SmileBengaluru.com: What is your idea for Bengaluru Airport?

An interesting initiative, titled SmileBengaluru.com, empowers frequent fliers to Bengaluru to suggest facilities which they would like at the airport

In a unique initiative titled Smile Bengaluru, BIAL (Bengaluru International Airport Limited) has created an interactive web platform (www.smilebengaluru.com), where Internet users can submit their ideas on the type of facilities that they would like at Terminal No. 1 of the airport.

The website, conceived by Meridian Communications and developed by Lucid sense, has a comment section or suggestions box where users can not only submit their ideas but also vote for ideas submitted by various other visitors to the site.

SmileBengaluru.com: What is your idea for Bengaluru Airport?

Once BIAL gets various ideas, it will select a few and implement them, claims Shenaz Bapooji, senior vice-president and head of office, Meridian Communications, Bengaluru, in a conversation with afaqs!. She adds, "In fact, voting will be one of the criteria to select an idea for implementation."

In order to popularise and create awareness about the website, Meridian Communications has already initiated an advertising campaign, which went live on September 27. The campaign is spread across outdoor, radio and online media.

Outdoor hoardings have been put up across 22 locations and 12 backlit signboards have been set up in the airport. More than 500 radio spots were aired on Radio Indigo in the last few days. Banner ads on sites such as Indiatimes.com, Rediff.com and Deccanherald.com are also being served to drive traffic to the site.

Is it working? More than 465 comments or suggestions have been received so far. For instance, a user named Mrs. Ray commented, "Play area for the kids is highly recommended. I remember how fussy and bored my toddler had become when our flight was delayed by two hours and she had nothing to do."

Another user, named Musavir, writes, "Add immigration personnel during peak hours. When coming in from London, there were three other international flights that had landed. About 200-300 people waited in line for immigration, with not all immigration counters open. Please look into it."

Bapooji says, "The idea of the campaign is to establish Bengaluru International Airport as a participative and inclusive airport. One extension of the thought was to invite inputs from the general public about what they would like from the expanding airport."

She adds, "Most probably we will launch a follow up campaign to announce the ideas selected and implemented."

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Bengaluru International Airport Meridian Communications