Eid Mubarak to everyone celebrating the holy month of Ramadan!
As the Islamic calendar’s ninth month comes to a close with Eid al-Fitr, there’s been a focus on charitable efforts, supporting communities and strengthening faith. The biggest celebration of the year for the Middle East, and predominantly Muslim countries worldwide, comes with advertising to mark and celebrate the occasion.
Ahead of this year’s Eid celebrations, we spoke to
experts in the UAE to hear about the advertising trends they anticipated to see,
much like we did in 2023, as well as hearing from
APAC marketers about their thoughts. While they shared the anticipated trends with us, there’s nothing like actually watching the work to see what’s being highlighted from different regions across the world.
To be expected, each country tackled the festivities in different ways, for instance in Egypt, the big telecommunications companies –
Vodafone,
Orange,
Telecom Egypt and
Etisalat by e& – all released uplifting songs to celebrate the occasion, racking up millions of YouTube views from listens.
Also within the telecoms sector, Kuwaiti brand Zain – a company which always makes an effort to mark the ninth month of the Islamic calendar – provided audiences with
a campaign that tackled the politics of war from a child’s perspective. In a similar vein, UAE-based logistics company Aramex addressed the same topic within its Ramadan campaign for 2024, showing undelivered parcels heading towards Gaza.
Further afield, and on a lighter note, Apple's ‘Hari Raya’ film for the Malaysian market is a humorous take on nosy aunties at the dinner table, and how the iPhone password and FaceID locks keep them at bay from uncovering secrets. And in Singapore, leaning into the techy side of the industry, UltraSuperNew Singapore created a ‘
FoodBlocker’ Chrome extension, blocking all views of food till after iftar (sundown and breaking of fast) occurred.
But enough of me talking about it, take a look at the collection of work for yourself.