Tesco marks Ramadan with its first ever digital billboard campaign

For the first time, Tesco has launched a campaign featuring ‘Iftar,’ the evening meal that marks the end of the day’s fast. Developed by Tesco’s advertising agency, BBH, the campaign runs during Ramadan in April. Developed in collaboration with media agency MediaCom, specialist out-of-home agency Kinetic and equity, diversity, and inclusion consultancy the Unmistakable.

During the day, the digital billboard displays empty plates that fill up with food by sunset to signify Iftar. Ramadan is the month when Muslims eat this meal at the end of each day to break their fast.

The changing image is accompanied by the slogan ‘Together this Ramadan’.  Along with an explanatory line: ‘in honour of everyone fasting, these plates only fill up as the sun goes down.

Running on billboards in areas with high Muslim populations – including Brent in London and Birmingham and Bradford – the campaign will remain on the digital screens for up to three hours as the sun sets, with no other ads running. The billboards face eastwards, with the sun setting behind and the creative fading in as the sun goes down, to accentuate the break of fast coinciding with sunset.

Alongside the billboard campaign is a social media drive sharing recipes and inspiration. Along with a drive sharing recipes and in-store executions around aisles selling relevant products to enjoy Iftar throughout Ramadan.

The campaign is the first time that Tesco has marked Ramadan with a significant advertising push. “Our creative ambition was simple, to create work that is not only representative but also gave a voice to our Muslim creative industry,” says Helen Rhodes, ECD at BBH London.

“Close collaboration with new creative partners, industry-leading inclusion experts at The Unmistakable. Meanwhile, the Race and Ethnicity Network at Tesco and our friends at Mediacom and DOOH, underpinned by a willingness to listen and learn, made this possible and drove the creation and development of this campaign from the get-go.”