"A Blind Man’s Journey Will Change the Way You Think About Safaris”
Singita
IMAGINE PR secures substantial coverage for Singita each month, but we’d like to highlight one particular story. Safari coverage is often reduced to visuals of beautiful lodges and cute animals — it was time for a completely new approach to safari storytelling.
As a conservation company, Singita wanted to share a story with more of a focus on the way safari can make someone feel. Ryan Knighton, a blind man and his wife were taken on a Singita safari for seven days. The story that Ryan created after his experience with Singita touched readers and brought awareness to the sensory beauty of safari, outside of the glitz and glamour of luxury lodging. IMAGINE PR secured a 12-page story on AFAR’s print magazine as well as online. The story featured 13 photos of the lodge, wildlife, and surrounding bush. It received numerous awards.
The main goal was to create more awareness for Singita’s vision of sharing a unique part of the world in a manner that is highly respectful of man and nature, while challenging notions of luxury. Most readers in the sphere of luxury travel know of Singita as being just that – luxurious. Our objective was to acquire media coverage of Singita as a company that cares about people, community, the land and the animals; something more than an extravagant hospitality group.
The target audience included affluent and sophisticated people who are curious to experience the world in unexpected ways, who are ready to be challenged emotionally and intellectually. This could mean independent couples, singles, and more importantly well-educated, high-income, experienced travelers who are willing to step outside of their comfort zone.
AFAR’s readership was the ideal target audience for Singita. Many readers have already stayed at one or more Singita lodges, or have plans to do so. The AFAR editorial team is very familiar with the product and has a long-standing relationship with both IMAGINE PR and the Singita team. This trusted relationship lead to a brainstorming session about how to tell the safari story in a new and creative way. The idea of a safari experience as written by a blind person was born. AFAR assigned a visually impaired writer who had never been to the African bush, and Singita hosted him and his wife for a week at their lodge in Zimbabwe.
The key message intended for the campaign was to position Singita as leaders of the safari industry and set the precedent for conservation and community. Singita has redefined luxury to mean something more than material goods and services. Luxury has come to mean connection. Whether that be connection with people, just as Ryan entrusted his life to his safari guide, or connection with animals, as he had known the animals without ever having seen them, and connection to the land, as he could feel the bush in the sensory phenomenon that is Zimbabwe.
