Ramadan just like Christmas for MENA marketers. Every Ramadan season carries new campaigns and advertisements, and this is a special time especially for marketers and for those who are interested in advertising. Ramadan is always an opportunity to learn about the advertising world and to get to know the brand’s strategies, how the audience reacts towards the adverts and their preferences.
Also Read ➤ Ramadan 2020: The age of advertising featuring celebrities is dead?
Almost 15 days of Ramadan have passed and almost every brand released its campaigns and more than just one advert. We have been keeping an eye on every single commercial and how people are reacting towards it.
We have noticed that people have different opinions about the adverts and everyone got their own favorite based on some factors that the adverts have.
Telecom Operators, Communicate Virtually:
Ever since the holy month Ramadan started and a number of new adverts were released, we have seen some factors the adverts relied on. Since Ramadan came in a time where we are all in quarantine, one theme controlled most of the adverts’ ideas this month, which is the effect of COVID-19.
Telecom brands relied on emotionality while others relied on the trending quarantine routine.
Vodafone Egypt
Just like every Ramadan, Vodafone depended on celebrity marketing; the brand had gathered many celebrities to introduce a new emotional advert, which gained 46 million views.
The new commercial tackled the concept of gathering and how it became virtual due to the current situation.
Orange Egypt
Orange collaborated with the Emirati singer Hussein Al Jassmi to create the advert’s soundtrack and it grabbed people’s attention. The new advertisement is emotional and this time Orange avoided celebrity marketing and depended on fresh new faces.
Since everyone is going through the same crisis, Orange wanted its adverts’ heroes to be ordinary people that we run into every day to deliver its message so the audience can relate to it.
Etisalat Misr
The network operator collaborated with the actor Ahmed Helmy and produced a new advert that tackled the concept of quarantine’s boredom and how people are using TikTok and Instagram on a daily basis.
WE – Telecom Egypt
We collaborated with the actor Mostafa Khater in the new advert, which reached 42 Million views. The brand also depended on the same concept of quarantine’s boredom, the huge usage of TikTok, and people’s routine during the quarantine.
Emotional Communication is Smarter Than Logical Communication
Triggering the audience’s emotions was one of the main factors this Ramadan. Since the whole world is going through a tough time, where families can’t gather anymore and we lost every social interaction, adverts used this part.
They triggered the audience’s emotions of longing and presented an idea that reminded the audience of this certain feeling and that eventually, we would all be together.
While some adverts depended on emotionality, others were inspired by the daily quarantine life and the activities people do recently on social media platforms.
Popular jingle still winning in Ramadan
If you want your advert to be remembered, create a catchy soundtrack and that will remain in people’s minds for a long time. People appreciate good music, so linking adverts with good songs will help them go viral and stay in people’s minds.
This could be the reason why Telecom Egypt decided to make a new wave of communication featuring Tamer Hosny with Egyptian national flavor.
Banque Misr also continues to create more songs with motivational theme for the third year in a row. This year inviting Bahaa Sultan to make a strong comeback was a bold move by the banking brand which grabbed allot of positive feedback on social media.
Creating a new version with sign language was really a smart move by Banque Misr and it might be a long-term strategy by the brand to communicate with wider audience and yet set new trend to Ramadan Ads.
Real-life footage to Turn into Adverts
Some brands also relied on real-life footage instead of having actors or depend on celebrity marketing strategies. A new approach by El Araby Group reflecting Ramadan’s very personal spiritual journey.
Al-Araby released advert and just like Orange, they avoided Celebrity marketing. The brand’s advert was real-life footage of families and how they spend their quarantine time, which made the advert emotional and gave it vibes of warmth. The advert reached 9.6 Million views on their Facebook page in 2 weeks.
Ramadan + COVID-19: Pharmacies Being on TV for The First Time
In one nostalgic advert, 19011 Pharmacies collaborated with the icons of the 90s Mostafa Amar, Hesham Abbas, Ehab Tawfik, and Hameed Al-Shaery and created a song that its main message was that we are going to get through this and gained 13 million views on Facebook in 2 weeks time span.
Shared opinions on Social Media got two different perspectives about the advert, some stated that the advert’s idea is irrelevant to the current situation and to the message the brand is trying to deliver and others loved it for Hameed Al-Shaery.
Controversial Adverts: Enough is enough?
What is different this Ramadan is adverts being controversial and facing a lot of criticism. We started with Cottonil receiving an enormous backlash for being inappropriate, Tallat Moustafa Group for class discrimination, and some criticized 19011 Pharmacy’s advert for being irrelevant.
Also Read ➤ Madinaty’s Advert: The Most Controversial Advert Ramadan 2020
Later, both Cottonil and Tallat Moustafa edited their adverts, and Cottonil actually released other adverts that are different than the first one.
Also Read ➤ Cottonil Pulls Ramadan 2020 Ad after Social Media Fireback
All of these are factors that helped the adverts and campaigns go viral and receive different reactions. What is the advert that grabbed your attention and became a favorite?
