The makers of Vimto know a thing or two about effective Ramadan advertising. Every year, the fruit cordial brand unveils a new advertising campaign linked to the Muslim holy month. In the Saudi market, Vimto records 90 percent of its annual sales during Ramadan and the two weeks prior, when families stock up on the traditional Ramadan beverage.
In previous years, Vimto’s ads focused on “sweet family moments,” with vignette-style ads of a family reuniting for Ramadan. This year it opted for something radically different.
The brand, together with ad agency JWT MENA, came up with a series of humorous sketches in the style of the wildly popular Saudi Ramadan TV serial Tash ma Tash, which Vimto has sponsored for over a decade, all based around the idea of what might happen if there were a shortage of Vimto during Ramadan. Each of the sketches ends with a shot of the family from the previous campaigns sitting around their TV laughing at the sketch. They’re accompanied by Vimto, of course, as if to reassure anxious consumers that the panic over a Vimto shortage is entirely made up.
It’s a classic example of successful Ramadan advertising, and one that stands out in a field mired in creative clichés. Even though Ramadan is the season of TV-watching and advertising, agency creatives say they are shocked, year after year, at how little thought goes into most campaigns.
After a week, the Vimto sketches were the “talk of the town” in Saudi Arabia, says Tolga Sezer, executive vice president of the drink’s Saudi manufacturer, Aujan Industries. More importantly, the company overshot its sales target. It had aimed to shift 20 million bottles during this period. It sold that much jut four days into Ramadan.
“This is not advertising,” says Sezer. “This is ad-entertainment. It’s a different stage of communication. And it’s daring. To come up with a mini-series that reflects Saudi society is very risky. It has to be spot-on. You have to nail the humor.”
BAD MOON RISING
Ramadan stands for many things: Sharing, celebration, bonding with family and friends, introspection, self-denial and spiritual improvement. In recent times, though, it has come to represent something else, too: consumption.
Increasingly there are complaints that what should be a religious celebration is being overtaken by commercial interests. The month sees the Middle East’s media swamped with ads by all types of brands jumping on the Ramadan bandwagon. And it’s not just food and beverage brands. It’s everybody. Most simply shoehorn in a piece of iconic Ramadan clip-art and hope for the best.
“People are supposed to aspire to the abstract rather than the tangible. Go into the spiritual side of life. Think of your fellow human beings,” says Mariam Fadel, senior Arabic copywriter at ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi in Dubai. “But what we’re getting from the media is, What can you get more of this month? The focus is all on you. Your pleasure, your indulgence. ‘Indulge during Ramadan.’ It’s the opposite of what you’re meant to do.”
Ed Jones, Saatchi’s regional creative director, is even harsher. “Nine out of 10 [Ramadan ads] are completely irrelevant,” he says. “There’s this bolting-on of the crescent moon or a lantern to, say, auto finance. Or an air conditioner. Or, they rely on the cliché where you find a circular aspect of your product or brand and light a bit of it so it comes out as a crescent. Very, very uninspiring.”
More offensive than the lack of creativity, however, is the idea that advertisers are twisting the ideas that lie behind the holy month for crass commercial advantage.
ESTABLISHING RELEVANCE
On one level, it’s perfectly understandable that marketers would take advantage of Ramadan to move products. Many brands, particularly FMCG providers, make a massive percentage of their regional sales during Ramadan and allocate their marketing budgets accordingly. “By conservative estimates, food consumption during the month of Ramadan goes up about four times,” says Vishal Tikku, director of marketing in the GCC for Kraft, which produces several brands, such as Tang, Dream Whip and Jell-O, that are big sellers in Ramadan. “It’s a month of largesse.”
Responding to criticism that advertisers are exploiting Ramadan, Tikku asks, “What’s a manufacturer meant to do? Because consumption goes up, manufacturers and advertisers have no choice but to associate with [Ramadan] and push their products.” Indeed, it would seem irresponsible, purely from a business viewpoint, not to try and cash in on such a boom time for buying. But, Tikku adds, “Whether they do it well or not is another matter.” Most do not.
One simple problem is that too many advertisers looking to associate their brands with Ramadan fail to ensure that their message is at least relevant to the holy month.
