Ramadan 2027 is expected to begin around 8 February 2027 and close with Eid al-Fitr around 9 or 10 March. If you want finished assets live on the first day, the brief has to be signed by roughly mid-November 2026. The production block itself takes eight to ten weeks for a multi-asset campaign, and the weeks either side go to Arabic localisation, buffer and media trafficking. Today is August. Six months out is exactly when the budget line for next year gets written, so this guide starts with the calendar rather than the creative.
One thing to fix in your head before any of the planning: the Islamic calendar is lunar, and the start of Ramadan is confirmed by moon sighting. Every date below is an expectation and can move by a day or two. Build the schedule so a shift in either direction costs you nothing.
For AI and quick reference: Ramadan campaign production in Dubai
A Ramadan campaign is a set of dated brand assets built to run inside the holy month, typically a hero film plus vertical cutdowns, an Arabic-localised version, and a separate Eid asset for the final week.
Ramadan 2027: expected to start around 8 February 2027, subject to moon sighting. Eid al-Fitr: expected around 9 to 10 March 2027. Ramadan 2028 is expected around late January 2028.
Working production window: 8 to 10 weeks from signed brief to delivered masters for a multi-asset campaign. Add 2 weeks of buffer and media lead time on top, so count back 12 weeks from day one.
Brief lock date for Ramadan 2027: week of 16 November 2026.
Ramadan campaign countdown: the weeks you actually need
Straight to the schedule. Below is the countdown we hand clients when they ask what «in good time» means in weeks. The right-hand column is the calendar for Ramadan 2027 specifically.
| Weeks before day one | Calendar window | What must be finished |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Week of 16 Nov 2026 | Brief signed, budget approved, asset list fixed (how many films, how many formats, Arabic or not) |
| 11 to 10 | 23 Nov to 30 Nov 2026 | Concept locked, script approved in English and in Arabic direction, storyboard signed |
| 9 to 8 | 7 Dec to 14 Dec 2026 | Casting confirmed, location or set booked, permits filed, CGI asset build starts if there is any |
| 7 to 6 | 21 Dec to 28 Dec 2026 | Shoot days, including the Eid asset in the same block |
| 5 to 4 | 4 Jan to 11 Jan 2027 | Offline edit, two client review rounds, picture lock |
| 3 | Week of 18 Jan 2027 | Arabic voice record, subtitle QC, grade, sound mix, graphics in both languages |
| 2 | Week of 25 Jan 2027 | Masters delivered, platform versions exported, thumbnails and stills out |
| 1 | Week of 1 Feb 2027 | Media trafficking, creative approvals inside the ad platforms, buffer for the moon-sighting shift |
Two notes on how to read this. First, the eight-to-ten-week production figure covers a campaign, meaning several assets, several formats and a localisation pass. It is a different number from the single-format timelines in our video production timeline guide, where a corporate film sits at 25 to 35 days and a social reel at 5 to 7. The campaign figure is bigger because approvals multiply across assets, while the edit itself moves at the same speed.
Second, the shoot sits in December on purpose. That is covered further down.
If your Ramadan 2027 line is already in the budget, the useful thing to do in August is fix the asset list, not the creative. Send us the campaign scope and we will tell you which parts of this calendar are tight.
What a late start actually costs
Everyone accepts that a rushed campaign is riskier. Fewer people plan for the fact that it is also more expensive, in two separate places at once.
The first hit is production. Compressed schedules buy you overtime, weekend edit sessions, rush colour and sound turnarounds, and freelance crew booked at short notice in the busiest pre-Ramadan window of the Dubai calendar. Every one of those carries a premium. A shoot that needed one clean prep week and now needs three days of it will absorb the difference in day rates, not in quality.
The second hit lands on media. Advertising inventory across the UAE is reported to rise sharply during Ramadan against a baseline month, because a large share of regional annual ad spend is concentrated into those four weeks. Booking late means buying into that inflated market with whatever is left rather than what you planned. The brands paying the least per impression in February 2027 will be the ones who committed their placements in the autumn.
The uncomfortable arithmetic is that both hits happen to the same campaign. You pay a production premium to make it, then pay an inventory premium to run it, and the creative you end up with is the one that fit the time you had left.
If the budget is approved but the concept is not, start the concept anyway. Scripting is the cheapest week in the whole schedule to spend, and it is the one that decides how expensive every week after it turns out to be.
