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Campaign ME
07-04-2025
- Business
- Campaign ME
CMO Barometer: Marketers delve into AI, EQ and ‘the dichotomy of marketing'
Marketers have stated that artificial intelligence (AI), emotional intelligence within leadership, as well as marketing craft: finding the balance between short-term performance metrics and long-term brand-building remain their top areas of focus, according to the latest CMO Barometer research released in March 2025. The CMO Barometer is an annual study that surveys top marketers and is conducted by Serviceplan Group Middle East and The Marketing Society in partnership with The Institute of Marketing and Customer Insight at the University of St. Gallen (HSG). In 2025, this survey took into consideration the opinions of thousands of respondents across the EMEA region, but the CMO Barometer is still building up its responses in the Middle East by engaging with senior marketers across the region. As part of this exercise, The Marketing Society and Serviceplan Group Middle East hosted an hour-long session titled Leading the Conversation moderated by Alasdair Hall-Jones, Global Director of The Marketing Society, and attended by five senior marketers, including: Amina Taher , CMO, Wio Bank George Yaryura , SVP Marketing, Mashreq Sidhanth Gopishetty , General Manager, Fung Group Megan French-Ritsch , Executive Director Marketing, PIF Confidential , and Natalie Shardan , Managing Partner, Serviceplan Middle East 1. Effectiveness of AI-first strategies Marketers delve into speed-to-market, automation and efficiencies Mashreq's George Yaryura got the conversation going by sharing his thoughts on the proliferation of AI and its impact on the industry. George Yaryura said, 'AI helps with campaigns: to help generate creative assets and enhance productivity. With the rise of social media, and the rapid acceleration in speed to market, we need to look at two things: firstly, we need to make sure that we still differentiate our brand with these AI-based creative assets, so it doesn't become too generic. Secondly, we need to upskill all our teams on how to prompt AI better to generate true value.' Wio Bank's Amina Taher shared, 'At Wio, we use AI throughout our digital banking platform to make banking better for everyone. Beyond creating our images and keeping our communications consistent, we've put smart AI systems to work behind the scenes. These systems automatically watch over our digital infrastructure, boost our security, cut costs, and keep everything running smoothly.' The leaders also discussed how within the business-to-business (B2B) banking sector, marketers are leveraging AI for data modelling and data analysis. Heading Marketing for Mashreq's Corporate and Investment Banking, George Yaryura explained, 'Within B2B marketing – specifically, within financial services and wholesale banking – it is all about account-based marketing, which calls for hyper-personalisation and very targeted campaigns. Interestingly, there's a lot of transactional data that had not been used historically. But now, we're seeing a rapid – and radical – transformation because we're now tapping into that data modelling and propensity modelling using AI. From that data, we're able to draw insights and implement hyper-targeted and hyper-personalised campaigns.' That said, Yaryura added that marketers are barely scratching the surface. 'I don't think we've seen the full extent of AI's impact yet,' he said. Personalisation at scale and deep customer insights Building on the conversation, other marketers at the round table discussion also shared their viewpoints on how AI is enabling hyper-targeted campaigns that deliver highly personalised experiences. Sharing the first-hand benefits that Serviceplan Middle East's clients and agency staff have experienced from its very own generative AI (Gen AI) tool, Natalie Shardan said, 'One of the key aspects that AI is helping with is personalisation at scale. This is what will drive better engagement and better return on investment. This means that, regardless of the AI tool that we use to generate assets, storytelling will be key to success.' She added, 'AI-powered automation, driven by tools such as agentic AI, have helped us streamline our work, and deliver creative and customer service functions faster and more efficiently. It's also helped our clients gain deeper insights into the customer behaviours, enabling far more accurate forecasting and real-time decision making. The tools that we have developed internally have helped us dive into richer customer data and enable seamless customer experiences, which lead to smarter and more effective strategies.' Beyond the impact of AI on personalisation, marketers also discussed its effectiveness in terms of segmentation, customer relationship management (CRM) and targeted communication. Sidhanth Gopishetty used the example of 'play patterns' to describe how Toys'R'Us Asia (Part of the Fung Group) has leveraged AI within the toys industry. He said, 'A play pattern refers to how a child plays with a toy. For instance, if you give a child two blocks or two cars, what are they likely to do with it? Traditional play patterns would tell us that they're likely to stack them on top of each other or drag them along any available surface. But in today's world, kids are not playing with only physical toys anymore. It's all digital or, at least, all the toys have some digital component. Hence, we started using AI to explore how we can predict these new 'play patterns.' We've had some success with this, and we've shared these findings with leading toy brands across the world' Marketers at the round