Eid ul Fitri: Brands shun creativity in Sallah celebration messages
By Oghale Mafuru
As consumers continue to evolve rapidly amid shorter attention spans, brands are seeking ways to engage with their target audience by creating strategic campaigns that strengthen relationships and foster brand visibility as well as show affinity with the consumers’ beliefs and preferences across touchpoints.
Emotive connections are sure ways brands can engage with their consumers and celebrations such as the recent Eid ul Fitri afford brands unique opportunities for engagement. Marketing edge however observed that rather than the usual rush to capitalize on the occasion to engage with millions of Nigerian Muslim faithful, to unleash their creativity by crafting ingenious creatives that speak to the heart of the matter, most brands tread the cautious lane of the usual ‘Happy Eid celebrations’ due most probably to the backlash that greeted Sterling Bank’s ‘Agege bread’ Easter creative.
It is interesting however that in this ‘season of caution’, some brands have managed to retain their thinking cap and come up with outstanding creatives. the ones that fall within this category include:
Peak Milk
Peak Milk, the leading dairy brand’s creative message reads: “Stay nourished as you enjoy the blessings of the celebration”. The creativity is in aligning the brand with the season by making the milk used to cream a cup of tea have the shape of the crescent, a shape synonymous with one of the symbols of Islam and the announcer of the Eid.
Pepsi
Pepsi, one of the carbonated soft drinks companies showed a bottle of the drink with a silver line formed by the bubbles in the bottle shaped like a crescent indicating the new moon that signals Eid ul Fitri celebrations; below the bottle is the message: “Eid (ul )Muarak.’
First Bank
The creativity in First Bank’s message is in the swinging sun that indicated the passage of time and the descent of the letters that formed the message just as the verses of the Qur’an reputedly descended unto prophet Muhammad (SAW) and the revelation started during the month of Ramadhan too.
In the creative, the Bank shows a crescent moon with a lamp swinging from left to right with the picture of an opened Quran and a prayer rosary. The descended letters were used to form the message: “May the blessings of this season be yours for infinity”.
Kellogg’s
Though Kellogg’s has a good message its creative also resonates with the vibes of the season. In the two-part video creative, Kellogg’s showed the crescent depicting Eid which transformed into a bowl of Kellogg’s in the second part. The brand however goofed by wishing people ‘Happy Ramadhan’ instead of Happy Eid ul Fitri.
“Happy Ramadan; Celebrate with a nutritious bowl of Kellogg’s”. Here the image of the moon moves to the middle and turns into a bowl of Kelloggs and two hands reaching for it from the side.
Happy Ramadan to our Muslim family! May this day be filled with love, joy, and lots of laughter.
Celebrate today with a healthy bowl of Kellogg’s, it also wrote on its Instagram handle.
Messages that fall under the usuals are those that just felicitate using the usual mosque minarets, crescent, and star without creatively linking the rand or its propositions to the season. Such include:
Maltina
Maltina’s felicitation message reads: “May Happiness colour your festivities today, Eid Mubarak”
Dominos
Dominos felicitated with a message which reads: “Eid Mubarak, with love from us to you” which shows the shape of the moon on a pizza pack.
Justrite Superstores
May this Eid fills your life with the brightest of colours. Here’s wishing all our customers a very happy Eid!
Chivita
‘Happy Eid El Fitri everyone. May our sacrifices be crowned with the blessings of Allah. AMIN!’ was how Chivita felicitated its customers.
Zenith Bank
Zenith Bank took the prayer route y wishing that: “This Eid, may your prayers and sacrifices bring forth Allah’s blessings, eternal happiness, and peace in all you do. Amin.”
Fidelity Bank
From Fidelity Bank, it is: “Wishing you and your family a blessed and peaceful Eid ul Fitri.”
Meanwhile, some other brands that usually associate with Eid ul Fitri because such brands are consumed during fasting and celebrations but which completely shun this year Eid ul Fitri include KFC, Sterling Bank, Chicken Republics, Unilever, Nestle, etc. Their actions may not be unconnected with a decision to avoid the negative publicity that could e attendant upon any goof, knowing that Muslims are very sensitive to any untoward depiction of what the faith revers.
It would be recalled that Sterling Bank came under fire for its Easter Day creative work which was criticized for comparing Jesus to Agege bread. In reaction to public outcry against what was described as malicious and distasteful, the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria issued a statement to dissociate itself from the advert promising to sanction the financial institution. It appears brands are taking cautious steps in creating memorable advert messages on special occasions.
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