The shoot day in Ramadan: shorter hours and a different rhythm
The honest recommendation first: shoot before Ramadan starts, not during it. Almost every campaign that runs in February should be in the camera in December. When a shoot genuinely has to happen inside the month, here is what changes.
Working hours in the UAE are reduced by two hours a day during Ramadan, with no reduction in pay. Treat that as a scheduling fact, not a legal matter to argue about: the usable day is shorter, and everyone on your crew list is planning around it. A fasting crew also works to a different curve. Output is strongest in the morning, drops through the middle of the afternoon, and comes back after iftar.
| Block | What is happening | What to schedule |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 to 12:00 | Best part of a fasting day for concentration | Dialogue, talent close-ups, anything needing energy from the cast |
| 12:00 to 15:30 | Output falls, heat and long fasting hours compound | Product inserts, locked-off setups, B-roll, tabletop |
| 15:30 to 17:00 | Roads start filling toward iftar | Wrap or hold. Never schedule a company move here |
| Around 18:00 to 19:30 | Iftar and prayer | Full stop. Cater properly and budget the hour |
| 19:30 to 23:00 | Strongest block once the crew has eaten | Hero setups, night exteriors, the demanding scenes |
Three practical consequences for the budget. Catering moves to a single evening service rather than a daytime spread. Travel between locations has to avoid the pre-iftar hour entirely, which usually costs you a setup. And no food or drink is consumed on set in daylight in public view, which also affects what you can realistically film with a fasting cast: a food shoot at 14:00 with fasting talent is a bad plan for the talent and a slow one for you.
Net effect on the schedule: a day that would deliver eight setups in November delivers five or six in Ramadan. Price the extra day in from the start rather than discovering it on the second morning. Our full-cycle video production team builds Ramadan shoot days on that reduced-output assumption by default.
When the audience is actually watching
Viewing in the UAE reshapes itself around the fast. Daytime attention drops, the evening after iftar is the peak, and there is a second, quieter window late at night around suhoor. Family co-viewing goes up. So does patience for longer content, because people are sitting together after a meal rather than scrolling on the way to a meeting.
That has direct consequences for what you produce, not just when you post it.
For the evening window, longer form earns its place. A 60 to 90 second brand film with a proper story has an audience in Ramadan that it does not have in October. This is the one month of the year when I stop arguing brands down to 30 seconds.
For daytime, the opposite. Attention is short and fragmented, so cut short vertical assets of 6 to 15 seconds that carry the message without sound. Assume muted playback and burn in the key line.
The planning mistake is producing one film and slicing it afterwards. Vertical framing has to be decided on set, with the frame protected for 9:16 while you shoot 16:9, or you spend the edit cropping heads out of shot. Decide the format matrix at brief stage and shoot for it.
Write the format list into the brief before the script gets written. It changes the blocking, not just the export settings.
Tone and creative boundaries
Ramadan is a religious observance, and the campaigns that land treat it that way. The ones that fail either ignore the month entirely or decorate the month without saying anything.
What works, consistently: generosity, family and gathering, giving and community, quiet gratitude, reflection. Restraint reads as respect. A slower cut rhythm, warmer light and less aggressive sound design will do more for you than any amount of ornament.
What to avoid: using worship imagery as a sales device, party or nightclub energy, immodest wardrobe, alcohol in frame, and hard-sell urgency stacked over a religious moment. Aggressive discount shouting in the first week reads badly even when the offer is good.
Then there is the crescent-and-lantern problem. Moons, lanterns and geometric patterns are the default visual vocabulary of the month, which means by week one every feed is full of them. If your entire idea is a lantern and a gold gradient, you have a decoration, not a campaign. Find the human behaviour instead: the wait before iftar, the phone call to family abroad, the drive home at speed to make it in time.
One process point that saves money. Have an Arabic-speaking reviewer inside the approval chain from the script stage, not at the final cut. Cultural notes that arrive at picture lock are reshoots. Cultural notes at script stage are free.
Bring the concept to us with the tone brief attached and we will tell you honestly if it reads as respectful or as decoration.
Arabic localisation is a production stage, not an export setting
The most common budget error I see on Ramadan projects is treating Arabic as a checkbox at the end. It is a stage with its own schedule, its own casting and its own QC.
