Ramadan 2027 Campaign Planning for Saudi F&B Brands

Ramadan 2027 is expected to begin around 8 February, subject to moon sighting. That is about 17 weeks away. For food and beverage companies in Saudi Arabia, the agency brief, the product decisions and the retail plan for Ramadan are being shaped now, in October.

Most of those plans start from last year's sales figures and the agency's post-campaign report. Both tell you what you sold and what you posted. Neither tells you where you stood in the conversation, week by week, against your rivals.

That record already exists. Last Ramadan, people across Saudi Arabia talked about what they served at iftar, what ran out, what got more expensive and which ads they liked, mostly in Saudi dialect. This guide shows how to turn that conversation into a "Ramadan rear-view" benchmark, a one-page planning brief and a timeline from now to Eid.

Why October is the planning window

Count back from early February:

• Product and pack decisions (limited flavours, gift packs, multipacks) need time for production and approvals.
• Retail plans (listings, promotions and stock by week) are agreed with retailers well before the month starts.
• Agency and creator briefs need to go out in November so production can finish in January.

If last Ramadan's lessons are not in the brief by early November, they wait another year.

The Ramadan rear-view: seven things to pull from last Ramadan

Pull last Ramadan's public conversation about your company, three to five direct rivals and the category as a whole. Split it into five phases:

1. Before Ramadan (the four weeks before the first day)
2. The first ten days
3. The middle ten days
4. The last ten days
5. Eid al-Fitr (and the week after)

Then take these seven reads.

1. Share of voice by week. Your share of the category conversation against each rival, week by week. Find where you gained and where you lost. One pattern worth checking: strong before Ramadan, when stock-up offers run, then fading in the last ten days.
2. Campaign moments that landed. For every notable moment (yours and your rivals'): when did conversation spike, how long did it last and what did people actually say? A spike of jokes about an ad is not the same as a spike of people sharing it with family.
3. Sentiment and emotion, by phase. Read them separately. Sentiment tells you whether talk was positive, negative or neutral. Emotion tells you why: nostalgia, joy, generosity or irritation. Emotion often shifts across the month, and your message should shift with it.
4. Creator share. How much of the conversation came from creators, company accounts and ordinary users? Which creators started conversations (comments, home versions) rather than just collecting views?
5. Rivals' moves. Every launch, limited edition, price offer, charity tie-in and new pack, with the date it went live and the reaction it got. This becomes your timeline of what to expect this year.
6. Complaints. Availability ("خلص من السوق", sold out; "ما لقيته", couldn't find it), price ("الأسعار زادت", prices went up), pack size, quality and delivery, mapped by phase. A complaint that repeats every Ramadan is a planning problem, not a customer service problem.
7. Dishes, drinks and occasions. Which ones grew, which faded and which were new. Iftar, suhoor, the coffee after taraweeh, family gatherings (العزايم) and Eid visits each have their own conversation.

If you did not track last Ramadan, ask your monitoring provider how far back it can pull public posts. Fill the gaps with what you already have: the agency's post-campaign report, weekly sell-out data and customer care logs.

Turn the rear-view into a one-page planning brief

Here is a template. Keep it to one page, so the agency, sales and product teams actually read it.

Section	What goes in it
Objective	One sentence: what Ramadan 2027 must achieve (share of voice, a launch, fixing availability)
What last Ramadan told us	Three findings from the rear-view, each with its evidence
Where we stand	Share of voice rank by phase against named rivals
Moments to own	The phases and occasions where we will show up, and why
Problems to fix first	Repeat complaints, each with an owner (supply, pricing, retail)
Creators	Who to work with, based on conversations started, not views
Message and tone	Key lines written in Saudi dialect and checked by Saudi colleagues
Rival watch	Moves we expect, based on last year's timeline
Measurement	Weekly share of voice, sentiment and emotion by phase, complaint volume
Alerts during the month	Terms that trigger an alert (such as sold-out talk), who receives it, on WhatsApp or email

A worked example (illustrative)

Here is the rear-view at a fictional Saudi frozen-food company we will call Lamma Foods, which makes frozen sambousa and pastry sheets. The company, rivals and findings are made up to show the method.

What the rear-view showed:

• Share of voice: Lamma ranked second of five in the weeks before Ramadan, helped by a stock-up offer, then fell to fourth in the last ten days, when two rivals ran content about family gatherings.
• Complaints: sold-out talk ("خلصت السمبوسة", "ما لقيتها") peaked in the first ten days, mostly about one pack size.
• Creators: Lamma's paid creators drew views, but most comments asked "كم السعر؟" ("how much?"). Home-recipe videos by ordinary users, such as cheese and za'atar sambousa, started far more conversation.
• Emotion: nostalgia led in the first days, generosity in the last ten days and joy at Eid. Lamma's content stayed on price offers all month.

What went into the 2027 brief:

1. Share last year's sold-out pattern with supply and sales in November, by pack size and by phase.
2. Move part of the creator budget to recipe creators whose videos get people making their own versions.
3. Plan a presence for the last ten days and suhoor gatherings, where share was lost.
4. Set alerts for sold-out terms during the month, sent to the sales team on WhatsApp.

None of this needed new research. It was all in last year's conversation.

A timeline from now to Eid

When	What to do
October (now)	Run the rear-view. Agree three findings with marketing, sales and product.
Early November	Brief the agency and creators. Lock product and pack decisions. Share the complaint map with supply and retail.
Late November to December	Track the category weekly to set a baseline. Update seed terms with new dishes and trends, for example from TikTok.
January	Finish production. Set alert rules and the weekly report format. Watch for rivals' first teasers.
Early February (Ramadan expected around 8 February)	Go live. Review share of voice weekly and complaints daily.
Eid al-Fitr (expected around 9 or 10 March)	Wrap up, then run the next rear-view within two weeks while it is fresh.

All dates are subject to moon sighting.

What actually decides it

Every F&B company in Saudi Arabia will plan Ramadan 2027 this autumn. The ones that plan from last Ramadan's conversation, not only its sales figures, walk into the agency briefing knowing where they stood and why.

That depends on reading the conversation correctly: Saudi dialect, Franco-Arabic, sarcasm about prices, and sentiment and emotion kept apart. It is the same kind of intelligence that helped a leading Saudi bank increase campaign engagement by over 80% with deeper audience and competitor intelligence from dima.

That's the specific problem dima was built to solve.

If your agency asked tomorrow where you stood in each week of last Ramadan, could you answer?

See where you stand against your rivals before you brief your agency for Ramadan 2027.