The marketing plan driving Urban Jungle’s ₹115 crore ambition

As India enters its peak travel season, a period defined by post-festive holidays, destination weddings, and New Year getaways, the country's travel gear market is witnessing a structural shift. The sector, valued at approximately $3.68 billion in 2024, is projected to reach $5.50 billion by 2030, driven by a ‘premiumisation wave’ and a younger demographic that views travel as a primary lifestyle pillar.

This shift is amplified by a massive wedding season, with reports estimating that 46 lakh weddings between November and December 2025 will generate nearly ₹6.5 lakh crore in business, significantly boosting demand for trousseau and travel essentials. Luggage is transitioning from a utilitarian commodity to a high-stakes fashion accessory, particularly for Gen Z and Millennial travellers who treat airports as ‘runways’.

Capitalising on this evolution is Urban Jungle, a sub-brand of industry major Safari Industries. Targeting a turnover of over ₹115 crore, the brand is sharpening its positioning around ‘expressive’ travel. Through cultural collaborations with comedians like Samay Raina and upcoming partnerships with global franchises like Stranger Things, Founder and Brand Lead Tanisha Jatia outlines how this high-intent window is influencing the brand's approach to marketing, retail, and product expression.

Peak season strategy

Jatia says this season "hits the sweet spot for travel brands…post-festive holidays, weddings, and year-end getaways." Weddings, in particular, overlap strongly with luggage buying, especially when families shop for matching sets. Urban Jungle has leaned into this cultural moment by depicting real packing behaviour, "like content showing bridesmaids packing like they're moving houses." The tone, she notes, remains "light, energetic, and true to Urban Jungle's young modern consumer."

Influencer collaborations and social content are designed to make the product feel embedded in pre-wedding buzz. 

"Urban Jungle's marketing mix this season is built on digital storytelling and experiential engagement," she says, adding that the team is "doubling down on influencer collaborations and short-form social content across Instagram and YouTube Shorts." With the upcoming Stranger Things limited edition collection, the brand is also expanding visibility through OOH at airports and metro hubs, supported by "immersive in-store experiences across our EBOs."

Jatia describes the overall media balance as "roughly split between digital-first awareness and in-store activations that build both emotional connection and conversion."

Understanding the high-intent traveller

The season includes "honeymooners with matching luggage, bridesmaids turning destination weddings into vacations, Gen Z explorers chasing long weekends, and young professionals sneaking in 'bleisure' trips between year-end breaks." They tend to be spontaneous and expressive, and the brand views luggage the way this audience does: not as storage, but as a style statement. Urban Jungle, Jatia says, "speaks directly to that mindset."

One behavioural trend shaping demand is the rise of blended business-leisure travel. "A growing 'bleisure' culture blending business and leisure trips has created demand for multi-functional, sleek travel bags," Jatia says. She also notes that quick-commerce platforms have emerged as an unexpected touchpoint: "Quick commerce platforms have also emerged as a new last-minute travel-prep channel for accessories and compact luggage."

Creator-led engagement

Engaging Gen Z and millennial consumers means leaning into culture rather than traditional product advertising. "We actively collaborate with fashion and culture-forward creators who bring that energy to life from Raghav Juyal's campaign with Man's World, which redefined travel style with a street-cool edge, to collaborations with lifestyle influencers who show how our luggage fits into an everyday aesthetic, not just a vacation moodboard," she explains.

Influencer-led campaigns using conversational, culture-led formats have been particularly effective. "The strategy is to see how Urban Jungle could stand out in a cluttered category," Jatia says. With creators like Samay Raina and Ashish Chanchlani, the objective was not straightforward product placement but engagement: "It wasn't a brand ad it was a piece of content people wanted to share which is evident with the kind of engagement rate we saw."

She adds that subsequent work with Vir Saini and Bun Shah introduced a "completely different dimension, storytelling."

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Retail as experience

Despite rapid e-commerce growth, Urban Jungle is investing heavily in offline retail expansion, aiming for a 50:50 sales mix. "New EBOs are designed to be immersive brand experiences," Jatia says. Stores such as the new Borivali outlet function "as sales destinations and live marketing assets, hosting influencer events, community meetups, and monogramming activations to encourage social sharing and drive digital chatter." They are, she says, "where brand discovery, storytelling, and conversion happen in the same moment."

"For us, retail is not just a distribution channel, but a discovery ecosystem," she says. The Borivali store reflects this philosophy: "It's designed to be as much an experience as it is a store." Complimentary monogramming and in-store events "aren't just engagement touchpoints, they help the brand build cultural stickiness."

Differentiating within the Safari portfolio

As a sub-brand of Safari, Urban Jungle operates with manufacturing and distribution advantages yet uses marketing to differentiate itself. "Urban Jungle inherits manufacturing strength, reliability, and distribution depth but reinterprets them through a design-first, self-expressive lens," Jatia notes. Its identity "isn't built on specs or features; it's built on attitude, colour, and character," supported by collaborations with creators that make the storytelling "feel closer to lifestyle than traditional luggage advertising."

Quick commerce strategy

Urban Jungle's presence on quick-commerce platforms emerged from a clear insight: travellers shop last-minute. "We noticed a very real behaviour shift: people remember what they need for a trip only when they start packing, not when they're planning," she explains. Young consumers are also travelling more frequently and impulsively, leading to demand for "cabin size trolleys for weekend getaways, backpacks and luggage sets for gifting."

Looking ahead, she expects AI to play a practical role in both design and personalisation. "Generative AI will let us design faster," she says, enabling rapid experimentation with colours and limited-edition drops. Predictive AI, meanwhile, "will help us understand who's planning a honeymoon, who's browsing long-weekend trips so our marketing becomes hyper-personal and timed to the moment they're ready to buy," while also improving supply-chain efficiency.

Beyond the peak season, Jatia says the long-term ambition is to build a wider lifestyle ecosystem. "Urban Jungle's vision is to evolve into a complete travel lifestyle ecosystem spanning travel accessories, pouches, slings, and tech-enabled gear." The goal, she adds, is "to make Urban Jungle synonymous with the modern travel experience from the moment you plan your trip to the moment you take off."