Ramadan Charity Campaign
Ameera just stood there in panic, her senses amplified. She could hear her heartbeat and even feel the blood flow through her veins. At the same time, the office ambiance became muffed.
She didn’t make eye contact with Roger, her boss and Marketing Director at Giving Today Charity. She just stood there shaking from the inside, the whole 5 feet 2 inches and 120 pounds of her.
“But sir, I haven’t done anything like this on my own,” she said. “I can’t run an entire Ramadan campaign on my own; I’m just an assistant.”
Roger, a tall caucasian guy with broad shoulders who always wore designer suits, stood up, towering over Ameera, and said, “You’ve got this Ameera, no one knows the Muslim persona more than you.”
He walked up and opened the office door signaling to her that she could leave.
“It’s a family emergency or else I wouldn’t go,” he said, as if pleading with Ameera.
“Can I count on you?”
“Yes sir, I’ll do my best.”
And that was it, Ameera was now carrying the burden of the world. She knew how important the Muslim consumer was to her manager’s marketing strategy. This would be the first Ramadan campaign the company would run.
The idea to run such a campaign was Ameera’s after she had read about how much Muslims spend on charity during Ramadan. But she had thought that all the heavy lifting would be done by Roger.
As she sat at her desk, Ameera felt a knot tighten in her stomach. The office buzzed with the usual hum of keyboard clicks and muted conversations.
She stared at the screen, fingers hesitating over the keys as she began to research and plan. But she couldn’t focus and just sat there staring at the screen. She felt like an imposter as everyone around her seemed confident and sure of what they were doing.
Later that evening, as she stepped through the front door of the family home, the weight of the day still clung to her like a heavy cloak. The scent of her sister’s favorite perfume floated through the air as Farida emerged from the kitchen, a radiant smile on her face.
“How was your day?” Farida’s eyes sparkled with enthusiasm.
Ameera hesitated at first. But then, the floodgates opened. She didn’t even take the time to remove her shoes and jacket. She just explained everything that had happened at the office and how stressed she was.
Farida listened to her sister’s turmoil and enveloped her with a warm embrace. “You’ve got this Ameera; I believe in you.”
At that moment, the contrast between the two sisters couldn’t have been starker – one grappling with self-doubt, the other radiating in confidence.
The Muslim Ad Network Presence
The next day at the office the aftermath of the shock was very much present. Her shy demeanor became more pronounced, her normally quiet voice almost a whisper as she interacted with coworkers, desperately trying to mask the unease of the situation she was in.
That day, she didn’t take any breaks except to go to pray and she stayed at the office till late in the evening even after everyone had gone home.
She hadn’t realized, but the cleaning lady had arrived. As she was about to finish cleaning, she approached Ameera and said, “Busy day?”
The middle-aged lady with neatly braided hair had the biggest, most genuine smile in the world. Perhaps for just that reason, Ameera felt socially safe to talk to her. It was a good temporary distraction from her tedious project.
As the cleaning lady was about to leave she said to Ameera, “You know, work and pleasing your boss isn’t everything. It’s about being happy with who you are and enjoying God’s blessings.”
“Right, I need to focus now”, Ameera told herself as the door shut and the cleaning lady disappeared out of sight.
She took a deep breath and started typing into Google: Ramadan charity stats.
And right there, sandwiched between the two search results by Statista stood the Muslim Ad Network article that had put her in this predicament. The article that had convinced Roger that Giving Today Charity needed to capitalize on the Muslim consumer’s generosity during this year’s Ramadan.
“No, I need something specific for a campaign”, she thought aloud.
She then typed in: Ramadan charity campaign, which seemed to yield a better result page. Right at the top, in the sponsored ad section of the Google result, she saw exactly what she wanted.
It looked like this was from Muslim Ad Network as well. She thought to herself, “Well if they got me into this.”
Time to Step Up
That night when she walked through the door, it was later than usual. But to her surprise, everyone was still up chatting in the kitchen.
Her mom was crying joyous tears and her dad stared proudly at Farida.
“What’s going on?” she asked, confused.
“Your sister has been shortlisted for the Nobel Prize!” her dad said.
At first, Ameera didn’t say anything. She just stared at her sister, Farida, who stood in the spotlight of their living room, glowing with success. The room felt smaller, the air heavier, as the unspoken envy within Ameera swelled to an overwhelming magnitude. The weight of it pressed on her chest, making it hard to breathe.
But then she put on the biggest fake smile on her face and broke the dam of her silence, “Congratulations, you deserve it.”
At that, she ran upstairs to her room and started crying, her tears carrying the weight of years of suppressed feelings. “It’s just… I don’t know how she does it.” She murmured to herself as she always did when she was upset. “I can’t help but feel… left behind.”
That night she had trouble sleeping despite being exhausted at work.
The next morning she woke up with a determination to do something with her life. Even if she was never going to win the Nobel Prize, she had to do something.
As she sipped on her morning coffee going through her inbox, she got a call from a Sales Representative at Muslim Ad Network.
“Yes, that’s true, I downloaded the Ramadan Charity Report.”
“So one platform for all my advertising?”
“Yeah, I figured that you were the biggest platform specializing in advertising to Muslims.”
She knew right there and then that this was her opportunity to shine. And best of all, she would have to put in minimum effort. Muslim Ad Network would take care of all her Muslim-targeted advertising needs
Due Diligence
Ameera was excited about working with the biggest and only advertising platform that specialized in serving ads to Muslims.
But of course, she needed to do some due diligence. She looked at case studies of organizations that worked with Muslim Ad Network. One that appealed to her most was the UNHCR case study.
“In just three months 116 recurring donors versus a target of 91?”
“ICNA Relief had close to 94% ad viewability and more than half a million new donors, that’s impressive.”
A week later, Ameera had a long one-on-one meeting with one of the owners at Muslim Ad Network at the office, which went quite well.
She was now convinced that she had made the right choice as all her questions had been answered.
She went home proud that evening. Yet she was not happy. Something was still missing. But she could not figure out exactly what it was that was bothering her.
When she told her family about her accomplishments at work, they seemed happy enough for her. But there was no real buzz.
That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Ameera sighed, her recent achievement lingering uncelebrated in the quiet of their living room.
When she was alone with her sister it all came out.
“I don’t know how you do it, Farida. Everything you touch turns to gold. I can’t help but feel… left behind.”
Farida’s expression softened, sensing Ameera’s pain. She reached out, comforting. “You’re not left behind. We’re on different paths, and your journey is just as valuable as mine.”
“I wish I could be as confident, as successful as you,” Ameera confessed, her voice a whisper.
Farida smiled gently, understanding. “You’re more capable than you think. Success takes different forms. Believe in yourself, you matter the way you are, no one can take that away.”
Farida’s kindness took her by surprise. She had been harboring resentment for her all this time and even after confessing to it, Farida was still kind to her.
Top Ramadan Advertising Results
Ramadan 2024 went on to become one of the most successful donation periods for the charity thanks to the new Muslim donors they had acquired.
Although everyone at Giving Today Charity sang their praises and Roger promoted Ameera to Lead Campaign Manager, it didn’t feel as precious as that evening when her sister held her close and told her how worthy she was as a human being.
She remembered words she had long ignored from the cleaning lady, realizing how true they were: “It’s about being happy with who you are and enjoying God’s blessings.”
Have a blessed Ramadan – Ramadan Mubarak!
