inDrive Egypt has launched a Ramadan film that taps nostalgia, family rituals, and shared cultural symbols, positioning the ride-share service as a vehicle for bringing people together.
The campaign has launched through an animated music video that reimagines the iconic childhood chant ‘Wahawy Ya Wahawy’, a phrase that embodies the Ramadan sentiments of happiness and celebration.
Rooted in this natural expression of the Holy Month, the spot aims to carry inDrive’s belief in fairness and human connection in a way that feels native to Ramadan.
“This was inDrive’s first real Ramadan in Egypt,” said Eugene Gavrilchenko, Creative Lead EMEA, inlab.
“We were entering a season owned by giants: brands with history, budgets with extra zeros, and decades of emotional muscle memory,” he said. “We had none of that, so pretending we belonged by hanging a lantern in a commercial and saying ‘Happy Ramadan’ was not an option. That space was crowded and forgettable.”
Therefore, the work builds on meaning and craft, giving a song that every Egyptian knows a new voice. The symbols of fanous turns into something physical, movable and hard to miss.
The campaign’s story centres on two puppets breaking free from their strings through the light of fair choice – carried across the city by inDrive’s hero symbol: the Fanous Car.
The car is not a ‘prop’ or a ‘backdrop’ but rather, a ‘hero’, that aims to carry the values of Ramadan throughout the year. This strategy aligns with inDrive’s objective of strengthening its presence in Egypt by reinforcing the brand’s core belief – fairness powered by people’s choices – through a culturally resonant story that could travel broadly across channels.
“At inDrive, we believe that being a market leader in Egypt means more than just providing a service; it means resonance,” said Anna Migal, inDrive Marketing Director EMEA & APAC. “By blending Egypt’s rich cultural heritage with future-facing AI technology, we’ve created a campaign that speaks to the heart of the community.”
With the goal set on reinforcing ‘fairness’ as a human value, not just a corporate message, the team created a sharable hero asset that communicates the brand idea quickly, while also providing a platform for broader campaign roll-out across digital and out-of-home.
Egyptian musicians Donia Wael and El Waili bring the melody to life in an anthem hero music video. The song has been extended through radio partnerships with multiple integrations into shows and ad breaks, paid digital media campaigns, and stylised in-app communications including a charity related activity for passengers. The latter also allows inDrive’s collaboration with the Misr El Kheir foundation to turn everyday rides into real impact. Every view or stream of the song helps inDrive reach its goal of donating EGP 5 to Misr El Kheir foundation, which will help support more than 5,000 children during Ramadan.
The lyrics of the song celebrate the journeys that matter most. The roads people take toward the people waiting for them and the small choices that bring them closer together.
In terms of creative execution, inlab employed the use of AI to build a visual world inspired by traditional puppetry and fanous art.
“AI was used as a crafting, consulting, and production tool,” said Lana Lee, Production Lead, inlab. “Rather than acting as a shortcut, it became an integrated part of the production pipeline, working in combination with real performance, music, and human creative decision-making.”
From early concepts and storyboarding through drafting, animation, and frame-by-frame refinement, Lee explained that AI supported exploration and visual consistency, forming a foundation across every stage.
In terms of challenges, she also said that a significant part of the process involved navigating AI’s limitations. This included fixing inconsistencies, resolving bugs, and inventing workarounds in real time, “making the production experimental and demanding, yet ultimately rewarding thanks to a highly dedicated team of the director and artists, producers, technicians who pushed every decision forward and brought depth, texture, and emotional clarity to the campaign,” she said.
Since the campaign’s strategy was built on maximum market penetration, aiming to resonate with the entire fabric of Egyptian society during its most significant season, the spot targets the cross-generational population of Egypt for whom mobility is a central part of the Ramadan experience.
In terms of results, inDrive will be monitoring organic engagement rates and view-through rates to ensure high-quality reach and audience resonance in the launch phase of the campaign. At the campaign progresses, inDrive has deployed a comprehensive brand lift study to measure shifts in top-of-mind awareness and emotional proximity to the brand.
This will help inDrive track how cultural engagement fromt he campaign translates into long-term business growth, evaluating the correlation between the campaign’s momentum and its market share stability throughout the holy month.
Credits:
Brand – inDrive: Daria Agafonova
GTM team, inDrive: Anna Migal, Natalya Sherstneva, Anastasia Kubakhova, Sara Abuelkheir
Creative Team – inlab: Eugene Gavrilchenko, Olga Travina, Irina Shamgunova, Marwan Magdy;
Marcom Team – inlab: Sanaaya Ivanova
Producers – inlab: Akerke Damen, Lana Lee, Max Lyapin
Media Team, inDrive: Seif-Allah Mahmoud, Anastasia Barbashova
Director: Dmitry Kovalev.