When you lack a sense, you explore more the other ones you’ve got. A beer sommelier is the professional that uses his senses to choose the best beers for bars and restaurants. Through this insight, Brahma Extra wants to show the unique taste and smell abilities that visually impaired people have, by creating the first course of beer sommelier exclusively for the visually impaired. The course is completely redesigned to attend their necessities and unleash a hidden potential inside blind people and people with low visibility: being an extraordinary beer sommelier.

Brahma Extra consolidated a partnership between Instituto da Cerveja (Beer Institute), a pioneer academy in the beer sommelier course in Brazil, and Fundacao Dorina Nowill, a reference foundation in the support of the visually impaired, to create the Extra Sommelier course. The regular class of beer sommelier taking place at Instituto da Cerveja was fully redesigned, from teacher training and methodology to tactile, braille and audio-described materials. Course registrations opened on April 23rd, 2018 in the Extra Sommeliers’ website.

The campaign got a strong impact in media and drove conversation, having become news inside and outside the visually impaired universe coverage, with 2.6MM people reached in the first day. That resulted in all places taken for the first class within 24 hours. It promoted a notable impact in the brand’s image, with social engagement score doubled from 0.14 to 0.28 and Brahma’s brand health reaching an all time high: 92% of positive mentions. Above all, the campaign brought a new perspective to the visually impaired: not by their disability, but by their potential.