Marketers, here's the key for deeper audience engagement this Ramadan

Festive buying presents an unparalleled opportunity for marketers to strengthen their brand with existing customers and attract new ones. As the holy month of Ramadan approaches, there is no escaping the shopping frenzy as well as the deals, discounts, and offers numerous brands offer to attract customers.

Muslim consumers in Indonesia in particular are getting ready to make purchases of big-ticket items - furniture, automotive, and electronics - as they prepare their homes to receive guests in the days/weeks to come.

According to eMarketer, in 2024, there will also be 93.9 million digital buyers in Indonesia and 17.6 million  in Malaysia. Digital ad spending in Indonesia and Malaysia will also continues to grow yearly (YoY).

In tandem, digital ad spending in Malaysia is expected to reach 507.8M, representing a YoY growth of 8%. Similarly, Indonesia’s digital ad spending is expected to grow by 10.2%.

With the world's largest Muslim population and a growing base of digital buyers, Indonesia’s digital advertising industry presents a huge potential for savvy marketers and brands looking to stand out during Ramadan.

While marketers see their campaigns play out, they must stay alert and watch out for specific pitfalls, such as ad fraud, brand risk, brand safety, and false viewability metrics.

Understanding the Ramadan Mindset:

During Ramadan, Indonesians & Malaysians prioritise spirituality, family gatherings, and charitable acts. Their media consumption habits shift with increased engagement in religious programming, cooking shows, and family-oriented content.

Attention spans dwindle during fasting hours, and mobile devices become the gateway to entertainment and information. These behavioural changes demand digital ad strategies that resonate with the Ramadan spirit.

Ramadan offers a unique marketing landscape, brimming with heightened devotion, cultural celebration, and a surge in consumer spending. But navigating this landscape effectively requires more than just flashy ads and catchy jingles.

In this holy month, capturing attention has becomes an art form, and mastering it through strategic approaches can unlock unparalleled success for your digital advertising campaigns.

Why Measuring Attention Matters:

In today's cluttered digital landscape, simply "seeing" an ad is no longer enough. Attention is the new currency, and understanding how much actual engagement an ad generates is crucial for success.

By shifting the focus to attention, Indonesian and Malaysian marketers can:

● Increase advertising effectiveness and ROI: Allocate budgets to engaging ad experiences, minimising wasted impressions and maximising campaign impact. They can shift the budget away from passive impressions, such as ads that are simply "seen" but not actively engaged. This enables advertisers to shift their budget towards placements that drive genuine brand interaction.

● Build stronger brand relationships: Create ads that resonate with audiences on an emotional level, fostering trust and loyalty. By measuring attention, advertisers can understand which ad formats, creatives, and placements capture audience interest, allowing them to optimise campaigns for better ROI.

● Adapt to evolving consumer behaviour: Consumers are increasingly selective with their attention, demanding more engaging and relevant ad experiences. Measuring attention allows marketers to keep pace with these changing expectations. It helps to reduce ad fatigue and improve brand perception as engaging ads are less likely to cause ad annoyance, resulting in a more positive user experience and potentially boosting brand loyalty.

By shifting the focus to attention, Indonesian and Malaysian publishers can:

● Demonstrate the value of premium inventory: Publishers can showcase to advertisers how their audiences actively engage with ads on their platforms, justifying higher ad rates and attracting more premium campaigns.

● Optimise ad formats and content for user engagement: Understanding which ad formats and content types generate the most attention can help publishers refine their offerings and cater to advertiser needs more effectively.

● Combat ad blocking and improve viewability: By focusing on attention, publishers can incentivise advertisers to pay for engaged impressions, potentially making ad blocking less attractive and driving up overall viewability rates.

Keeping Context at the Core

Google’s decision to begin phasing out third-party cookies has prompted marketers to focus on alternate strategies focused on first-party data targeting. This has helped the popularity of context-based strategies, which continue to evolve. Context-based strategies on the other hand allow ad buyers and sellers to avoid misinformation with minimal impact on reach, thus helping to counteract brand risk.

It is still important to note that in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Singapore, and Vietnam, advertising alongside irrelevant or harmful content such as illegal downloads, offensive language and controversial content, violence, and hate speech was noticeably higher, according to IAS’ MQR report. These threats were identified for advertising campaigns across desktop displays, desktop videos, and mobile web displays.

There is an opportunity for brands to harness the dual power of tailored ads and high-quality placement to drive greater brand engagement.

On the other hand, it is also vital to acknowledge the counterpoint, i.e. placing ads beside low-quality content has significant consequences: carrying a high risk of damage to brand perception and even revenue – which, over time, will also impact the publisher.

To ensure online ads drive the right attention and outcome, relevant content and a suitable context must be a top priority.

Adopting context-based strategies will also help marketers to protect their brands and campaigns from being advertised next to unsuitable content. The suitability of an environment affects the receptivity and memorability of the ads, as well as the favorability toward the associated brands.

7 out of 10 Indonesian and Malaysian consumers surveyed, said they are more favourable toward brands with contextually relevant ads while 87% of Indonesian and Malaysian consumers said they are more likely to remember relevant ads.

By implementing these attention-grabbing strategies and keeping context at the core, marketers can break through the digital clutter and connect with Indonesian consumers deeper during this holy month.

Your ads will move beyond product promotion, forging connections that resonate with their values and aspirations. As a result, you'll witness the Ramadan effect firsthand, reaping the rewards of increased brand awareness, engagement, and ultimately, sales.

Remember, in the Ramadan marketing landscape, the key is not just reaching eyeballs, but capturing hearts and minds. By prioritising emotional resonance, mobile-first strategies, authentic connections, and data-driven optimization, marketers can unlock the incredible potential of this holy month and build lasting relationships with your audiences.

This article is written by Arfitrianto Zulnaini, country head of Indonesia and Malaysia, Integral Ad Science (IAS).

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