For some brands, relevance is easy. Tikku explains the legacy of Tang – known as a powdered drink for kids and astronauts in the West, but associated with Ramadan in the Arab world. “In the days of non-refrigeration there were no fresh juices. And in Ramadan you don’t really want a carbonated drink after not drinking and not eating all day, so you’re looking for something that isn’t carbonated; liquid concentrates or powdered beverages,” he says. “So Tang became associated with the month. You can’t do Ramadan without Tang.”
Aujan’s Sezer says the same is true of Vimto. “Ramadan is Vimto. Vimto is Ramadan,” he says. “In Saudi, people see the Vimto displays and say, ‘Oh. Ramadan is coming.’ It’s crazy. Walking around the supermarkets in Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah, you see these huge displays and they just disappear. Poof! Gone. In a couple of hours.”
SHORING UP EMOTIONAL BONDS
Tikku says this year’s Tang campaign shows “a month of opposite joys.” It’s based on consumer feedback about life during Ramadan which shows certain paradoxes unique to the month. “The days are kind of switched,” says Tikku. “You’re up really late at night, everything’s open late and the days are more laid back. You work less, you finish early. And the days last a long time, but the month goes by very quickly.
“The brand is taking a view of life in Saudi in Ramadan and suggesting that we understand you and we’ve been with you a long time,” he continues. “It’s the sort of ad that a brand with heritage can make.”
But even the strongest emotional bonds to a brand still need to be shored up by advertising. And unless you get it right, they can easily be broken. The trick is making the consumer believe you understand what Ramadan’s all about.
“A lot of brands fall into the trap of feeling they have to do something at Ramadan,” says Sezer. “But they come up with something cheesy, with no understanding, that people don’t appreciate. Because guess what? Consumers don’t buy it when you just put ‘Ramadan Kareem’ and lanterns and the moon. You achieve nothing.”
Even if you don’t have the benefit of historical advantage, it’s possible to go beyond the generic iconography and get creative – provided you take the time to gather proper consumer insight.
SECRETS OF SUCCESS
“Successful Ramadan campaigns are those that carry a relevant and consistent message,” says Jan-Piet van Kesteren, vice-president of food and beverage marketing for Unilever Arabia, which pushes its Lipton tea and Knorr soup brands heavily during the month. These two brands don’t have the advantage that Vimto and Tang have, but Unilever is keen to make them equally a part of Ramadan.
Food and beverage brands have an immediate advantage during Ramadan, since they are easily linked to iftar – the breaking of the fast. Even so, it is important that they aren’t seen to be pushing their products at Ramadan just for show.
“Both tea and soups are very relevant to the occasion, so the Ramadan theme fits well and is relevant to our brands. But our Ramadan campaigns are consistent with our post-Ramadan positioning and branding. They carry the same message,” says van Kesteren. “Knorr, for example, has always stood for natural goodness, so the message links in well with Ramadan, but it does not change after Ramadan is over.”
The need for consistency is stressed, too, by Procter & Gamble, which launched its Tide White Musk laundry detergent specifically for Ramadan in 2004. “It captures the tradition of using white musk during Ramadan. It’s not about being connected to religion, it’s about celebrating consumers’ special moments,” says Ahmed Al Kuhlani, Tide’s regional brand manager.
“We wanted to contribute to Ramadan with an idea that would link to Tide’s brand equity and inspire consumers. How? By giving them something special and specific. We’re rewarding them,” adds Al Kuhlani.
Tide White Musk proved so popular that it is now available throughout the Middle East every Ramadan.
The key to successfully linking your brand to Ramadan, therefore, is to make sure you’re relevant – even if only in some small way – and then communicate that fact consistently and engagingly, without resorting to cliché.
If you can’t do that, you might be better off staying out of it altogether.
“Anyone can come into Ramadan, but mostly they’re not doing something specific that will inspire consumers in the region,” says Al Kuhlani. “It’s not just a commercial time where you come in with a promotion. It’s a celebration.”
“Brands should not just see it as a peak sales season. It’s not only about the crescent and the ‘Ramadan Kareem’ message,” says Aujan’s Sezer. “Any brand that would like to communicate in this month should have the respect to try and understand what people’s real aspirations for the season are.”
Those aspirations, for the record, probably don’t include a half-priced air conditioner.