Food brand Maggi Arabia wanted to reach women who are passionate about cooking, during the second Ramadan the world would spend under social distancing restrictions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Maggi ARABIA’s audience are often looking for ways to shorten the cooking process without compromising on flavour or taste. At other times, they want their meals to taste like the food their mothers cooked for them when they were young.
Today’s home cooks are open to trying new dishes and cuisines, to show off their creativity. At the same time, they also use cooking to preserve tradition, and the shared satisfaction of good, home-cooked food helps bring families together. This mix of creativity and tradition is particularly important during Ramadan.
As the world continued to experience the pandemic at different paces, applying varied measures of restrictions, Maggi Arabia wanted to showcase the versatility of its products, highlighting that no matter the circumstances ‘Ramadan will Always be Ramadan’ through its flavours, memories, and rituals.
Gatherings may have had to decrease in size, but Covid-19 has not changed the cooking, the inspiration or the dishes on the Ramadan dining table.
To reinforce its role as the cook’s partner in the kitchen, Maggi Arabia not only offered a wide range of recipe ideas on its website, but also curated and sent weekly menu-planner newsletters to customers who signed up.
By inspiring cooks with menu planners and daily new dishes, Maggi Arabia cut through the digital clutter to emphasise that while Covid-19 may have changed our lives, the essence of Ramadan remains the same.
Partnering with Facebook, MAGGI ARABIA made sure its promotional messages all worked well together. The brand worked across Facebook’s platforms to engage with the users of each channel with relevant messaging, through Facebook and Instagram feeds, IGTV videos, Live Rooms, Instagram Stories and more. MAGGI ARABIA also collaborated with regional creators to integrate the campaign themes within their content, ensuring a consistent brand voice across all channels. MAGGI ARABIA was one of the first advertisers to use Facebook’s Shop Now features to retarget people who engage with its campaigns, and once again did this well. The films, images and copy changed to reflect the differences between the brand’s products and customers in different markets.
The brand shone by focusing on the essence of Ramadan that holds strong even through tough times like the current pandemic.
The campaign resulted in:
6.9 percentage point lift in message association (5.75 times higher than the benchmark).
3.8 percentage point lift in overall purchase intent towards the brand (6.3 times the benchmark).
5.5 percentage point lift in purchase intent towards the brand amongst the 25- to 34-year-old age group (9 times the benchmark).
8 percentage point lift in message association among the 18- to 34-year-old age group (6.6 times the benchmark).
Maiada El Shhawy and Sima Chamma, food comms and e-business leads, Maggi MENA
“Ramadan is our biggest month of the year. But our challenge this year was how to communicate it during Covid-19, or this new normal. We wanted to connect with our audience on an emotional level with a nostalgic-impact ‘Ramadan will Always be Ramadan’ campaign, highlighting that when the sun sets, iftar remains intact despite all the big changes we’re witnessing around us. We leveraged our reach on Facebook and delivered our campaign through a mix of formats with the ultimate objective of delivering new recipes on a weekly basis to address consumers’ tensions during Ramadan.”
Akash Nemani, client partner, CPG, beauty & luxury, MENA at Facebook
“The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the way people live, connect, shop and discover. This was more evident during Ramadan, a period of introspection and celebration for nearly 2 billion people. During Ramadan, people want to come together, whether virtually or socially distanced, to share the joy with loved ones. With Covid-19 creating barriers for physical engagement, we continue to work with brands such as MAGGI to create community-first engagement and provide them with the support they need to get through this period.”
Austyn Allison, editor, Campaign Middle East
“Food, family and friendship are central to Ramadan, and even a pandemic can’t change that. So it’s nice to see a familiar brand like Maggi using social channels to keep a nostalgic ‘Ramadan will Always be Ramadan’ message alive while helping out busy cooks with new recipes. The campaign helps bring novelty and variety to the dining table without forsaking traditional tastes, sentiments and experiences.”
