Candida Moraes

The latest ad campaign for the Taj Group's palace properties beautifully captures the romance of a bygone era and entices travellers to savour the lifestyle of a maharaja

Picture this: a magnificent pavilion stands out in all its marbled splendour amidst lush green lawns. Silhouetted in the dying rays of the sun, a golden sandstone palace beckons travellers with the enticing message: "You're staying with the Maharaja".

Marvellous, isn't it? This simple and effective advertising campaign for Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces depends for its impact on the breathtaking photography of acclaimed French photographer Guy Hervais, who was flown in by Indian Hotels to capture the moods of the Taj Palaces across the country and bring alive the romance of a bygone princely era.

Gone are the days when marketing your brand was a simple matter of highlighting its various features. In today's constantly want-more world, the more attractive the wrapping paper, the better the chance of the brand being accepted and preferred over the many others jostling for the consumer's attention.

On this count, the Taj Palaces ad campaign is a standout winner: it not only dazzled the hospitality industry but also bagged the Chairman's Award 2006 at the LHW Worldwide Sales and Marketing Conference in Athens for the 'Best Advertising Campaign'.

"The strategy behind the campaign," explains director of marketing services Priti Mahajan, "was to familiarise the 30-plus, well-travelled traveller with the grandeur and luxury the Taj Palaces represent." So the brand team, comprising Deepa Harris, Priti Mahajan and Mario, set out to create a campaign to showcase the lifestyle of the maharajas – the traditional comforts of personalised service, music and art performances, and sumptuous royal feasts – which, along with modern amenities such as video conferencing facilities, wi-fi access and exotic spa treatments, await guests at a Taj Palace hotel.

This main purpose of this strategy was to establish the distinctiveness of the palace hotels of the Taj – the Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur, Rambagh Palace, Jaipur, and Umaid Bhawan Palace, Jodhpur – amongst the competition. The message of the campaign was "The Taj Palace experience is unique. Come and sample it."

And it is a world apart. As the different ads in the campaign effectively display, the grandeur and opulence of a Taj Palace, vintage cars, horse and elephant polo, fuse seamlessly with contemporary comforts, offering guests a rare and royal treat.

Captivated by the ads, international lifestyle magazines such as Travel & Leisure, US, and CNT, UK, have savoured the royal experience and covered it for their readers. Tour operators have also expressed an interest, resulting in 88 per cent higher bookings over the last year.

Royalty has always fascinated ordinary people and inspired in us a desire to live like a king. The Taj Palaces campaign rekindles this innate human yearning and makes it seem like a dream that we can perhaps realise – even if there's no trace of blue blood in our veins!

Uploaded on August 16, 2006