Dubai: With the month of Ramadan coming up, major retailers have started rolling out ad campaigns designed to attract consumers and their wallets.
Some retailers showcase their offers and promotions for the month while others launch new products, with ads running on television, in newspapers, online and outdoor.
Ramadan ads this year “will have a lot of focus on [product] value and extras,” according to Noah Khan, head of TBWA\RAAD Digital Arts Network.
While campaigns differ from one industry to another, a theme that is omnipresent is that of family and community. Brands convey the message of the period as being “serene, calm and reflective,” Khan said.
Every year, Ramadan-specific ads conjure up images that are synonymous with the period, such as lanterns and a dark background with stars and a moon. A typical scenario in a food and beverage ad includes a family gathered around a table for iftar.
Fashion ads, meanwhile, normally show a person upgrading their wardrobe or gifting clothes to a family member.
Message drowns
However, some ads are careful to avoid images that are relevant to Ramadan “to give justice to the offering and to stand out,” said Jean Traboulsi, managing director of advertising agency Leo Burnett in the UAE. The trouble with having such images is losing the message that a particular ad intends to deliver to consumers, he added. Ads that focus on the brand deliver a message much easier.
Brands in the UAE spend 15 to 20 per cent of their annual media budget for Ramadan-related ad campaigns, compared to 5 to 10 per cent during other months. The most bought medium is television, triggered by high viewership during Ramadan.
“Television viewership timings change during Ramadan. It peaks before and after iftar, and after midnight,” he said. The main drivers of television viewership are certain programmes, such as Arabic television series and ‘fawazeer’ or riddle shows.
Driving on some of Dubai’s main roads, you will find that such programmes have already been advertised on outdoor media.
Media spend during Ramadan is at its peak, Traboulsi said.
“It’s driven by two factors: the cost of media peaks since Ramadan programmes have a big reach, so brands spend more. The other factor is people boosting their consumption in Ramadan because of CSR [activities] and promotions,” he said.
For some brands, Ramadan accounts for 50 per cent of their business. “You make it or break it in Ramadan, you make it or break it in that fiscal year,” he said.
However, some brands do not spend more on media during Ramadan because it is not a period when consumption of their products increases.