table also discussed ways to leverage generative AI tools for co-creation, to streamline briefs and communication with agencies, and to upskill and learn at pace – especially given that the more technical and financial aspects of joint ventures, M&As etc. are increasingly becoming a part of a CMOs role. Marketers discuss co-creating 'a conscious destination' During the discussion, the industry leaders also agreed that the impact of AI goes far beyond automation and efficiency to also encompass how Middle East destinations are marketed and operated. They said that AI will require marketers – and the agencies supporting them – to relearn a lot about marketing and consumer behaviour, especially given the paradigm shift caused by its inputs and insights. Heading Marketing & Brand for one of PIF's Confidential Projects, Megan French-Ritsch explained, 'AI's impact in tourism isn't just about automation or efficiency—it's about fundamentally reshaping how we create, market, and operate destinations before a single traveller arrives. One of the most groundbreaking applications of AI and tourism is what we refer to as pre-experiences – where you've got AI-generated digital environments and immersive environments that allow travellers to explore, customise and, even, co-create their travel itineraries before setting foot in a destination. French-Ritsch added, 'This fundamentally changes how destinations compete—it's not just about what's on offer, but about who offers the most compelling AI-powered pre-travel journey.' She also went on to discuss the concept of a 'conscious destination'. 'AI has enabled us to create tourism destinations that learn and evolve—a concept I call the 'conscious destination.' Unlike traditional tourism, where destinations respond to visitor needs, AI-infused tourism offerings anticipate, adapt, and self-optimize based on real-time visitor flows, behavior, and even sentiment analysis,' French-Ritsch said. 2. Emotional intelligence and leadership The conversation then pivoted to how industry leaders are honing their emotional intelligence skills and how much of this exercise is driven by the changing attitudes of younger generations within the workforce. Wio Bank's Taher said, 'Emotional intelligence – including managing people, upwards, downwards and sideways – is 50 percent of what we do, while the technical skills, our knowledge and everything else, accounts for the remaining 50 percent.' Taher also alluded to the importance of emotional intelligence in a male-dominated industry, sharing from experience how it has guided her communication strategies, relationships with her co-workers, and her learning curve stating that 'it helps you get better at getting better.' Marketers also shared deeply honest insights on the say-do gap within the industry. On one hand, there are conversations ad nauseum in the industry about communicating effectively, empathising with teams, and reflecting on how situations ought to be handled. On the other hand, there's the reality of getting things done, working hard and fast, and ensuring productivity and efficiencies, without getting overly caught up in the emotions or the stressors of daily life. Adding her thoughts to this discourse, Shardan said, 'In the advertising industry, we are in the business of managing emotions more than managing people. We deal with a lot of passionate individuals, who tend to be a little more sensitive. It's critical to learn how to navigate through these emotions while staying focused and centred on our vision. How we lead the team is just as crucial as the outcomes that the teams generate.' She added, 'The younger generation have a huge part to play in this. They demand transparency and genuine engagement rather than automated responses and emotionless ways of working. When it comes to recruitment and talent retention, it's becoming increasingly clear that the younger generation prioritizes work culture over salary. There's no doubt about it: higher emotional quotient (EQ) within leadership keeps employees motivated, engaged and, most importantly, loyal – which is very important in our line of business.' Marketers also discussed extending emotional intelligence beyond leadership to everyone in the organisation as a core capability rather than a 'nice-to-have' soft skill. French-Ritsch said, 'Right from the recruitment stage, it's important to go beyond technical ability to also employ people based on EQ. Within the travel and tourism space, we're not just selling destinations, we're also crafting experiences and evoking a deep emotional connection with people. To deliver this, we need to fine-tune our ability to sense the collective sentiment – whether that's from within our teams or from customers, investors, policymakers and other stakeholders who are part of the larger ecosystem.' She added, 'The younger generation has taken this a step further by calling for emotionally intelligent ecosystems where every employee, at every level, feels seen and heard. This generation also holds its leadership accountable to how it leads in a way that's more profound, more actionable. They demand a more human form of leadership, which I think is positive.' The industry leaders concluded that those who are not prioritising emotional intelligence run the risk of wasting potential within their teams, losing talent and failing to run sustainable brands and businesses that last the test of time. George Yaryura summed it up saying, 'Marketing is a mix of art and science and requires rounded individuals. It not only requires the science of understanding data analytics and crafting insights and strategies from it, but also the art of emotional storytelling and sensing intuitively the anxiousness or the raw emotions of consumers.' 