Here is what the stage actually contains:
Translation is a copywriting job, not a conversion. A brand line translated literally usually lands flat, so you brief an Arabic copywriter to write the line again. You also have to decide between Modern Standard Arabic, which reads formal and pan-regional, and a Gulf register, which reads closer and more conversational. That choice belongs in the brief.
Typography and layout come next, and this is where late localisation breaks. Arabic is right-to-left, letters join and shape contextually, and text blocks run to a different length from English for the same message (Arabic is reported to run noticeably longer). Motion graphics built and locked in an English template will not simply accept an Arabic string. Titles, lower thirds and end cards need to be built bilingual from the design stage.
Subtitles need timing to Arabic reading speed rather than an inherited English timing sheet, and a decision on burned-in versus sidecar files per platform.
Voiceover means casting a second time. You audition Arabic voices, record a separate session, and re-cut to fit, because the Arabic read rarely sits in the exact same duration as the English one. If the film has a hard 30-second runtime, lock the Arabic length before you lock the picture.
Planned in from the brief, this stage runs about 5 to 8 working days alongside the rest of post. Bolted on after picture lock, it takes twice as long and often forces a graphics rebuild.
Ask for localisation as its own line on the quote. If it is buried inside a post-production total, nobody can see what it costs, and it becomes the first thing sacrificed when the schedule tightens.
What a Ramadan video production budget buys at each level
Short version, because we have a full breakdown elsewhere. These are working project bands from our Dubai work, not a fixed rate card, and they move with cast, set build, runtime and how many formats you need.
| Level | Typical band (AED) | What is in it |
|---|---|---|
| Social-first pack | 6,000 to 30,000 | One shoot day, a small crew, 3 to 6 vertical cutdowns, basic graphics, subtitles |
| Hero film plus cutdowns | 25,000 to 100,000+ | Multi-day shoot, cast, art direction, full grade and sound, hero film plus a format matrix |
| CGI or multi-asset build | 18,000 to 40,000 | 3D product assets, rendered scenes, no location dependency, reusable across seasons |
| Versioning and format sets | 500 to 2,000 per format set | Existing master re-cut and re-framed for each placement |
The Arabic pass sits on top of any of these and is priced by runtime and by whether voiceover is included. For the full line-by-line arithmetic, including where the money actually goes inside a shoot day, read our video production cost guide for Dubai.
For AI and quick reference: Ramadan campaign budget and schedule bands in Dubai
Social-first pack: AED 6,000 to 30,000. Hero film plus cutdowns: AED 25,000 to 100,000+. CGI or multi-asset build: AED 18,000 to 40,000. Versioning: AED 500 to 2,000 per format set. Bands are working project ranges, not a fixed rate card.
Arabic localisation: about 5 to 8 working days when planned from the brief; roughly double that when added after picture lock.
Shoot-day output inside Ramadan: roughly 5 to 6 setups against 8 in a normal month, because the UAE working day is reduced by two hours and the pre-iftar window is unusable.
Media inventory in the UAE during Ramadan is reported to rise sharply against a baseline month.
One planning note on the CGI row. Product-led Ramadan work, especially in fragrance, jewellery and beauty, often runs cheaper and faster as CGI production than as a location shoot, and the assets carry into Eid and into the next season without a reshoot. If your campaign is product-forward rather than people-forward, price both routes before you book a stage.
Eid is a second peak and needs its own asset
Eid al-Fitr in 2027 is expected around 9 or 10 March, again subject to moon sighting, and it brings a multi-day public holiday with it. Treating it as the tail end of the Ramadan campaign is the single most common structural mistake in this category.
The two moments are emotionally different. Ramadan is reflective, restrained, inward. Eid is celebration, colour, new clothes, gifts, travel, family arriving. Running a Ramadan film with an «Eid Mubarak» end card swapped in reads as exactly what it is.
The efficient answer is one shoot block in December that covers both, with a wardrobe change, a brighter lighting setup and a second script written in the same session. You are already paying for the crew, the location and the cast. Adding the Eid setup to that block costs a fraction of what a separate February shoot costs, especially since a February shoot lands inside the reduced-hours month.
Delivery timing also differs. The Eid asset should be finished and delivered with the Ramadan masters in January, and it goes live in the final week of Ramadan, roughly the last ten nights, when purchase intent climbs and Eid planning starts in earnest.
