Every year during Ramadan, brands put out campaigns.
Few get it right. Fewer still deserve attention.
IKEA UK’s “Iftar At Ours” is one of the rare ones – and if you haven’t seen it yet, stop what you’re doing. This is what cultural leadership actually looks like.
Directed by Sara Taleghani through Untold Studios, in collaboration with agency Mother, the campaign follows three Muslims during their evening commute – each one trying to break their fast in circumstances every British Muslim will immediately clock: a packed train, a cold bus stop, a sea of people rushing home. No dramatic soundtrack. No voiceover selling you something. Just the quiet, slightly chaotic, deeply familiar reality of Iftar falling at rush hour.
Taleghani drew directly from her own life: “I’ve broken my fast on the tube more times than I can count, dates in one hand, bag in the other.” That’s not a brief. That’s lived experience. You can feel the difference on screen.
But, that’s not all. The genius goes further than the film. IKEA opened a physical pop-up space where people could actually come in and break their fast properly – warm, considered, a real home away from home. That’s the IKEA brand expressed through action, not advertising.
Watch the campaign on AdForum here.
Image Credit: IKEA UK
What Makes This So Effective. And Why Most Brands Still Get It Wrong.
Here’s the hard truth: most Ramadan campaigns fail not because brands don’t care, but because they treat Ramadan as a campaign window instead of a lived experience.
The tell-tale signs are everywhere. A crescent moon on an existing creative. A “Ramadan Kareem” email on day one, gone by day three. A discount code dressed up as cultural recognition. Shallow targeting. Generic messaging. No fingerprint.
According to WARC research cited in a previous blog post, 63% of British Muslims feel that brand Ramadan activations are outdated and poorly executed. That’s not a fringe view. That is the majority of your target audience – every single year – telling you it’s not working.
IKEA avoided every one of those pitfalls. Here’s why it worked:
It centred real rituals, not surface symbols. Iftar isn’t just a meal. It’s community, generosity, hospitality. IKEA didn’t borrow the aesthetic of Ramadan. They built something around its actual values. Campaigns rooted in how people live Ramadan perform. Campaigns that skim the surface do not.
It was built with insight, not assumption. Behind the camera: a Muslim director, a Muslim cast, prayer times written into the call sheet. That last detail is small. It is also still too often overlooked. It tells you everything about the level of care that went into this production, and audiences feel that care even when they can’t name it.
It spoke to everyone without diluting anything. Too many brands make a false choice: do we speak to Muslims specifically, or to mainstream audiences? IKEA proves you can do both. Family, home, belonging. Universal emotions, unmistakably Ramadan. That’s cultural fluency, not cultural decoration.
The Commercial Case Is Not Subtle
For any brand still treating the Muslim audience as a secondary consideration, the numbers are unambiguous.
Muslims in the UK spend upwards of £200 million during Ramadan (DinarStandard). Our own data shows website traffic from Muslim consumers spikes 230% during the month, with conversions up 30% and social media activity peaking at 200% above baseline in the post-Iftar evening hours.
And the loyalty upside dwarfs the in-month numbers. 92% of Muslim consumers are more likely to buy from brands that genuinely understand their faith. Not brands that acknowledge Ramadan. Brands that understand it. 56% make brand decisions before Ramadan even begins – meaning what brands do during the month shapes purchasing well beyond it.
IKEA has clearly decided which side of that equation it wants to be on.
Great Creative Still Needs the Right Distribution
Even the best campaign goes nowhere if it lands in the wrong context.
Broad algorithmic platforms were built for scale. They were not built for cultural nuance, religious context, or the kind of brand-safe environments that Muslim audiences actually inhabit and trust online. As we’ve written before, brands relying solely on these environments during Ramadan regularly find their campaigns appearing next to content that actively undercuts the message they’re trying to send. You can’t spend your way out of a context problem.
This is exactly why Muslim Ad Network exists: to give brands direct access to high-relevance placements across Muslim-oriented digital environments, community platforms, and publisher ecosystems that generic ad platforms simply don’t prioritise. When your creative comes from genuine insight and your placement comes from genuine relevance, that’s when real engagement happens.
Brands including Life USA, ICNA Relief USA, UNHCR and Penny Appeal have trusted us to deliver during Ramadan. Not because we’re the biggest platform. Because we’re the right one.
The Window Is Still Open. Just.
We are in Ramadan 2026. The clock is running, but it hasn’t stopped.
If you’ve already launched something meaningful this month: keep going, and let us make sure it’s reaching the people it should. If what you launched was generic: there are weeks left to do something better. And if you haven’t moved yet? Intention and urgency right now still beats silence.
Ramadan is not a moment you borrow. It’s a moment you earn.
IKEA just showed the market what earning it looks like. A director who’d spilled water on herself on the Tube. A pop-up space with the doors genuinely open. The conviction to treat a community like it deserves to be treated.
That’s the brief.
If you want to be the brand that doesn’t just run a Ramadan ad but creates actual Ramadan cultural value – talk to us today. The brands on our network are in front of engaged audiences who are making decisions right now.
Be the IKEA of Ramadan 2026. Not the brand that almost got there.
Ramadan Mubarak. 🌙
Muslim Ad Network is the leading digital advertising platform for reaching Muslim consumers. For campaign enquiries, visit our website.