3. Marketing craft: Brand vs. performance In the final phase of the CMO round table discussion, marketers discussed the need to balance the long-term growth of an organisation with an eye on brand, while hitting short-term targets with an eye on performance metrics. They shared the harsh truth that, quite often, it boils down to the sales performance of a company and, if that's good, then they get to focus on brand. Quite often, it can seem like it's only the marketing team that's focused on brand-building, while the rest of the company couldn't care much about it. To address this, Gopishetty said, 'We need to continue doing two things. Firstly, we need to work closer with the entire organisation, including HR, internal communications, sales, and especially finance, to emphasize the potential fallout of throwing 'brand-marketing' out of the window. Secondly, we need to find a way to set aside a small percent of marketing budget, at all times, to focus exclusively on brand marketing to remain relevant and top of mind – even if that means confidently pushing back on directives to spend a 100 per cent of the budget on performance.' French-Ritsch added, 'The decision to focus on brand while simultaneously focusing on performance is not just a tactical decision, it's also a philosophical stance on value creation. The challenge isn't necessarily whether to prioritise brand or performance; it's about recognising that, in today's landscape, brand is performance. If we only focus on short-term ROI, we will erode the emotional capital that makes a brand sustainable. Conversely, if we invest only in long-term brand-building without immediate business impact, we lose agility. So, it's a fine balance; it's a dance between the two.' Discussing 'one of the most outdated dichotomies of marketing', marketers reiterated that there's a need to balance the art and science of marketing and engineer ways for the two to amplify each other. Referring to marketing as a 'marathon run in sprints', Sherdan said, 'The brand-building exercise is the marathon, but we need the sprints of short-term performance metrics to keep us in the running within the marathon. It's never an either-or situation; it's both in constant combination.' Summing up the conversation, Yaryura said, 'Ultimately, it's about always keeping that long-term vision and that big-picture strategy in mind. Whether it's a conversation with the board, senior stakeholders or with the consumers, it boils down to how we're contributing to the long-term vision through incremental wins. It's about delivering this at pace, with agility and immediacy, while still constantly creating lifetime value. Whether it's leaning into AI strategies, strengthening leadership, leveraging emotional intelligence that help us in our day-to-day jobs, we do all of this while constantly reminding ourselves of the long-term effect of each of our decisions on the organisation and the brand.'
Campaign ME
03-03-2025
- Business
- Campaign ME
The Marketing Society expands GCC leadership to drive regional growth
The Marketing Society has revealed key leadership appointments as part of its strategic expansion across the GCC region, marking a significant milestone in the society's mission to champion marketing excellence and strengthen its influence across the region. Mohammed Ismaeel Hameedaldin, Partner at TOUGHLOVE Advisors and current Dubai Chair, has been appointed Chair, GCC, for The Marketing Society, leading the expansion across the region. Hameedaldin brings deep regional expertise and a visionary approach to this new role. Meanwhile, Amina Taher, CMO, Wio Bank PJSC and current Chair, Abu Dhabi, will assume the position of Chair, UAE, overseeing both Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Taher has been instrumental in elevating the marketing profession in Abu Dhabi, and the society believes that her strategic leadership will be key to shaping its continued growth in the Emirates. To further support this expansion, Faheem Ahamed, Group CMO, G42 in Abu Dhabi, and Aly Tawfik, Area Marketing Director, Red Bull in Dubai will support Amina as Vice Chairs. Additionally, former Chair, UAE, Khaled Ismail, CEO and Partner, TOUGHLOVE Advisors will take on a newly created global role as Chair of International Hubs, designed to enhance collaboration across key markets, including Hong Kong, Singapore, New York and the GCC. This role, introduced by CEO Sophie Devonshire, reflects the commitment to global connectivity and growth. Commenting on the leadership appointments, Sophie Devonshire, CEO, The Marketing Society, said: 'We are incredibly excited about our new leadership team in the GCC. The impact Khaled has made on the Society is immeasurable and he's been instrumental in shaping our success. His passion, ideas, and leadership have helped build this community from a few dozen members to a 550+ strong community. He is the perfect Changemaker to help drive our vision forward globally.' Devonshire added, 'Mohammed and Amina have done an outstanding job in their previous roles as Chairs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and I am excited to see how they can further expand our Society's influence across the region.' The Marketing Society community continues to grow and now has more than 550 members in the GCC, marking 360 per cent growth in four years. Through the network; a programme of 30 physical events; training programmes, including the UAE Scholarship; their gender equality initiative THINK EQUAL; GCC Awards; Sustainability Squad, and more, the society aims to grow marketing's positive impact on business.
