Ginger Hotels to create presence on social media

Roots Corporation Limited (RCL), a subsidiary of The Indian Hotels Company (Tata group), has appointed Mumbai-based digital agency, Windchimes Communications to handle social media marketing for its low-cost brand of hotels, named Ginger. The agency will handle the account on retainer basis.

"This will be the first time when Ginger Hotels (Gingerhotels.com) will establish its existence on social media," Kishore Mardikar, head, marketing and sales, Roots Corporation tells afaqs!.

He adds, "There is a loyal base of customers of Ginger Hotels, who are active on the internet. We want to leverage the power of social media to acquire new customers and engage the new and existing customers with the brand." Through this media, the company intends to reach individual and corporate users in the age group of 25-30 years.

Apart from engaging and acquiring customers, social media will be used to create awareness and promote products and services offered by Ginger Hotels in its 24 properties across India, Nimesh Shah, head maven, Windchimes Communications tells afaqs!.

Shah says, "Ginger Hotels' presence will be created on Facebook and Twitter. We may also enable the brand to interact with consumers on travel-related online forums and discussion boards. Interactions with bloggers, who write on the travel industry, could also be considered."

Shah indicates that the agency may develop applications (online and mobile) for the Ginger brand. There are plans to leverage location-based services such as Foursquare.com to promote the brand through social media.

For the record, Windchimes also handles the social media duties of Red Bull and hotels owned by the ITC group. It is also involved in Online Reputation Management (ORM) for various brands owned by Hindustan Unilever.