Jawwy Flips the Ramadan Advertising Calendar With a Post-Holiday Campaign
Jawwy's 2019 campaign, titled "The Ramadan Campaign That Didn't Happen in Ramadan," is a content-led initiative created by FP7 McCann Riyadh and FP7 McCann Dubai that deliberately launched in Saudi Arabia after the holy month of Ramadan ended, challenging the industry convention that charitable messaging belongs exclusively inside the fasting period.
Jawwy is a digital-services and telecom brand associated with Saudi Telecom Company, known as stc, one of Saudi Arabia's largest telecommunications operators. In 2019, Jawwy partnered with FP7 McCann — IPG's Middle East and North Africa communications network representing McCann Erickson — to produce a campaign whose central argument was deceptively simple: the generosity that defines Ramadan should not end when the crescent moon signals Eid. The campaign's Arabic hashtag, الخير_فينا_دايم, translates directly as "the good in us is always there," anchoring every execution to that year-round premise.
The mechanics of the campaign were structured in two distinct phases. Teaser activity ran during the final days of Ramadan itself, seeding the idea without delivering the full message. The principal campaign then launched in June 2019, after Ramadan had concluded, across multiple touchpoints: an online film, a social media good-deed challenge, donation boxes placed in Saudi supermarkets, meals provided for people in need at mosques, and water distribution at traffic intersections — the kind of spontaneous public generosity that Ramadan normalises but that typically disappears from both streets and advertising the moment Eid arrives. The campaign was submitted to the industry by Tahaab Rais, Chief Strategy Officer of FP7 McCann MENAT, as documented on Clapboard. It earned a Clapboard Score of 78 out of 100, reflecting strong strategic originality within the regional advertising landscape.
Ramadan advertising in Saudi Arabia operates on a predictable and intensely competitive calendar. Brands across every category concentrate their most emotionally resonant, values-driven messaging into the thirty days of the holy month, then pivot immediately to Eid promotions and back-to-normal commercial communication. The insight behind the Jawwy campaign, developed by FP7 McCann Riyadh and FP7 McCann Dubai, was that this concentration creates an unintended message: that charitable behaviour is seasonal, not intrinsic.
Tahaab Rais, CSO of FP7 McCann MENAT, led the strategic development of a premise that inverted the standard media plan. Rather than competing for attention inside the crowded Ramadan window — where, as documented across industry observers including WARC and Campaign Middle East, share of voice for consumer brands spikes dramatically — the campaign chose to speak after the noise had cleared. This timing decision was not merely contrarian. It was designed to prove the campaign's own argument: that good deeds, and by extension Jawwy's role in enabling connected, community-minded life in Saudi Arabia, are relevant in June, July, and every month that follows.
In the Saudi telecommunications market, Jawwy operated alongside larger incumbent forces within stc's own portfolio as well as competitors including Zain Saudi Arabia and Mobily, both of which invest heavily in Ramadan-season brand campaigns. By stepping outside that window entirely, the FP7 McCann strategy created genuine differentiation without requiring a larger media budget. The campaign's structural logic — teaser during Ramadan, reveal after — also gave it a narrative arc that pure in-month campaigns rarely achieve, turning the timing itself into the creative idea rather than simply a scheduling choice.
FP7 McCann Riyadh and FP7 McCann Dubai built the Jawwy campaign across a content mix that mirrored the texture of everyday generosity in Saudi Arabia rather than the heightened emotional register typical of Ramadan advertising. The online film anchored the campaign creatively, presenting the argument that goodness is not a thirty-day phenomenon. Its release in June 2019 — weeks after Eid al-Fitr — gave it an immediacy and contextual surprise that an identical film released during Ramadan could not have generated.
