A guide to the customer personas you need to target during Ramadan
Twitter is where brands come to build cultural relevance, and it’s no wonder why – there’s an 88% correlation between spend on Twitter and perceptions of a brand's cultural relevance.1
Ramadan is one of the biggest cultural moments of the year – in 2021, there were 12.8 million Tweets about Ramadan on Twitter.2 People gather on Twitter to share their Ramadan celebrations every year, and there’s a trend to what they’re interested in and what they react to – which is exactly what we’ll be exploring in this blog for Ramadan 2022.
To optimize your Twitter campaign, you need to ensure you reach your targeted audience. This is where customer personas come in – these are the different kinds of customers you’ll find during Ramadan based on their interests.
Entertainment, food and cooking, shopping, and health and wellness are the most sought-after content categories across Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, and Egypt3. It’s from these categories that most customer personas for Ramadam come from.
Keep reading as we take a deeper look at the five customer personas you need to target people on Twitter during Ramadan.
The shopper
During Ramadan, people spend more money compared to the rest of the year – in fact, around half of the people on Twitter in Saudi, UAE, and Kuwait spend more during Ramadan, while 61% in Egypt spend more4.
Promotions and offers are primary drivers of purchases during Ramadan, with some people even waiting for the holy month to get their hands on new collections. Be sure to highlight your promotions early and often, so you can build anticipation and buzz.
Conversation peaks during the first 10 days of Ramadan, with multiple smaller peaks during the last 10 days of the month, which presents even more opportunities to connect with Twitter’s highly engaged audience5.
Top tip: If you use a Twitter Ads campaign to connect to an event, expand your campaign run time beyond the event to yield more engagement and better cost-efficiency – you can start your promotions before April 1st, and can keep them running after April 30th.
The discoverer
People think of Twitter first to discover what’s happening during Ramadan – 65% of people in Saudi Arabia, 49% of people in Kuwait, 47% of people in UAE, and 45% of people in Egypt6.
During the fasting periods of Ramadan, people spend more time online. They’re discovering new brands, products, and services, and looking for food recipes and gift ideas. People on Twitter like to be the first to try new things and are more likely to be the first to buy new products7.
To successfully launch a new brand, product, service, app, or special promotion, take a look at our launch guidelines and best practices.
The TV and entertainment enthusiast
Ramadan is a social and family-oriented time, with many people spending more time enjoying their favorite shows. Twitter is the ultimate complement to TV, and the same is true during Ramadan.
People use Twitter while watching TV during Ramadan to:
Read people's Tweets about what they’re watching
Discover more shows to watch
Tweet about what they’re watching
Through conversations on Twitter, people move from simply watching TV to sharing moments and emotions around content that matters to them during Ramadan. Use hashtags to connect with people and the TV shows they’re engaging with during Ramadan.
Top tip: Remember that the majority of people watch TV in the evening time, and lots of popular shows air in the evening too. So it’s important to align your Twitter content with these timelines. Tweet at these peak times when people are most engaged and are discussing TV shows in real-time on Twitter.
The foodie
Food and drink are two of the top mentioned topics during Ramadan on Twitter8, and food and cooking is a top type of content that people seek online during Ramadan9.
If you’re a food brand, think in line with suhoor and iftar for recipe ideas – nutrient-dense recipes for suhoor to set people up for the day, and lighter, energy-replenishing recipes for iftar.
Don’t forget Eid, starting May 2nd this year – share meal and recipe ideas in advance of the day, to help people prepare for the end of the month of fasting.
Lulu Hypermarket, a multinational retailer with stores across the Gulf region, Egypt, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, used Twitter to connect with their target audience during Ramadan. They promoted a variety of videos including recipes, new offers, and videos promoting relevant products during the month of Ramadan.
Lulu Hypermarket’s campaign had impressive results – their Video Tweet announcing a new easy installments payment option received a 49.39% engagement rate vs Twitter’s benchmark of 12.10%.
View the full Lulu Hypermarket success story.
The health and wellness fan
Ramadan is a time for many to focus on wellness, practice discipline and commitment, and create and maintain healthy habits. Health and wellness are featured in the top five types of content people seek during Ramadan in KSA, UAE, Egypt, and Kuwait10.
The health and wellness fan will be interested in self-care, mindfulness, praying, meditation, exercise, and yoga. If your brand offers products, services, or content within any of these pillars, Ramadan is the perfect time to reach this persona in an authentic way.
A study by Statista found that 46% of respondents from the MENA region felt the use of health and fitness apps increases during Ramadan11. A Twitter app install campaign can help you find and convert the people who are most likely to download your app during Ramadan.
Take a look at three other ad formats that will wow your audience during Ramadan.
As a month of family gatherings, shared meals, and shopping, Ramadan is the perfect time for your brand to connect with people who share your interests. Visit our MENA #WhatsNew Hub to learn more about key insights and success stories that will help you plan your campaigns for the Holy Month.
1. Source: Kantar, commissioned by Twitter, Cultural Relevance Research, Dec 2019, USA, Base = 100 US brands tested. Methodology: Correlation analysis, which shows the strength of the relationship between two variables/metrics.
2. Source: Twitter internal data, global data. Time Frame: 1/1/21-1/1/22. Data retrieved February 2022.
3. Source: Twitter Insight Survey, Twitter audience in KSA (551), UAE (337), Egypt (825) & Kuwait (344), December 2021.
4. Source: Twitter Insight Survey, Twitter audience in KSA (551), UAE (337), Egypt (825) & Kuwait (344), December 2021.
5. Source: Brandwatch 10 Apr 2021 - 15 May 2021.
6. Source: Twitter Insight Survey, Twitter audience in KSA (551), UAE (337), Egypt (825) & Kuwait (344), December 2021.
7. Source: Kantar, “News Discovery & Influence on Twitter”, Global, December 2017. Monthly Twitter Global users (n=17,138), Online Global population (n= 34, 535). | How we know: Kantar News, Discovery & Influence on Twitter ; December 2017 ; US ; 787 Monthly Twitter US users & 1503 Online US population Source : Kantar Millward Brown, 2017
8. Source: Twitter internal data, global data. Time Frame: 1/1/21-1/1/22. Data retrieved February 2022.
9. Source: Twitter Insight Survey, Twitter audience in KSA (551), UAE (337), Egypt (825) & Kuwait (344), December 2021.
10. Source: Twitter Insight Survey, Twitter audience in KSA (551), UAE (337), Egypt (825) & Kuwait (344), December 2021.
11. Statista, 2020, “How would you rate the usage of online applications for the below broad categories during Ramadan?” https://www.statista.com/statistics/1111948/mena-rating-of-health-and-fitness-app-usage-during-ramadan/
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