The Campaign

At Hotel Ramada, Ajmer, every visually-impaired guest who checks-in is provided with the Blind Faith Upgrade. One-of-a-kind Upgrade, it consists of an easy-to-assemble kit that can convert any hotel room into a visually-impaired-friendly room, without making any infrastructural changes at the property. The Upgrade provides ease of accessibility to the visually-impaired and helps them move around the hotel premises without any assistance.

The Brief

No media spends were done for this campaign.

Creative Execution

The Blind Faith Upgrade is an offering by Hotel Ramada that consists of an easy-to-assemble kit to transform any hotel room into a visually-impaired-friendly room. Launched during the annual Urs Mubarak festival by Hotel Ramada, Ajmer, the Upgrade is available for purchase on www.theblindfaithupgrade.com and consists of a kit with: - Reusable tactile-paving tiles to help orientate the guests from the hotel and its surroundings to the location of the shrine. - Braille literature with an audio assist pen that uses Optical Identification to convert written language into audio. - Braille-enabled labels which convert any phone into a braille-enabled phone. The Upgrade requires zero infrastructural modifications at the property and has the potential to transform all 202,963 hotel rooms in India into visually-impaired-friendly rooms, as and when required. Hotel Ramada itself is committed to offering the Upgrade across its remaining 29 hotels in the country.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

A new hospitality experience that began with the Blind Faith Upgrade is expected to disrupt the entire hospitality landscape by opening up new opportunities for the tourism sector, inviting a new set of tourists. As the Upgrade does not require any infrastructural changes at hotel properties, it is easily adaptable in any hotel, in India as well as across the globe. Enquiries have been received for the same, from Vietnam, Portugal, and Brazil. Without any media spend, the campaign reached 3.4 million unique users, garnering earned media worth INR 6.2 million and increasing searches for Hotel Ramada by 22%. The web film of the campaign generated a massive positive response, resulting in over 1.6 million video views, and website visits up to 100,000 users. Till date, 1100 enquiries have been received. An Upgrade that started at one hotel now has the potential to transform the tourism sector, worldwide.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

At Hotel Ramada, Ajmer, every visually-impaired person who checks-in, now gets the Blind Faith Upgrade. Designed keeping in mind the prideful attitude of the visually-impaired people, the Upgrade ensures that they enjoy a comfortable stay without depending on anyone. Under this Upgrade, the hotel would install reusable tactile-paving tiles so that these guests can move around the hotel premises independently. All the hotel literature would be available to them in braille and would come with an audio-assist pen for converting written language into audio. Their rooms would have a phone with Braille stickers for ease of calling.

During the annual Urs Mubarak festival, thousands of pilgrims visit the holy shrine Ajmer Shareef, located in Ajmer, Rajasthan – hoping for a miracle, the gift of sight. Since the number of pilgrims and footfalls at the hotel increase drastically during this period, Hotel Ramada wanted to make sure that they are equipped to cater to all kinds of guests, including the visually-impaired. This became a fitting occasion for them to introduce their latest offering, the Blind Faith Upgrade. To spread the word about their new endeavor, a web film with testimonials of visually-impaired guests at Hotel Ramada was released on various digital media platforms. The visually-impaired audience was targeted through audio bytes that were created and propagated in closed groups on WhatsApp, IM, and social media. Furthermore, the Blind Faith Upgrade has been made available for purchase on www.theblindfaithupgrade.com, opening up doors to enable accessible tourism worldwide.