Eagle Creek and packH2O Partnership Raises Packs and Awareness During World Water Month

May 5, 2016

Working together to make a difference in the lives of others

Today, packH2O and Eagle Creek announce that their joint campaign to help make water more accessible for families in water stressed regions throughout the world has been a success, exceeding expectations for sales and awareness.

In observance of World Water Day, Eagle Creek invited consumers to participate with them in providing water backpacks for those in need. They coined the campaign: “Buy a Bag, Change a Life”. For every piece of luggage purchased on eaglecreek.com, one water backpack was donated. Consumers responded in droves, resulting in a donation of over 1,000 packH2O water backpacks to families forced to walk miles every day for safe drinking water.

In addition to facilitating this impact, Eagle Creek is donating $4,000 for the purchase of two heavy-duty sewing machines that will create jobs in Kenya while extending their impact by providing an in-country source of packs. The additional visibility placed on packH2O by this partnership contributed to the highest cash donation amount that packH2O had received from the general public, to date.

The campaign also positively impacted Eagle Creek’s social channels. They hosted a regram contest that awarded two lucky winners with Eagle Creek gear. Brand Ambassadors and Influencers joined in sharing the news of the awareness campaign, and all of these efforts resulted in increased impression and engagement. It also brought increased attention to World Water Day (March 22, 2016), recognized by the United Nations and many international organizations as a time to focus attention on the importance of safe water and advocates for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

“It’s not all fun and travel here at Eagle Creek. We value the world we live in, and direct targeted efforts to make a difference in the lives of our fellow human beings,” said Lisa Buco, Director of Marketing at Eagle Creek. “We’re happy to join the fight to make water more easily accessible for people throughout the world, and we’re delighted to say that our consumers joined us with gusto.”

Up to 2.4 billion people live in water-stressed areas, and UNICEF estimates that women and children in developing nations spend 200 million hours collecting water daily, often from distant sources. People in these communities typically carry water from source to home in discarded jerry cans and buckets that were originally used to contain lubricants, agrichemicals or fuel oils. Contaminating water during transport often leads to the spread of waterborne illness. In order to address this problem, the packH2O water backpack was developed to ease the human burden of transporting water, and help to eradicate waterborne illness through solar disinfection technology that allows the packH2O liners to be sanitized in the sun.

ABOUT EAGLE CREEK

Eagle Creek is a leading travel outfitter, providing smart, innovative and durable luggage, travel bags, and accessories since 1975. Through the years they have fine-tuned the best way to design and build gear for diverse travel needs. With their end goal to enhance any travel experience, they offer a Travel System of products, which includes a wide selection of luggage, packing organizers, accessories, and day bags. Building smart and dependable gear, Eagle Creek backs all their products with industry-leading warranties so that travelers can stay focused on new discoveries knowing their gear is built for the road. For more information, visit eaglecreek.com.

ABOUT PACKH2O

Established in 2013, packH2O is a US based non-profit headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Lead by Executive Director, Kelsey Langdale, packH2O’s vision is to get a PackH2O water backpack to everyone who needs one. To date more than 200,000 packH2O packs have been distributed through Langdale’s efforts in partnership with such organizations as Partners for Care, Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity International, CxCatalyts and Operation Blessing International. For more information about PackH2O, visit www.packh2o.org and follow us on Twitter @packh2o and like us on Facebook.