Saudia Airlines is the world’s leading carrier for pilgrimage travel to Saudi Arabia. Following its revamped brand positioning, the airlines needed to showcase its care for the wellbeing of its passengers along with its innovative, future-forward solutions.

The Islamic pilgrimages of Hajj & Umrah are the world’s largest human gatherings. With over 2 million people from around the world gathered in extremely close proximity, infection spreads easily. According to the W.H.O., 60% of pilgrims who journey to Hajj or Umrah in Mecca fall sick due to contact, and then return home spreading the ‘Hajj Cough’. Moreover, elderly pilgrims have a 40% increased risk of death from this respiratory infection.

Every pilgrim enters the Holy Site with one item in hand: prayer beads.

After having identified this tension point and opportunity, Saudia sought to innovate solutions to place health & safety in the hands of pilgrims worldwide.

ProtecTasbih is the world’s first sanitizing prayer beads.

Knowing that every pilgrim carries prayer beads (or Tasbih) in hand, we knew that would become the perfect opportunity for us to put health & safety right in pilgrims’ hands. By creating sanitizing prayer beads, we would incorporate hygiene seamlessly into religious tradition, without disrupting their journeys.

Religious limitations meant alcohol and artificial fragrance could not be used. So an all-natural organic compound was innovated, encapsulating the anti-bacterial properties of tea tree oil.

The tea tree oil was infused into a semi-solid compound, and upon rubbing the beads, the antibacterial residue that the beads provide ruptures the membrane of the bacteria, killing the germs.

The semi-solid compound was designed to last two weeks, the maximum length of a pilgrimage. After the compound is used up, inner beads are revealed for life-long use. The beads are 100% recyclable, and create zero waste.

ProtecTasbih was designed to target pilgrims from all around the world traveling to Mecca for Islamic pilgrimage. This spans from young children all the way to the elderly, knowing every demographic carries prayer beads as they journey to Mecca.

Our solution needed to seamlessly incorporate itself into Islamic practices and rituals. It needed to be easy to use, effective, and offer longevity.

Additionally, ProtecTasbih needed to serve as a reminder of the importance of hygiene during pilgrimage, while communicating Saudia Airlines’ ongoing mission to serve its guests with the latest innovations, while safeguarding hygiene and safety.

Beyond serving their passengers, Saudi Airlines set out to distribute the beads across Mecca city for thousands of pilgrims from around the world.

The execution was a meticulously planned operation to create global scale and impact.

65,000 ProtecTasbih prayer beads were distributed on Saudia flights—specifically flights from worldwide cities to Jeddah during peak Umrah season. On these flights, cabin crew were trained to explain the purpose of the beads, while in-flight videos explained how they work.

Around 35,000 ProtecTasbihs were distributed across the city of Mecca in metro stations and strategic touch points. State-of-the-art contactless vending machines distributed the beads.

Knowing that Umrah season was at a peak during winter season, the beads were distributed throughout the month of January and continue to be distributed throughout the rest of the year. Hajj season will take place in June and July, so even more beads will be mass-produced and distributed.

The ProtecTasbih innovation witnessed global responses, with opinion leaders and religious leaders praising the breakthrough. It was hailed as a revolution in Hajj healthcare, with each bead fighting a global public health problem.

Organic social media coverage across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa highlighted the importance of using ProtecTasbih and the importance of maintaining hygiene during pilgrimage.

Saudia Airlines made the design & formulation of the beads open-source so that any organization could produce their own life-saving beads—putting the power of protection in the world’s hands.

100,000+ pilgrims positively impacted

$2.9 million in earned media

1.5 million pilgrims reached on-ground

#1 trending topic in Saudi Arabia

Trending topic in 35 countries

+62% brand love for SAUDIA