Campaign ME
12-02-2025
- Business
- Campaign ME
CMOs: 'Bring back the memories, moments and meaning of Ramadan'
As we enter February 2025, there's little running through the minds of marketers in the Middle East – or those within agencies servicing them – as much as Ramadan. For most consumers in the Middle East, Ramadan is a month of reformation and resolutions, as well as amended habits and behaviours. It is a month of fasting, physical and mental cleansing, togetherness, prayer, gifting, iftar and suhoor, and family gatherings. For a few others not observing the Holy Month, it is a month of shorter working hours, cultural experiences, community get-togethers, and contributing to social good – on top of business as usual. For brands and marketers, however, Ramadan is often considered the 'Super Bowl' of advertising in the region. Significant budgets, time and resources are allocated to being distinctive and discerning in the way they connect with communities, curate meaningful customer experiences, create culturally sensitive campaigns, contribute to social impact, and communicate authentic stories. This not only requires a clear understanding of Ramadan – and what it means to various groups of consumers – but also understanding how media, moments, timing and targeting for Ramadan have evolved over time. To discuss all this and more, The Marketing Society in partnership with The Trade Desk, virtually brought together a group of marketers, including: Aida Al Busaidy, AVP Consumer Advocacy and Social, Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, Ahmed El Gamal, Senior Director – Marketing, Jumeirah Group, Marilena Hadgianni, Marketing Director, Chalhoub Group, Gaurav Sinha, Marketing Director AMEA, Domino's Pizza, and Terry Kane, Managing Director MEA, The Trade Desk. … for an in-depth conversation moderated by Alasdair Hall-Jones, Global Director, The Marketing Society. Togetherness, changing behaviours and big investments The conversation began with a look at the current Ramadan marketing landscape, what it entails, as well as its broader impact on the region. Jumeirah Group's Ahmed El Gamal got the conversation started saying, 'Ramadan is all about togetherness. This means creating avenues to share moments and create memories. The hospitality industry sees a shift towards a lot of F&B programming bringing guests together for 30 days on 2 key occasions Iftar and Suhoor. Togetherness is an underlying theme in every business category throughout the holy month and it is apparent in a lot of the ads we see.' Building on the concept of togetherness, Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism's Aida Al Busaidy said, 'The dynamic of togetherness is also witnessed by people spending more quality time with friends and family outdoors, considering the Holy month moving into the cooler season. It's something that we, as marketers, need to consider as well, especially in terms of digital out of home (DOOH) or just traditional out of home (OOH).' Making the case for outdoor advertising, Al Busaidy added, 'You'll also see people working out an hour before they break their fast, or a couple of hours after they've broken their fast. The city is also completely transforming. The are a lot more paths for walking, exercising and a lot more areas for people to congregate. It's going to be very critical to think about what sort of content we're pushing through our outdoor ads, partner locations as well.' The Trade Desk's Terry Kane said, 'TV is still such a dominant part of the Ramadan conversation because some of the best Ramadan content is on the platform. But more importantly, it's also because the 'togetherness' factor. People are still gathering around the box to watch TV together. And that happens particularly at a suhoor moment. It happens before sunrise, and it happens after iftar as well.' The panellists went on to discuss why TV commercials remain the biggest investment during Ramadan and why linear TV remain expensive for brands and advertisers, referring to the Holy Month of Ramadan as 40 days of 'Super Bowl' for advertisers in the region. El Gamal said, 'This is our Super Bowl. We see a lot of content and TV shows, at least in the Arab world, being produced and being aired specifically for this part of the year. The big networks and platforms, like the MBCs and Shahids, are creating programmes just for that season because they know that they're going to get people to gather around that space.' He added, 'We also know that during Ramadan, in the GCC, TV commercials have the biggest investments because people are looking forward to a specific type of entertainment during that time of the year.' Overall, discussing budgets set aside for Ramadan advertising, some of the marketers revealed that they set aside as much as 20 per cent of their annual marketing budget for the limited duration of Ramadan. The discussion also brought to light global trends: In more mature markets, investments are moving towards programmatic because brands are demanding more transparency, more efficiency and, particularly, more data-driven television investments. 