Sector
NGO
Services
- Strategy
- Omnichannel
- UX Design
- Content Creation
- Technology
With a hug that embraces the world, netamorphosis was born.
Discovering unparalleled humanitarian efforts halfway around the world.
During a visit to Amma’s ashram, Amritapuri, neta found its first client and in essence was born. Amma, the world’s hugging guru, has hugged more than 33 million people worldwide; thousands flock to Amritapuri every day to see her and receive their ‘darshan’, which means an ‘auspicious sight’ in Sanskrit, and in the realm of Amma translates to ‘receive a hug’.
Helping to leverage Amma’s digital footprint to heighten visibility of her humanitarian efforts, in order to successfully drive recognition amongst global world leaders.
Shortly upon arrival to Amritapuri, Lyde inquired and learned that Amma’s marketing materials that were used to spread her teachings, her incredible volunteer work and Amritapuri’s programs, primarily consisted of paper pamphlets and brochures in more than 8 languages. This was counterintuitive to the extreme conservation (and cost saving) principles the ashram carried out in its daily life, and Lyde sought out to support Amma’s omnichannel strategy, which consisted of personal appearances around the world. As it turned out, Amma’s birthday was arriving in 6 short weeks, and as a birthday present, members of the ashram were preparing a re-design of the Amritapuri website. When learning that Lyde had developed strategic planning and subsequently implemented web strategies for the largest companies in the world ranging from JP Morgan Chase, HSBC to MoMA and ZARA, a meeting with key members on the project was conducted to better understand what Lyde could bring to the ‘proverbial table’.
It was determined shortly following this initial meeting, that as part of Lyde’s seva (i.e. ‘volunteer work’ or in Indian religions, work offered to God), she would work with the existing website team members that consisted of a project/technical lead, who was tasked with UX design and programming, a database admin, an SEO specialist and miscellaneous coders. There were a few challenges and goals that the new and improved site hoped to accomplish. At the most basic level, first was effective virtual translation of the act of receiving a hug and second was extending Amma’s presence in all of its forms and humanitarian endeavors throughout, India, South East Asia and the world. There were also questions surrounding Amma’s community building through utilizing a hybrid of individual domain properties vs. aggregating social media channels to foster community and connection to those inspired by Amma, in the most efficient and productive way possible. Lastly, there was an education component to heighten visibility of Amma’s humanitarian efforts driving recognition amongst global world leaders, through the naming and development of a new web platform, embracingtheworld.org.
