India houses an estimated 15 Million blind population, making it the largest blind community in the world.

This often ignored community, are not addressed by any mass media.

Inspite of being literate - they are still not addressed - as their literacy is different from masses. And hence not counted. The pain of this snub makes them feel excluded.

In its commitment towards an equitable and inclusive society - Savlon introduced a first of its kind packs with braille language - to enable easy access to the visually impaired.

Our objective two pronged:

1. Make the visually challenged more inclusive through mass media.

2. And to influence the people at large who were turning a blind eye to them.

We decided to make people notice we zeroed in on World Sight Day – a day that brings global attention to blindness and vision impairment.

Taking a leaf out of Savlon’s initiative we decided to make mass media inclusive to the visually impaired. On World Sight Day we transformed mass media into Braille Media.

Mass media had the potential to be both the vehicle to transmit our message of inclusivity, as well as the message itself.

We made mass media braille enabled. This initiative made the visually impaired realise that someone was thinking about them. It also made those with normal vision sit up and notice and think about the need to do more for the visually impaired.

Beyond reach, we chose mediums where there is an active sense of reading.

Print was an important pivot– because of its ability for touch-and-feel of the Braille script.

For the first time,

• A visually impaired person woke up in the morning and read a full newspaper - in Braille

• A leading magazine changed its masthead and cover story to Braille

• On-ground we shared the Braille newspapers among blind schools.

• We ran special Braille advertising in the Indian magazine for the visually impaired.

Another medium in our campaign was News Channels. News channels were important as they continuously flash headlines and breaking news – it involves an active sense of reading.

The role of each touch-point was to complement and add a dimension to the feeling of inclusivity for the visually challenged.

Newspaper: We partnered with 2 leading newspapers – Dainik Savera Times and Vijayvani, who

-Worked around their tight logistical deadlines to create the Braille newspapers

-Right from closing the final edits earlier to ensuring braille translation to outsourcing their printing - as Braille script required special dye and printing capabilities.

-They went on to extend their newspaper distribution to blind schools also that day

Magazine: A leading General-Interest magazine, Outlook – for the first time recreated their masthead and cover story in Braille. The newsstand sale for each issue is around 40%. With newsstand sale heavily reliant on the issues cover appeal – if not accepted well, they ran the risk of losing out on the readers for that issue.

Television: We partnered with 2 leading national news channels to anchor live headlines and renamed the segment as “World Sight Day Headlines” – Led by a visually impaired news anchor.

-Campaign reached

o 549 Mn people, 40% of Indian population

o Engaged with 28 blind schools, 9800 children

- Newspaper houses partnered PRO BONO. They are committed to:

o Conduct reading sessions with blind school students every quarter

o Print Braille newspaper every World Sight Day

-PR worth INR Mn 140.17 generated (70% of brand annual media budget)

-Trust scores for Savlon - from 51 to 64

-Final verdict:

“Thank you for making it possible.” - Madhu Sharma, Visually Impaired News Anchor

“It feels good that people are considering us” – Suresh M., from one BLIND SCHOOL.

Post campaign, real change emerged:

o Constitution of India made available in Braille script

o Prime Minister of India releases visually-impaired friendly coins

o Prime Minister Relief Fund donated 25 Mn INR for the visually challenged

o Visually impaired blind voters to get braille voter-slips in National Elections 2019