Vodafone Ads may be one of the most anticipated brand campaigns during Ramadan, whose ads for the last few years have garnered extensive viewership, but for marketers, Vodafone locked itself in a continuous cycle.
For the last 3 years, the telecommunications giant has continued focusing on the “big family” theme during the holy month, also focusing on eclipsing all brands by sheer number of celebrities.
For years, the brand repeated its success during Ramadan using the same concept. This has caused lackluster comments from the creative industry, some of which mourned the “what could have been done” with Vodafone’s insane budget. The possibilities were endless, but shunted by Vodafone’s choice of communication consistency, rather than creativity.
This year, however, it seems that Vodafone has made the decision to change the heart of their Ramadan campaign.
For the last 2 days, Vodafone has been revealing its new type of campaign gradually. Although it could be misinterpreted as a pure a World Cup campaign teaser, but it is most likely to be a bit of both Ramadan + World Cup mixed campaign designed to be launched tactically to cover the up-coming long season.
The first phase of the campaign launched on Saturday’s afternoon starring Ahmed Fathi then followed by Saad Samir and Ahmed Hegazy.
Vodafone finally escapes from the repeated celebrity-filled musical and offers the audience 3 new dramatic pieces. However, the revealed Ramadan-series themed adverts could eventually evolve into a mega campaign launch along-side a commercial song.
Getting Over their Ramadan Routine?
The national team may have beaten some of the most important ruts of the decade, but Vodafone is also pushing forward into the future by beating their own family focused Ramadan campaigns.
Since 2015, the brand has re-used the family theme, ever since its break out advert reached 1M views in 3 days.
In 2016, they continued the theme with what became one of 2016’s most shared ads in the world. The ad, El Leila El Kebeera, shattered records by reaching 1M views in just 5 hours.
Also Read ► Vodafone’s “Big Family” just hit a new Ramadan RECORD!
The ad featured names of Egyptian super stars such as Ahmed El Sakka, Sherif Monier, Menna Shalaby, Hakim, Dorra, Ashraf Abdelbaky. The campaign further expanded the family theme by asking viewers to let neighbors and friends into the family.
The telecom brand upped its Ramadan game last year, bringing in even more celebrities as well as national football team coach Héctor Cúper (his Fatteh story went viral).
Vodafone’s accumulated experiences in the Ramadan marketing war expanded during the 2017 season, again focusing on the family, to hit over 2.2 million views within 15 hours.
Although brand consistency is key for many marketing strategies, it is important to remember that consistency can also mean not moving forward. Perhaps Vodafone is finally ready for the future and is now open to try new things and re-invent its marketing approach.
Maybe the future really is stronger!
Campaign Inspiration:
The campaign led by JWT Cairo curated some of the best attention-grabbing parts from famous Egyptian movies and TV series to create Vodafone’s own advertisement approach.
The series-themed campaign already used well-known buzzwords that can be easily recognized such as Nadia El Gendi’s password from “Mission in Tel-aviv” movie.
While Mohamed Ramadan’s role in El Ostora TV series was re-created by Ahmed Fathi to remake the most iconic scene in the TV series which was aired during Ramadan 2016 season.
Eye-Opening Hints:
The ads tease us with a sarcastic approach inviting us to rediscover our national team players capabilities not just in the playground, but also in drama, suspense and action. “The team that will represent us in Russia, can do it all”.
- Vodafone is still working closely with its strategy in showing off a huge number of celebrities.
- Vodafone finally escapes from the repeated celebrity-filled musical and offers the audience 3 new dramatic pieces.
- Each copy was released associated with its own hashtag. It seems that the main campaign’s hashtag (if any) is not revealed yet.
- None of the copies ends with CTA (Call-To-Action) which means the engagement phase has not activated yet!
- The revealed Ramadan-series themed adverts could eventually evolve into a mega campaign launch along-side commercial song.
- If you are waiting for more players to join the campaign, Essam El Hadary is definitely not expected to join Vodafone’s squad.
- Also, there are a lot of actors, and celebrities, who are currently dominating with a wide range of skills. Unfortunately, many of them are already taken. Actors such as Mohamed Ramadan (Etisalat) and Ahmed Ezz (WE) have already been scooped up by the giant’s competitors.
Remember, The revealed 3 copies are just the teasers for Ramadan campaign. Do not get excited too early.
Can you predict Vodafone’s next move? Let us know in the comments!