retailer, Away opened physical stores in high-traffic cities like New York, London, and Los Angeles.
Revenue Growth: By late 2019, the company was on track to achieve $150 million in revenue
GOOGLE SEARCH ADS
Focus on Scaling Non-Branded Keywords
Away focuses heavily on unbranded search queries, which account for about 70% of their clicks. This approach allows them to reach a broader audience who may not yet be familiar with the Away brand but are searching for general terms related to luggage and travel.
Capturing a wider audience helps give them reach, traffic volume and an opportunity to convert potential buyers at scale.
SEM tactics that work for them:
High-volume keywords despite high costs: Target high-volume generic keywords like “luggage” and “suitcase”. It works for them because they are an established brand with market share and visibility. Using this, they can maintain high click-throughs even at higher CPCs. A bold tactic that keeps them competitive.
Visibility in competitor searches: Targeting competitors like Samsonite and Tumi luggage helps them gain visibility and capture potential from consumers who haven’t considered them or are comparing the brands for the best deal. Aka Guerrilla marketing online.
Compelling ad copy: Their search ads emphasise the travel lifestyle rather than just product features, something they do in their paid social ads as well. Copy is supported by extensions that include callouts and ratings, showcasing credibility that drives up click-through rates. They have slight nuances in their brand and non-brand ads created to appeal to different sets of audiences.


Economies of scale advantage: Having a prominent brand within the luggage space helps them outbid smaller competitors by investing heavily in keywords that smaller players can’t afford.
INFLUENCER & PAID SOCIAL
Travel Experience, Not Just Products.
Away creates aesthetic and aspirational content. Their distribution strategy is just as good as the content they create and has helped them grow from $12m to $150 in two years. Instead of selling luggage, they are selling the travel experience, the destination and the memories through influencers. It makes people get amongst. It evokes emotion and therefore motivates them to take action.
This is what makes their influencer strategy tick:
Working with the influencers who connect with their ideal customers: Partnering up with travel bloggers, fashion influencers, celebrities, and macro and micro-influencers, allows them to get unique content that taps into niche audiences. It continually aligns the brand with the lifestyles it wants to appeal to.
User-generated content: By getting influencers to use the #travelaway hashtag, they’re able to get a constant supply of this UGC-style content that they can repurpose in their ads or post organically. Out of 676 Instagram posts, 600 were UGC, which reached 15 million users organically. This kind of impact of social proof is unmatched and unprecedented.
Building relationships rather than one-off payments: Away claims that they don’t pay for influencer amplification. Instead, they take influencers on trips to promote the brand with them.
Influencer campaign returns: It's hard to know the exact ROI without insider info. However, insight from e-consultancy shows that Away’s campaign with 13 influencers got 58,000 likes, and 1,000 comments, and had a 5.2% engagement rate. If Away converts at a conservative 3% of these 59,000 engagements into sales, they are looking at making $531,000 (based on $300 AOV) from one influencer campaign!

Examples of Influencer posts on Instagram.
CONTENT MARKETING
Brand Positioning Through Storytelling
The founders have always emphasised that people don’t remember their luggage, they remember the memorable experiences from their trip.
That’s what they focus on — building a travel company.
By building an effective content flywheel, Away has been able to promote business growth and control how the brand is positioned. Their content emphasizes travel experiences, destinations, and memories, fostering an emotional connection with their audience. This content is distributed across all social channels as well as their long-form channels such as:
Print and Online Magazine: ‘Here’ magazine features travel guides, stories, and destination photos that continue to serve as a source of inspiration.
Podcast: Serves as a key part of the strategy, helping build organic brand awareness and engage with their audiences on a deeper level. Their content focuses on personal travel stories, thought leadership about building the business, and behind-the-scenes stories. Here are a couple of examples of their podcast:
Storytelling -Jen Rubio, co-founder of Away, appeared on the popular podcast How I Built This with Guy Raz. In this episode, she shared the story of how Away was founded, the challenges they faced, and their journey to becoming a successful DTC luggage brand
Thought leadership - On the Women Who Travel podcast, Jen Rubio discussed how Away is changing the landscape of travel, their collaborations, and personal travel experiences
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