Sania Mirza serves for Samsonite in this latest spot

Samsonite has unveiled a new ad film to its Tested like Samsonite campaign, this time featuring tennis star Sania Mirza, who is seen testing the impact resistance of the brand's Proxis luggage range. 

In the ad film, Mirza is shown practising her art of tennis, with a fixed target at the other end of the court- a Samsonite suitcase. As she consistently hits her serves at the product, the ad film runs a piece of high-octane music in the background. 

With a runtime of 1 minute and 14 seconds, the ad film starts with Sania Mirza first testing the durability of the suitcase with mildly paced serves. With time, the pace increases, as is indicated by the speedometer shown on the screen. As the tennis veteran shifts through the gears, the suitcase is shown withstanding even top serves upwards of 165 km/h. 

Before Sania Mirza, other celebrities including actor and fitness enthusiast Milind Soman, and F1 driver Karun Chadhok took on the challenge of ‘testing Samsonite’. Milind Soman, in his ad, examined the EVOA series from the brand through a walk, run, and then cycling test.

Over a stretch of 32 kilometres, Soman took the suitcase for a ride, literally. At the end of the ride, the celebrity is received by his peers at the finish line, where he plugs the campaign slogan, ‘You deserve what’s only been tested like Samsonite’.

In Karun Chadhok’s commercial, the Livestock suitcase series of the brand took a tumble test across a drift track. Attached to Chadhok’s car, the suitcase took on the course just as rigorously as the car did. 

These commercials are representations of actual tests that Samsonite claims its products go through such as impact resistance tests, conveyor belt tests, and tumble tests.

The ad films are the latest renditions of Samsonite’s larger campaign that featured celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Yuvraj Singh, and Mithali Raj. The campaign, by and large, draws parallels between the brand product and the lives of regular folks. The idea is to encourage people to take on their life challenges head-on and come out the other side with a more resilient outlook. 

The selection of brand ambassadors last year appeared to be influenced by the real-life struggles faced by three celebrities who, despite encountering hardships, demonstrated resilience. In the advertisement featuring Bachchan, he theatrically embodies life's challenges, confronting them with confidence and courage. Singh, in his segment, undergoes medical tests while conveying a message of self-belief. Raj, on the other hand, delivers her message by bouncing a cricket ball across glass walls.

We spoke to the brand last year, and one thing that stood out in the conversation was that the target audience for Samsonite is the affluent class of consumers. As per Anushree Tainwala, who is the executive director of Samsonite, the existing Samsonite customers are the brand’s target audience. 

“Those who have arrived in life, and are frequent travellers. We’ve created a feel-good campaign to remind the consumers of why they're a part of the Samsonite family, and why they will continue to be so.”

However, with a slightly different set of celebrity endorsements, there appears to be a shift in how the campaign is communicating with the audiences.