The holy month Ramadan is always the time for creative advertisements and campaigns and it is the chance for every brand to unleash new creative approaches.
We have noticed that every Ramadan, brands depend on this strategy and we see many adverts include one celebrity or even more.
People and especially those who work in the advertising field always observe the new adverts, which are released during Ramadan to judge and learn from them. With every Ramadan, we get excited and set our expectations high to see new creative ideas, but over the years, we have noticed one thing, which is most of the adverts have to have celebrities in.
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Celebrity Endorsement Went Too Far?
Celebrity branding or celebrity endorsement marketing strategy used to be widely seen in Ramadan Ads campaign for decades.
Many brands around MENA involved at-least one celebrity in promoting the brand’s product during the holy month. We have been witnessing a lot of brands using this strategy, that even Pepsi used dead celebrities in Ramadan campaign for the year 2015.
Until recent time, we used to be excited about seeing celebrities in adverts during Ramadan and anticipating what kind of creative ideas will be presented, because every Ramadan there was a different idea with a different concept and visuals.
Pepsi did an amazing surprise once in 2015 when they included many celebrities in their commercial; they combined the nostalgia theme and celebrity branding to create an iconic advert that spread the concept of Nostalgia between creatives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NA5_qFsWI
Mixing celebrity branding and the nostalgia theme to connect the brand with different generations and touch people’s hearts from every age to deliver the brand message was brilliant move by Pepsi back in 2015.
However, there are some brands overuse the celebrity branding strategy without any creative ideas presented, which makes us wonder, “Will celebrity branding still be as effective as it was?”
Creative Ads do not need celebrities?
Over the past couple of years, we have noticed that every Ramadan, there are some brands overuse and rely on just Celebrity branding without any creative idea; it is the same commercial every year but with different group of celebrities!
Celebrities + Jingle ≠ Creative Ad
This will lead to a result of people feedback getting bored with what they see, especially that those celebrities they see in Ramadan TV shows are almost the same they see in the adverts! Therefore, the whole strategy of adding bunch of celebrities might end up old and ineffective, especially in Ramadan 2020.
This Ramadan, we have seen many adverts repeating the same idea of previous Ramadan or using celebrities in non-creative adverts, except for Orange.
This Ramadan, Orange didn’t have celebrities in their advert and they relied on the brand message and the story of their commercial.
The smart part of Orange Egypt’s Ad is revolving around the concept of communicating with your beloved ones during Coronavirus without mentioning the pandemic. Simply, this is life!
Find a New Hero
Managing crowdsourcing initiatives to maximize the brand value for customers through capitalizing on brand identity in campaign creation could be one of the most effective approaches for Ramadan 2020 campaigns.
Elaraby Group considered crowdsourcing this Ramadan to shift the mindset more into the consumer perspective more than focusing on the traditional branding messages.
Value co-creation encouraged active involvement from the customer that made people willing to help the brand to create an Advert that will be aired on TV and digital channels during Ramadan 2020.
A Change in Brands Mindset Could Be Required?
Using the celebrity branding strategy will benefit the brand if it is trying to state something or deliver a certain key message to the viewers through this artist, like a certain feeling or reminding them of something in their childhood.
Other than that, new faces might be an interesting idea and might even capture the audience attention since they will be seeing normal people presenting something they might relate to.
Inviting new faces to your Ramadan advertising campaign might even develop into introducing new talents to the creative scene.
Before Ramadan 2015 marketing campaign, Crunch had been in the Egyptian market for two years and still hadn’t managed to breakthrough. The brand’s did not manage to grab people’s attention or stick into people’s mind until the creation of an imaginary product called “Skinchizer”.
The debate for the generic traditional snack vs. the new and unconventional one led by Osama Abdallah opened the gate for the talented actor to restart his career after almost every sentence mentioned in the advert become a trending buzzword on Social Media.
This also could be a reminder that some leading world brands never use celebrities in ads.
Tell us your opinion, Do you still get excited when you see celebrities in adverts?