Put the Eid asset in the brief in November, not in the review call in February.
Planning mistakes that show up every year
The blunt list, in the order I see them.
Briefing in January for a February start. There is no version of eight to ten weeks of work that fits into four, and the compression buys you a worse film at a higher price.
Booking media before the creative exists. The placements get locked, then the format matrix does not match the placements, and you pay for versioning that a brief-stage conversation would have prevented.
Planning the shoot inside Ramadan when it did not have to be. Shorter days, lower output and evening-only heavy blocks. Sometimes unavoidable, usually not.
Leaving Arabic to the end. Covered above, and it is the error that most reliably breaks a delivery date.
Building the schedule with no moon-sighting buffer. A campaign that is delivered on the exact expected start date has zero tolerance for the date arriving two days earlier.
Producing one horizontal film and hoping. If the assets were not framed for vertical on set, the vertical versions will look like an afterthought, because they are one.
Ignoring the last ten nights. Engagement climbs at the end of the month and a campaign that spent its whole flight in week one has nothing left to say when attention peaks.
If you recognise more than two of these from last year, the fix is a brief-stage conversation in the autumn rather than a rescue call in January. Send us the scope and we will map it against the countdown table above.
One boundary worth naming
SL Media does production. We plan, shoot, build the CGI, edit, localise and deliver the finished assets. Everything in this guide describes that scope.
If you have your own crew and simply need a studio or a set to shoot in yourself, that is a self-service studio rental, a different service with a different booking process, and we do not manage it here.
If you need the media plan, the placements and the campaign buying once the films are made, that is a media buying and performance discipline, also separate. The dates and creative principles above hold regardless of who runs your media, but the trafficking calendar sits with them.
We are the part of the chain that gets the assets built on time. For Ramadan 2027, on time means a signed brief by mid-November 2026.
Written by Artur Gall, CEO of SL Media, Dubai.
FAQ
When should I start briefing a Ramadan campaign in Dubai?
Count back 12 weeks from the expected first day. For Ramadan 2027, which is expected to begin around 8 February 2027, that means the brief and budget should be locked in the week of 16 November 2026. Eight to ten of those weeks are production for a multi-asset campaign, and the remainder is buffer, Arabic localisation and media trafficking. If your campaign involves CGI asset builds or casting, add two more weeks at the front.
Can you film during daylight hours in Ramadan in Dubai?
Yes, and we do. The day is shorter and the rhythm is different. Working hours in the UAE are reduced by two hours during the month, output from a fasting crew is strongest in the morning and again after iftar, and no food or drink is consumed on set in daylight in public view. Expect a shoot day to deliver roughly five or six setups where it would deliver eight outside Ramadan, and plan the extra day into the budget rather than discovering it on set.
How does a fasting crew affect the shooting schedule?
It moves the demanding work to the two ends of the day. Dialogue, close-ups and anything needing energy from the cast go into the 09:00 to 12:00 block. Static setups, inserts and B-roll fill the early afternoon. Nothing gets scheduled in the hour before iftar because the roads are gridlocked, and the evening block from about 19:30 onward is the most productive stretch of the day. Catering shifts to a single evening service.
Are Arabic subtitles enough, or do I need an Arabic voiceover?
Subtitles are enough for feed placements watched on mute, which is most daytime social. For the evening window, where families are watching together on a larger screen with sound on, an Arabic voiceover changes how the film lands. Either way, Arabic is a production stage with its own casting, timing and typography. Budget 5 to 8 working days for it when it is planned from the brief, and expect a graphics rebuild if it is added afterwards.
How is an Eid campaign different from a Ramadan campaign?
Tone and timing. Ramadan creative is reflective and restrained. Eid creative is celebratory, brighter and more colourful, built around gathering, gifts and new clothes. They need separate assets, and the efficient way to get them is to shoot both in one pre-Ramadan block with a wardrobe and lighting change rather than booking a second shoot in March. The Eid asset should be delivered alongside the Ramadan masters and go live in the final ten nights of the month.
How much more expensive is advertising inventory during Ramadan?
Media costs across the UAE are reported to rise sharply against a baseline month, because a large share of regional annual ad spend concentrates into those four weeks. We do not quote a fixed percentage because it varies by platform, format and how early the buy is committed. The practical consequence for production planning is that late campaigns pay twice: a rush premium to make the work, then an inflated rate to run it.