Streaming app sooka interrupts doomscrolling on YouTube Shorts this Ramadan

Malaysian streaming platform sooka announced a Ramadan campaign designed to address the increased social media consumption and challenges of fasting faced during the holy month.

The “Ramadan - buat puasa tak terasa” ('Ease your fasting struggles') campaign tackles the prevalence of “doomscrolling” by offering the alternative of movies and shows available on sooka.

Leveraging insights from Google's YouTube data, the campaign targets key moments throughout the day when people are most likely to be online, which are before and after sahur ('pre-dawn meal'), lunchtime, before breaking fast, and after terawih ('evening prayers').

Don't miss: Nando’s courts customers with pick-up lines this Ramadan

The campaign was created in collaboration with MBCS, the media-fueled creative content practice within the IPG Mediabrands network. This is the agency’s first foray into YouTube Shorts.

According to MBCS, these times are often associated with challenges such as oversleeping or the struggle of viewing food-related content while fasting. The campaign addresses these hurdles, positioning sooka as a solution to make the fasting experience more manageable.

For instance, one of its YouTube Shorts videos begins with a message to viewers: “Puasa-puasa ni jugak FYP nak hidang video makanan” ('Even while fasting, your feed is showing you food-related videos'), followed by a clip of a boy crying from the local series Umar.

In another Shorts video promoting the drama “Dendam seorang madu”, sooka teases the dilemma which many Muslims face during the fasting month. After saying “Tiap kali selepas sahur... otak: tido. Hati: jangan tido,” (every time after sahur, your mind says sleep, but your heart says no) the video cuts to a scene from the series of a woman being slapped.

“While every other brand is serving ads around typical festive themes, they don’t actually talk about helping people through a difficult fast. We understand that doomscrolling peaks during Ramadan and happens at key times. We see this as the perfect time to explore sooka as a useful distraction. We understand your struggle, and sooka can help you through this,” Kevin Le, executive creative director at MBCS said.

Le explained that unlike traditional Ramadan advertising focusing on emotional family issues and food-based ads, the campaign tackles the often-overlooked issue of excessive social media consumption.

“The Ramadan-themed messages and sooka clips are specifically designed to encourage viewers to shift their focus from mindless scrolling to immersive and fulfilling content on sooka,” added Le.

This Raya, brands and agencies have upped their short-form content game to reach audiences on platforms such as Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. For example, Nando's Malaysia and Singapore launched a social-led Ramadan campaign leveraging the cultural phenomenon of playful pick-up lines prevalent in Malaysia and Singapore during the holy month. 

Meanwhile, cooking oil brand SAJI had been posting festive recipes on its social media platforms as a part of its its “Inspirasi citarasa Ramadan” (‘Inspiration for the flavours of Ramadan’) mini-series, under the “Rayakan rasa” (celebrate flavours) campaign.

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