Our Blog

Happy Birthday to OgilvyNoor!

We’re celebrating a year since our launch, as the world’s first home of expertise on marketing to Muslim consumers.

Last year, we published our groundbreaking research “Brands, Islam and the New Muslim consumer” which addresses the potential of 1.8bn Muslim consumers and a market size of $2.1 trillion worldwide.

The media understood our trailblazing work straight away, and we were covered from Australia to Abu Dhabi to America and everywhere in between, including in the New York Times and on the front page of the International Herald Tribune. And clients have recognised it too, with the book selling in ten different countries.

We discovered a wealth of interesting insights. For example, banks that spent the most on Islamic Banking were still seen as some of the least Muslim friendly brands, and that Nestle and Lipton topped the list as the most Muslim friendly brands.

During our first year, we’ve spoken at key industry events including the World Islamic Economic Forum, the World Halal Forum, the Oxford Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum and the American Muslim Consumer Conference. The result is that we are now firmly positioned as thought leaders when it comes to the Muslim consumer. And this year, we’ll be speaking as far and wide as Cannes, Astana, London and Tehran.

Whilst we can’t claim to have predicted recent events in the Middle East, our research was definitely on the money. We saw clues about the underlying attitudes that underpinned the rise of Arab youth across the region. These included wanting a more equal dialogue with leaders,more participation in their societies, and which were founded on promoting the collective good.

To celebrate our birthday, we are launching our new website. Check out our blog for the latest thinking and events, as well as our innovative Ad Critique feature, which will evaluate communications from around the world’s Muslim markets to see how brands are doing when it comes to appealing to the Muslim consumer. You’ll also find a significant bank of thought leadership now available to download for free.

And finally, we’ve just taken on as senior strategist the award-winning blogger and thought leader Shelina Janmohamed, who will continue to build on OgilvyNoor’s public profile as we grow

We look forward to a very exciting second year!