The drop in consumer engagement during Ramadan.

It feels like last year's Ramadan was just a couple of months ago, as 2020 ended in a flash. The new year has arrived and already Ramadan 2021 is almost here. One thing is certain about Ramadan, when it starts approaching, advertisers start getting creative. Social media consumption rates are about the hit the roof yet again, and influencer marketing campaigns prepare to launch as brands invest in consumer engagement during Ramadan. [caption id="attachment_213319" align="alignnone"] Number of posts created in 2020 by food and lifestyle creators[/caption] Ramadan 2020 taught us a lot of things, it taught us adaptability, it taught us new ways of celebrating and it certainly taught us that content creators celebrate Ramadan in advance - at least in terms of content. The 2 week period before Ramadan taught us that the lead up to the start of the month, is when creators start getting busy. But, does that reflect on engagements and consumer consumption?

CONSUMER CONSUMPTION.

It is evident that with the beginning of Ramadan, influencer campaigns are at their peaks. This, and creators' creativity starts to hit the roof. Creators start distinguishing themselves form others, to attract the most traffic and to create long-lasting within their niche. We went back to our data warehouse, Sila, and dug back into our Ramadan data from 2020. We analysed at content created by lifestyle and food creators over the course of the month and the results were quite surprising, to say the least. [caption id="attachment_213342" align="alignnone"] Interactions gained by content creators during Ramadan 2020[/caption] Firstly, we looked at interactions, and this downward slope visualizes interactions gained by content creators of our two categories. Evidently, interactions (likes + comments) decrease at a constant rate as we progress through the month, showing that Ramadan's interactions peak during the beginning of the month - and reach that peak in the 2 weeks period prior. [caption id="attachment_213343" align="alignnone"] Engagements gained by content creators during Ramadan 2020[/caption] Next, we added in the number of video views to the mix and analysed to see if any difference would be seen. We were wrong, the graph for engagements was almost identical.

LEARNINGS.

Content creators start preparing for Ramadan prior to its start, the activity peaks as we begin the month. This activity leads to peaks in the numbers of interactions and video views generated by consumers. As we progress during the month, two things are true. Creators post less and this reflects directly on consumers' consumption. This could be caused by multiple reasons:

1. Creators get busy with their regular lives. Content produced by them during Ramadan could also be created in advance.
2. Audiences tire of the online world and engage less.
3. Content starts becoming repetitive to consumers.

HOW SILA WORKS.

Using models based upon Arabic dialects, we see their audience’s reactions, their other influencer affinities, and brand affinities. Those models allow us to build on previous capabilities to see the audiences’ age, gender, location, and engagements. We then utilise this real-time reporting, combined with natural-language-processing models, to gain true sentiment. We can then better refine and learn from the audiences’ reactions in an unbiased setting. The key! All coming together to produce:

• Audience-first campaigns in the G.C.C via a proven process,
• Topic reports and data backed selection with a G.C.C focus for approval;
• An experienced team to clearly brief and manage the influencers of the Arab World;
• Content approvals, published reports, to indicate ROI and deep dive into the campaign, followed by post-campaign collaborative review.

Additionally, we have obvious brand-lift measurements, but we can save that for another day. Questions? Get in touch with us today.