'Globally, marketers are saying transparency and measurement are really important, particularly on live and seasonal content,' Kane said, adding 'because that's where the eyeballs are. But it's got to be better than what we were doing decades ago: buying TV spots upfront at $1m. Clearly, this is the platform where most of the content is during Ramadan. Investment will follow the eyeballs. However, the business model behind it is changing and brands should demand better.' The group of marketers also discussed changing consumer behaviours, habits, purchasing trends and consumption patterns – pre-Ramadan, during Ramadan and through Eid-al-Fitr. Chalhoub Group's Marilena Hadgianni said, 'Within retail, for example, the trend in behaviour pre-Ramadan leans towards kaftans, local dresses, etc., while during Ramadan it shifts to casual wear and skincare products that ensure the skin remains hydrated. During Eid, we see the shift towards evening wear and festive, celebratory products.' Understanding what consumers want before, during and after Ramadan will remain key to a brand's success during the Holy Month. Timing, timeliness and Ramadan advertising budgets Marketers also reached a consensus that the timeliness of planning for Ramadan, as well as the timing and timeliness of ad placements, are critical. They discussed how the lunar cycle of Ramadan affects the planning cycle and how changing behaviours in content consumption during Ramadan, which takes place during specific times of day, affect ad placements. El Gamal said, 'With the lunar cycle moving backwards, we really need to start planning far ahead for campaigns and initiatives. If we're not talking about it in the third quarter of the previous year, then we're already late. And with the cycle it is only going to get earlier year on year.' Domino's Pizza's Gaurav Sinha took this is a step further stating it's also essential to consider when people are consuming content. 'The overlap lies with food,' he said. 'The time of day that people in the Middle East consume food during iftar and suhoor is also the time when they consume content,' Sinha shared. 'We also convert a lot of our communications into late-night communications during Ramadan,' Hadgianni said. Commenting on the timeliness of campaigns and consumer behaviour, Hadgianni added, 'Our campaign runs for about 10 weeks. So, the pre-Ramadan period is extremely important. We're seeing that people are shopping for Ramadan as early as early-January to mid-January, and we're seeing a lot of interest in local brands.' Targeted marketing during Ramadan Marketers at the virtual round table also discussed the need to break stereotypes around Ramadan, especially given that marketing during Ramadan is not catered only to Muslims observing the Holy Month. Al Busaidy, explained, 'This is the perfect time for us to embrace the narrative and change perceptions around Ramadan and what it is all about. It's not only for Muslims and whilst the norm is that everything shuts down in Dubai during Ramadan, Dubai's interface with seasonal activities is different because we cater to different audiences. If you go to the malls, you won't see anything different with the exception of the vibes of the Ramadan decor. During Ramadan, people get to enjoy what they would normally do – water parks, dining, experiences, as well as the added cultural experiences of Ramadan tents and Suhoors – because we cater to everybody.' Sharing views in a statement to Campaign Middle East, Unilever's Head of Marketing Alex Shibanov echoed these sentiments saying, 'Ramadan is not a 'one-size-fits-all' opportunity. Not every brand needs to invest heavily in Ramadan campaigns. The relevance of Ramadan to a brand's core values, audience and category should be thoughtfully evaluated. Ramadan is more of a tactical priority rather than a big strategic bet. It's an opportunity to show cultural understanding and respect, but only when executed authentically.' Alex added, 'For brands, it's not just about visibility but about building emotional connections that resonate with the values and spirit of Ramadan, which can provide strong amplification and long-term goodwill.' The marketers also discussed how Dubai is built on the ethos of diversity and a combination of several different nationalities living side by side, who get to experience this globalised approach of the world. Al Busaidy added, 'Gastronomy in Dubai has been boosted in the last 5 years with home grown concepts to international names gracing the covers of magazines and appearing in Michelin Guides and the 50 best. The diversity of nationalities means you can have Jamaican food in the morning, Emirati food for lunch, and then enjoy a bowl of Japanese ramen at night. So, even during Ramadan, it's not a one-size-fits-all form of marketing. We need to cater to fitness influencers, travellers, couples, individuals and families from across more than 180 different nationalities either already in Dubai or travelling to the Emirate.' Kane added, 'It's about being relevant at a very specific cultural moment. We need to take into consideration what it means to be a mother or a wife during Ramadan and the messaging around that, or what it means to be a teenager during Ramadan or a father during Ramadan. The common analogy is that 50 per cent of our media spend and our advertising is wasted, because we're not clear on how to address specific moments, seasonality