The objective of the video was to illustrate the important work of our partner, Vindhya e-Infomedia, through the story of one of their employees. Nearly 80% of Vindhya's 1,000 employees are either physically challenged, hearing impaired, or visually impaired. Vindhya e-Infomedia is a Bangalore-based company that has been providing clients with data management and customer support since 2011.
As part of this goal, we had three main objectives:
1) Tell a positive, empowering story about a person with a disability (PWD),
2) Demonstrate the impact of Vindhya e-Infomedia's practice of employing a majority-PWD staff, and
3) Reach a wide audience, specifically on Facebook and with an outlet picking up the video.
The video tells the story of Reshma Babu, through her daily routine: from waking up, traveling to work, working, and spending the evening with family. The visuals demonstrate both the reality of her physical impairments and her ability to be independent.
We decided to time the release of the video with the International Day for Persons with Disabilities (IDPWD) in order to maximize social sharing. This timeliness would make it more likely that an outlet would pick up the video. We reached out to UpWorthy in advance with an exclusive, early cut of the video to gauge their interest. UpWorthy shared some edits and advice that helped us create the end product. They loved the story and Reshma's infectious charm, and ran the video, helping us expand our reach dramatically.
We posted the video natively on Facebook to maximize uptake by the algorithm, and we shared the Facebook video URL on other platforms such as Twitter, with IDPWD hashtags.
Everyone at Accion, including the Board of Directors, were asked to watch and share the video, and were briefed on how it advanced our strategic communications goals by exposing us to new, socially-conscious audiences.
The first two objectives were editorial:
The results were achieved in the final edit of the video, thanks to feedback from UpWorthy.
We also met our final objective of reaching a wide audience. The video was viewed over 400,000 times on Facebook, with a reach of over 1.4 million. It was picked up and shared by Upworthy, an online social justice platform, and featured on their homepage.
"People didn't think a woman with a disability needed an education. She proved them wrong," by Erin Canty, in Upworthy, on December 9.
