The celebrated, magnum opus-ish, lofty, luxury train The Deccan Odyssey got leased by Travel Corporation of India and Thomas Cook, the travel giants partnered over to rebrand and promote this train, which took a tourist from Mumbai to Delhi, stopping wherever there were sightseeing opportunities. Biggest challenge: To attract the Inbound foreign and Indian tourist on board with no existing photographs or videos of the train (as it was still getting done up).

The first task at hand was to ensure Creator 3 makes promotional material which can be advertised in 2 places: Thomas Cook offices across the globe and at points of high attentivity by the inbound foreign tourists. We had to begin with attempting a brand that spoke ‘royal, luxurious, Indianness.’ It was required to promise a cultural wonderland to the traveller sitting in a foreign location and talk to them affirming the amazing experiences India had to offer them.

The journey began at consulting the promoters on BRAND NAME. Naming is often half of the battle WON.

BRANDING exercise included creating logo design options for the brand. Creator 3 showed the decision makers as many as 12 options, and interestingly, they were all so impressive that the MD was finalising every one of them, as the slides scrolled by. Ultimately the last one was chosen and flashed to the target audience who responded well – the target group began buzzing with curiosity and a positive feedback was registered.

PROMOTION came next: Brochure, Website and next came in the corporate movie to be put up on video sharing platforms. Again, the lack of resources for corporate movie didn’t quite deter us from what we started, as we used stock footages and a compelling storyline to our advantage in making a good point for Indian Maharaja.

LAUNCH was the next and final step, when the train was to be flagged off from the special terminal at VT, Mumbai. Before that, there was to be a Launch event at The Taj hotel, Mumbai. We created promotional material for both parties as well as Welcome kits for the passengers who would ride for the first run. The scroll style invites, the on-suite passenger parcels, the welcome kit designs, and the launch party decorations all had the regal Indian flavours with the subtle classiness that Westerners appreciate. The global exposure of the Creative Director helped with striking an enchanting, balanced design portfolio for The Indian Maharaja.

The Train was launched with a lot of gusto and ran very successfully for 3 years. The train got booked for this duration before launch itself, when the initial promotions were put up! The launch was a grand success. The buzz created served the cause well, and it was sold out all 3 years of its running.
Not just this, as a token of gratitude the promoters offered THE Creative Director all-inclusive 4 tickets for the train holiday, which interestingly were dearer than the contract value of the entire assignment itself!
Success stories like the Indian Maharaja leave a sweet aftertaste even after they are long over.