Local UAE-based food brand Jenan has launched a gutsy campaign for Ramadan. Disrupting the score of overly sentimental Ramadan campaigns, Jenan has partnered with marketing agency Blink to demonstrate the effect of ‘Ramadan Made Good’ on one of the Arab world’s most recognised cinematic villain, Monther Rayahneh.
The month-long Ramadan social media film campaign – with multiple executions across three teasers, including 90s, 60s and 30s – was brought to life by ideation agency Blink, media agency Hearts & Science, and Cairo-based production house Fingerprint Media Production.
In conversation with Campaign Middle East, Fouad Abdel Malak, Chief Creative Officer at Blink, said, “In the Middle East, Ramadan is the season for TV. During this period for reflection and devotion, families spend more time together – often in front of a common screen, watching drama series made and broadcasted especially for the Holy Month. Meanwhile every show is a runway for food brands, battling for top-of-mind awareness through advertising,”
Facing the challenge of standing out in market dominated by global brands with seemingly endless marketing budgets, Jenan and its partners found a way to gain top of mind awareness without competing on media spend.
Abdel Malak explained, “Jenan’s brand slogan is ‘Food Made Good’. To demonstrate this, we partnered with Monther Rayahneh, the villain in more than 70 Arab films and 30 Arab TV series. Monther suddenly became the hero in a series of cinematic films, showing his love for food and how he works hard in the kitchen to make sure his guests better enjoy his iftar … or else.”
Strategy and rollout of the Jenan social campaign
These films were placed within the advertising slots of popular TV series, many of which featured Rayahneh in his usual role.
“The contrast between characters made for talkable entertainment and became Ramadan’s unexpected hit,” Abdel Malak said.
“By transforming Rayahneh — widely recognised as the region’s most notorious “bad guy” — into a symbol of goodness, the campaign delivered a powerful narrative shift. This unexpected, yet culturally resonant transformation, captured audience attention, creating buzz and driving strong emotional engagement,” he added.
Success metrics of the campaign
The campaign also leveraged Rayahneh’s large following of more than 2 million avid fans, who amplified reach and ensured the campaign’s message spread widely.
Beyond traditional success metrics such as sales uplift and ad recall, the collaboration created a memorable cultural moment, reinforcing Jenan’s ‘Food Made Good’ positioning by showing how good food can inspire positive change.
Through the campaign, the brand has witnessed a 117 per cent sales up lift compared with the previous year. The campaign videos have been among the Top 3 most trending Tik Tok video for the last month, which is an achievement considering the competitive media spend of more established brands.
Within the first week of its launch, the campaign witness 192 million impressions, reached 25.5 million people, and garnered 19 million views, with higher than planned engagement rate of 0.19 per cent.
The campaign will continue running through the Holy Month of Ramadan.
CREDITS:
Client: Jenan
Ideation Agency: Blink: The Agency (Dubai, UAE)
Fouad Abdel Malak (Chief Creative Officer)
Michael Fillon (Digital Creative Director)
Karim Salman (Managing Director)
Jose David Morales Prieto (Creative Director)
Gerard Fadel (Group Account Director)
Production Agency: Fingerprint Media Production (Cairo, Egypt)
Morcous Adel (Director & Founder)
Media Agency: Hearts & Science (Dubai, UAE)
Raji Tarabay (Manager – Planning)
