Last week marked the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, and London has just become the first major European city to dedicate an OOH display to this festive period.
For the first time ever, the West End was lit up with a display illuminated with “Happy Ramadan” along with symbolic stars and crescent moons. It will stay lit until Eid Al-Fitr, the celebration at the end of the holy month.
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who turned on the display on the first day of Ramadan, said he was proud that London was able to celebrate this diversity.
In truth, the Islamic community is well established not only in London, but in the United Kingdom. According to the 2021 Census, there are 3.8m Muslims in England and Wales, with 1.3m residing in the Greater London area. We’re talking 14% of London’s population!
During this time, you might notice a lot of neighbourhoods come to life after evening prayer when it’s finally time to eat and everyone’s feeling a bit more social, and supermarket activity increases in the lead up to Eid. According to Statista, shopping centres located nearer Islamic communities see sales in luxury items increase, especially from more affluent communities.
So it would make sense for marketers and SMEs to plan their campaigns targeting this audience. Although it’s becoming normalised for companies to publicly wish “Ramadan Mubarak” on their social media and mailouts, it’s still rare to see companies dedicating a whole display or campaign to mark this occasion.
Let’s take a look at some OOH campaigns that cater to the month of Ramadan:
Tesco was the first supermarket to do a billboard campaign fully dedicated to their Muslim public during Ramadan 2022:
They selected dishes often associated with different Muslim cultures (Arab, Turkish, Indian, Pakistani) made with ingredients sold by the supermarket, with the tagline “Together This Ramadan”.
The billboards were placed in cities with larger communities such as Brent, Birmingham and Bradford. There was also a social media component where the public were encouraged to share recipes in a public drive.
Although this billboard was digital, Billboard Media liked the use of location targeting and an emotional message that really speaks to their audience, in-line with the “story-telling” marketing trends that have been emerging.
Ramadan happens during the 9th month of the Islamic Calendar, so keep an eye out for the next time it comes around, it could make a huge impact on your business!