As the holy month of Ramadan officially ended, we can’t help but look back at how the month started and take notes.
There are always some lessons that we learn every Ramadan, especially in marketing since this is the only time most of the brands launch campaigns and we get to see their marketing strategy. Since Ramadan is considered the season of adverts, we always keep an eye on which brands nailed their Ramadan campaign, and which ones didn’t.
So, for all marketers, here are some learned lessons from Ramadan so you can prepare well for the next time.
Get Your Own Idea, Don’t Copy Others
Working in a creative field means you have to come up with an original idea; copying others or twisting a concept for your benefit won’t have a pretty result, and you will get exposed.
Originality is required when you work in marketing and advertising, copying other brands will not just put you and the brand in danger but it will have a negative effect on your career development. As someone who works in this field, you’re required to always generate ideas, when you copy from other brands, how do you expect your mind to practice coming up with ideas?
Brainstorming and generating ideas will train your mind to be more creative and with time your ideas will come to you easily, but if you copy, then you will always struggle with being creative.
Choose The Right Celebrity For Your Product
Before choosing a celebrity to represent your brand/product, make sure they’re relevant.
For example, you can’t collaborate with a public figure who’s known to take care of his body and eats healthy food to appear in a junk food advertisement. The actor/actress has to be relevant to the product so you can convince the viewer to try your brand. Also, you can’t collaborate with a certain public figure just because they’re trending, they might not be a good representation for your brand.
You also have to be aware of the cancel culture. The cancel culture is when the audience cancels a celebrity for doing something wrong or immoral; so, you have to know the background of the celebrity you’re collaborating with and if the audience will accept them or not.
Word of Mouth Can Be The Best Campaign
Sometimes going viral without a campaign can be the best campaign.
A campaign succeeds and goes viral when people talk positively about it; in every successful campaign, you will find that word of mouth was a huge factor in leading it to virality and success.
During the holy month of Ramadan, we have noticed that word of mouth can be more powerful than a campaign. For example, how the tea brand “Al-Arousa” went viral because people thought that the teaser campaign for “Aslan” juice is for the tea brand. Also, the Matareya Iftar didn’t need any campaigns to promote it, people just talked about it on social media and it suddenly went extremely viral.
This means that even if you launch a campaign, you have to create another online campaign so you can create word of mouth, which will make the campaign go viral.
Positivity And Good Deeds Can Win
Many adverts depended on triggering the viewer’s emotions, which made them go viral.
These two themes were very popular during Ramadan. We have seen many jingle-based adverts that revolved around encouraging people to follow their dreams and to have hope and faith in God.
Some brands also decided not to launch any campaigns and dedicate their money to help those in need while other brands tried to develop their communities for the residents and their children.
Investing in the community and giving hope to people can have a very positive impact on the brand.
Be Different
As much as some adverts went viral, they all were similar.
As we know, most brands launch adverts that have the same concept and similar advertising appeals; they either depend on celebrities’ collaborations or music. So, since you already know what some brands will plan for next Ramadan, you can get ready with a new concept and new idea with a different appeal.
You have to stand out among these brands with new ideas since you already have the privilege of knowing what most of the brands plan for their Ramadan campaign. This is how you can win the Ramadan race.
In the end, this season of adverts is a huge opportunity that enables you to study all brands including your competitors; this can teach you how to create something unique and different.
Share with us what you learned during Ramadan.
