Hello friends,

It's Ramadan again, been a while since we've seen eachother.. hope everyone's keeping well amidst all the action we're living these days.. 

I don't see a need for a Ramadan drama series while we're living in one everyday... anyhow, I won't dwell into politics now, I'll just stick to what I know and what you're here to read.. ads critiques..

When talking about Ramadan ads this year,  one can't help but ask, where are the dam ads?? With the 4th day of Ramadan kicking in now, we've only seen 5 brands on TV.. these are the ones we'll be tackling this time..
Back in the day, the first few days of Ramadan comprised a parade of the best creative work of the year, ppl wait for and evaluate the ads as much as they wait for the Ramadan content itself (Serials, Programs...etc)

This year is different though, only few brands are on air for now.. Just to give you some perspective on whats going on behind closed doors of ad and media agencies, and advertising clients conference rooms these days.. below are the reasons why:

1. Too much to choose from: 

With the media fragmentation in the market now, 30+ serials, 20+ entertainment programs and a plethora of religious programs on around 15-20 channels.. the advertisers themselves are confused, which channels to air on, will the Nour El Sherif serial be hit or fail? Are people still watching Yossra or is Amir Karara and co stealing the spotlight from the older generation.. so advertisers are actually quite reluctant where to spend their (believe it or not) limited money.. so what they do is take a step back for the first couple of days, do a screening and filtration process, a bit of quantitative and qualitative research of who's watching what.. then decide on which baskets they'll place their eggs this year.

2. Market inflation:

There has been a horrific inflation in advertising rates of Ramadan, as in HORRIFIC.. ya3ni elli kan b 100 el sana eli fatet, el sana di b2a b 250.. so if u had budgeted ur advertising plans at 5 Million EGP.. now you need around 12 Million.. which is a drastic jump.. so what people have done is either succumb and just pay whatever the price tag says (and probably run out of budget by Ramadan 10th).. or wait and further negotiate with the media owners that el rates di "mesh 7atakol" bel baladi keda.. This puts decent pressure on the media suppliers who will not be able to sustain empty air time for a long time, thus drop their rates and we see more of advertising.

3. Cautious Silence:

A friend asked a very good question yesterday, where the hell are the telecom operator ads? Its a first that we dont see a Vodafone or Mobinil ad on the first day of Ramadan. I'm not sure why either but probably everyone is cautiously anticipating the rise of TE (Telecom Egypt), the 4th Mobile Carrier due to launch now.. maybe a restriction from the NTRA (National Telecom Regulatory Authority)?? we'll see..

This can still apply to other categories as well.. Where head-to-head competitors who cautiously await when their competition will strike so they can retaliate.

Enough literature w raghy 3al fady.. lets look at the ads..
Disclaimer bas saree3.. friends and colleagues.. This is a personal opinion, no hard feelings.. You know how much I respect you and your work.

One last thing before I start: 

In our journey in life, we meet, love and lose people along the way.. I would like to dedicate this post to Ihab Hazem; aka Bob (Creative Director at FP7), who passed around a month ago.. Although I don't know you personally, but your contribution to the business and how inspirational you were to those around you is definitely remarkable.. Rest In Peace..

OK... here we go:

1. CocaCola.. Leih la2

So Coke is the first to advertise this year.. as usual punctual and leading the game.. with a redundant message unfortunately.

The ad in its essence is not bad, unity and togetherness are all noble values that we as Egyptians seemed to have forgotten and should be reminded of.. But the fact that it comes after a series of ads that more or less look and sound the same make people feel "Yeah, there goes another Coke ad".. The tie up with CairoKee and Aida El Ayoubi was quite nice the first couple of times.. now it got a bit boring honestly.. although the girl in this one is not Aida, a young lady called Nesma I believe (who more or less sounds like Aida).
Plus given the relatively uncluttered ad break (so far), we see the ad a LOT.. let alone it being a redundant ad.. I'm sure people will get sick of it by first week of Ramadan.. except if they're smart enough to kick in tactical copies stemming out from the principle ad.. we'll have to wait and see..

Grade: B- (so far at least)

2. Birell:

Taurus:

Cancer:

Aries:

Gemini:

As usual, the one-campaign-a-year brand comes back with a memorable campaign as they always do.. this time with major production budgets that enabled them to shoot 12 different copies to air throughout the month.. 

Cornering your brand in one communication platform can be quite challenging because Birell has been saying "Manhood" for the past 5-6 years minimum and there hasn't been much left to say.. But our friends at KTP (King Tut Playground) always find a way back and they come back BIG... 12 copies showcasing 12 different characters of different horoscopes... We have seen just 4 of which so far, but i'm sure the rest will follow..

A smart story line tackling the same party from 12 different POVs and I love how they always add their contribution to the daily slang... They've been saying Estargel for so long it became boring, now they changed it to Estazkar... A word that I'm sure people will start using on the street very soon..

Love what I've seen so far.

Grade: A-

Pepsi:

I'm not sure exactly what to make out of this one, its not even an ad.. But what it seems is that someone's cooking something.. something BIG..

Pepsi and Chipsy joining forces means it is something that none of them could carry on their own, which is even scarier because we're talking about the biggest 2 advertisers in the country.. 

Just connecting some dots, Chipsy and Pepsi, together, on the biggest TV channels in the Arab World, Nekammel lammetna... Nostalgia.... hmmm..... I heard some word about Fouad El Mohandes, Nelly & Sherihan... Did anyone say Fawazeer?

Stay tuned... It reveals tomorrow :)

Grade: lessa shwaya

Labanita:

Talk about a revamp... haha..

KTP comes back again with a brilliant copy.. A milk producer that has been there for the past God-knows-how-long, a boring pack and a more or less similar offering to anything else on the market.. 

What better than to blow it up completely and defame its heros.. 

For years, Soad and Sawsan have been the face of the brand.. Now it seems they've turned bad it was time to let them go... in style

Also love the closing line there: Kefaya Ba2ar Ba2a... Political insinuation... anyone? :) Makes me even like it more now..

Grade: A

Maxibon:

Never liked the old one, this one doesn't change my opinion much honestly.. 

I'm not sure how to justify my judgement there... I just dont like it..

I believe they raised the bar so high after last year's copy, they got trapped in how to take it further.. and this copy was the outcome..

Bad.. just bad

Grade: C

That's pretty much if for this time.. Grades might change as more copies of the same campaign unfold..

Hopefully next time we meet we can have some more ads and content to discuss.

Adios,

3omdaz