Every year, almost 4 million British Muslims observe Ramadan. It’s a time for prayer, spirituality, and community - especially after two years of pandemic disruptions. This holy month is a major moment for the Muslim community. Yet their experiences are largely absent or misrepresented in the British media, with 67% of Muslim people saying they are portrayed in a negative light in the media (Source: The Unmistakables).

As the nation’s biggest supermarket, Tesco’s purpose is to serve its customers, communities, and our planet a little better every day. It has a duty to reflect the UK’s many diverse demographics and here is a community that is frequently misrepresented by the brands they interact with every day. Tesco was dismayed by the cultural misrepresentation of British Muslims; this was a clear opportunity to better serve the community.

objective: Help the UK’s Muslim community feel seen during the holy month of Ramadan.

Our target audience is the UK’s large Muslim community, for whom Ramadan is one of the most precious months of the year. We ensured everything about our campaign was tailored to the specific experience of this community.

Not only did we remove food from our ads completely until Iftar, we also used TGI data to identify which parts of the UK had a higher Muslim population (West London, Birmingham and Bradford). We secured visible and large DOOH format sites within these areas to ensure relevance.

But accuracy was critical. Breaking fast is not unified. Sunset differs by 49 minutes across Ramadan, and also between locations (Bradford is 8 minutes and Birmingham is 6 minutes later than London). DOOH.com technology allowed site by site activation to ensure accuracy.

Proximity planning also ensured no alcohol adverts nearby and we blockbooked sites for 3 hours to ensure no interruptions.

This campaign launched on the first day of Ramadan, running for its entirety until the end of April. Social media and news brands picked up the campaign and created larger reach.

To be respectfully supportive, multiple criteria were integral in site selection and planning:

· Eastwards facing - the sun set behind the sites accentuating the break of fast.

· Not in proximity to other Tesco Food advertising.

· Not in proximity to places alcohol could be purchased and/or alcohol advertising.

Activating for 3 hour roadblocks around sunset ensured zero interruption from other advertisers. The roadblock moved depending upon sunset (affected by site location).

Two creative executions - fasting (empty plates) & non-fasting (full plates) – enabled the non-fasting to gradually coincide with sunset and breaking of the fast, supportively announcing “Together this Ramadan. In honour of everyone fasting, these plates only fill up once the sun goes down”.

While the campaign is ongoing throughout Ramadan, we have captured the results so far. With zero paid media beyond the billboards, we…

Sparked conversation: +275% uplift of Tesco and Ramadan mentions from the DOOH launch.

Were applauded by Muslims and the wider public: Net Sentiment Score of 13, (vs +12 of Tesco’s Christmas 2021 launch period). Example positive comment: “Tesco’s Ramadan out-of-home campaign scores full on simplicity. It is centred on Iftar”.

Generated organic coverage: 22 titles have organically shared the work (and counting) with a combined reach of 10.4M in the UK, France and Turkey.

Created online buzz: peaked 100 (vs 24.4 during the days pre-campaign).

Source: Creative & Media agency

But the key result is from Tesco’s Muslim colleagues observing Ramadan, who told us: “the proactively inclusive [work] will break barriers for the Muslim population who are facing backlash and are victims of racism”.