The social good-deed challenge extended the film's premise into participatory territory, inviting Saudi audiences to document and share acts of generosity performed outside the Ramadan window. This mechanic is structurally significant: it turned the campaign's philosophical claim into a lived behaviour, making Jawwy's brand presence synonymous with the continuation of Ramadan values rather than their seasonal bracketing. The campaign hashtag الخير_فينا_دايم served as both a rallying point and a measurable signal of cultural resonance, as documented on Ads of the World.
Physical executions — donation boxes in supermarkets, mosque meals, water distribution at traffic intersections — extended the campaign beyond digital channels into the built environment of Saudi daily life. These touchpoints were not decorative. They created real-world proof of the campaign's premise at locations where Saudis would recognise the acts as echoes of Ramadan behaviour, now performed in ordinary time. Production credits for the campaign's film and physical activations are not fully documented in public sources, though the campaign was submitted by Tahaab Rais, Chief Strategy Officer of FP7 McCann MENAT, as noted on Clapboard and Ads of the World. The creative approach reflected a discipline rare in the category: resisting the aesthetics of Ramadan while carrying its values forward.
The Jawwy campaign achieved verified, award-documented results across multiple industry circuits. According to WARC, the campaign delivered a 168% year-on-year growth figure, a metric that positioned it as a commercially significant outcome rather than a purely creative achievement. A 60% increase in awareness was also reported, as partially documented in WARC's case study records, demonstrating that the counter-cyclical timing strategy generated meaningful brand recall in the Saudi market rather than simply generating industry conversation.
Recognition came from three distinct and credible award bodies. The campaign won Silver at the MENA Effies, the regional standard for effectiveness in advertising, as reported by Ads of the World and Campaign Middle East. It received a Bronze at the WARC Media Awards, with WARC's case study dated November 2020, confirming independent validation of both the strategy and the results. Most distinctively, it won Gold at the New York Festivals AME Awards in the Creativity for Positive Impact category — specifically Promotion of Health and Human Services — as documented on the AME Awards website, marking the campaign's reach beyond regional recognition into a global awards context.
Structurally, the campaign's effectiveness is traceable to its timing inversion. By launching after Ramadan in June 2019, FP7 McCann created conditions in which Jawwy's message faced lower competitive noise, higher audience receptivity to something unexpected, and a built-in editorial story that earned media could amplify. The Clapboard Score of 78 out of 100 reflects this combination of strategic originality, multichannel craft, and verified commercial impact.
Jawwy's 2019 campaign is a content-led initiative by FP7 McCann Riyadh and FP7 McCann Dubai that launched in Saudi Arabia after Ramadan ended, arguing that charitable generosity should continue year-round. Teasers ran in Ramadan's final days; the principal campaign released in June 2019 across film, social, and physical activations.
FP7 McCann Riyadh and FP7 McCann Dubai created the campaign jointly. FP7 McCann is IPG's MENA communications network representing McCann Erickson. The campaign was led strategically by Tahaab Rais, Chief Strategy Officer of FP7 McCann MENAT, as documented on Clapboard and Ads of the World.
The campaign won Silver at the MENA Effies, Bronze at the WARC Media Awards, and Gold at the New York Festivals AME Awards in the Creativity for Positive Impact category. All three awards are documented across WARC, the AME Awards website, and Ads of the World, confirming multi-circuit recognition.
According to WARC, the campaign achieved 168% year-on-year growth and a 60% increase in awareness in Saudi Arabia. These metrics contributed to its Silver Effie win at the MENA Effies, establishing the campaign as a commercially effective as well as creatively distinctive piece of work.
The strategic premise, developed by FP7 McCann Riyadh and FP7 McCann Dubai, was that launching after Ramadan proved the campaign's own argument: that generosity is not seasonal. This timing also avoided the crowded Ramadan advertising window in Saudi Arabia, giving Jawwy's message lower competitive noise and higher editorial distinctiveness.
The campaign used the Arabic hashtag الخير_فينا_دايم, which translates as "the good in us is always there." As documented on Ads of the World, it functioned as both a social rallying point and a direct expression of the campaign's core argument that Ramadan values belong to every month of the year.
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