or individual needs.' Hadgianni agreed, adding, 'We're making sure that the communication across the full-funnel and across every channel is quite personalised to two or three key target customer groups. We also work with influencers and key opinion leaders, who resonate with each of the key customer profiles, and then tailor our customer relationship management (CRM), gifting, the messaging, and the way in which we communicate with those customers.' This is where technology has got a leading role to play. The marketers discussed how AI-based technology allows for real-time positioning of message to a specific person, not just based on their generic demographic profiles, but based upon what they're interested in at a specific moment of the day, almost down to the second, and how to create content that could be adapted in real-time to that interest at that moment in time. 'Striking the right balance between adhering to global brand guidelines and being hyper-relevant to local audiences is another key challenge. Ramadan demands a nuanced understanding of cultural sensitivities, but there's often no global blueprint for activation. This means starting from scratch to create campaigns that authentically resonate with the local audience while staying aligned with overarching brand standards,' Alex added. Meaningful marketing during Ramadan The understanding of what a consumer wants in real-time must also result in meaningful marketing. The group of marketers discussed whether brands are truly leaning into Ramadan in a meaningful manner, rather than just 'Ramadan-washing'. El Gamal said, 'We must, at all costs, avoid falling into clichés of motifs of lanterns and generic crescents. Instead, we should look for mutual value where the spirit of Ramadan and the shared values of a brand meet. It could be kindness, generosity or a specific aspect of culture. There's a lot of room for brands to start exploring – to create something slightly more authentic.' The marketers went on to discuss how this authenticity can be communicated through relatable storytelling, whether it's through branded content, or events and experiential activations, or by engaging on the right platforms and media. Sharing her top advice for brands and marketers, Al Busaidy said, 'Bring back nostalgia. It plays such a beautiful role in storytelling in this region. Storytelling has always been part of our ethos. We've always tried to document who we are as human beings, especially in the Arab world, through the likes of Nabati and Najdi poetry. Our channels are just an evolution of platforms where you can tell a story.' She added, 'Ramadan stories and activities are so beautiful. Enjoying Iftar with a South Indian Muslim is such a different experience from enjoying Iftar with a Kazakhstani Muslim or an Emirati Muslim, because we all have very different memories, moments, and upbringings related to Ramadan. We need to bring these back.' Storytelling, thus, becomes the bridge that ties brands to the emotions of Ramadan – through themes of togetherness, generosity, reflection or hope. 'However, storytelling doesn't always have to explicitly tie back to a cultural message,' Alex explained. 'Sometimes, it's more about tapping into universal emotions that resonate during Ramadan, such as family connections or acts of kindness, while subtly align them with your brand's purpose. The key is authenticity – your story needs to fit into the Ramadan narrative without feeling forced. When done well, storytelling can transform your campaign into something that people not only remember but also relate to on a personal level.' To make Ramadan truly meaningful marketers also called for brands to play a more significant role in society through social good. 'I think Ramadan is also a great time for brands to look at social impact and the role that they play to give back to communities,' El Gamal said. 'Yes, sometimes it's in the form of food donation drives. But is there something else that they could do?' Alex echoes these sentiments saying, 'The first step is for us to immerse ourselves in the essence of Ramadan – not just its factual aspects, but the deep emotional significance it holds. Understanding why this period is so meaningful to people is crucial. As someone who is not Muslim, this is both a challenge and a fascinating journey, allowing me to appreciate the values of reflection, generosity, and community that define Ramadan.' Alex added, 'We need to identify common themes such as togetherness, gratitude and giving back, which form the foundation of our campaign messaging. The next – and often the most challenging – step is integrating our brand naturally into these insights. It's about finding authentic connections between our brand's values and the spirit of Ramadan, ensuring that our presence feels supportive rather than opportunistic.' Sharing his final thoughts, Sinha wrapped up the discussion well, saying, 'During Ramadan, consumers think very honestly. They're not thinking much about brands or products. They often are just doing their own thing and being the best version of themselves. For brands to be relevant, we need to become a part of their lives and what they consume. We need to be a part of those moments, memories and add meaning.'
