Case Study Summary
Hello Ketchup came to Masar with a familiar but difficult challenge: the brand was known in Iraq, but it had become quiet in the consumer’s mind.
The product existed. People recognized it. But it was no longer strongly present in daily conversation, food culture, or social media attention.
Masar developed a 40-day Ramadan-to-Spring awareness campaign, starting from mid-Ramadan 2026, built around one clear idea: Hello is not just a sauce people see on shelves. It is a sauce people know, love, want, and respect.
Through creative skits, province-based UGC, influencer content, Meta campaigns, and YouTube awareness, the campaign reintroduced Hello as a proudly Iraqi sauce brand connected to everyday food moments across Iraq.
The campaign generated more than 19M reported views across YouTube, Meta, and influencer content, reached audiences across five Iraqi governorates, and helped bring Hello back into the foreground of consumer attention.
Client
Hello Food
Main Product Promoted
Hello Ketchup
Industry
FMCG
Food & Beverage
Sauces
Consumer Goods
Market
Iraq
Locations Covered
Baghdad
Najaf
Babil
Kirkuk
Anbar
Platforms Used
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube Shorts
Influencer pages
Brand page
Paid media
Campaign Type
FMCG awareness campaign
Influencer marketing campaign
UGC campaign
Social media campaign
YouTube awareness campaign
Meta engagement campaign
Multi-governorate campaign in Iraq
Campaign Message
الكل يعرفه
الكل يحبه
الكل يريده
الكل يحترمه
Campaign Duration
40 Days
The Challenge
Hello was not a new name in Iraq.
For many Iraqi consumers, the brand already carried a sense of memory and familiarity. People knew the product, but the brand had become quiet. It was present in the background but not strongly active in people’s daily conversations, social feeds, or food moments.
The challenge was not simply to introduce Hello.
The challenge was to bring Hello back.
The brand needed stronger awareness, better recall, and a more visible role in Iraqi food culture. It needed to move from being a product people recognize on shelves to a brand people see, remember, talk about, and associate with everyday Iraqi meals.
At the beginning, the client considered a hybrid offline and online campaign that included billboards and tasting booths. Masar shifted the direction toward a digital-led campaign because the target audience’s attention was already concentrated on social platforms.
This gave the campaign a more measurable structure, better reach control, and a stronger ability to connect with the exact audiences and governorates Hello wanted to reach.
The Iraqi Market Insight
In Iraq, FMCG brands cannot depend only on distribution and shelf presence.
A product can be available everywhere and still be absent from people’s minds.
For food brands, especially sauces, visibility must happen inside the moments where people already feel appetite, familiarity, humor, and social trust.
Masar understood that Iraqi audiences respond strongly to brands that feel local, familiar, and socially recognized. The campaign was built around the cultural behavior of collective approval: when something feels known, loved, used, and accepted by everyone, it becomes easier for people to trust it again.
That insight shaped the campaign message:
Hello is not a new stranger asking for attention.
Hello is the brand everyone already knows.
The campaign used Iraqi dialect, province-based music, familiar food moments, humor, local landmarks, street food, cooking content, and creator-led storytelling to make Hello feel present across daily Iraqi life.
Instead of making the campaign feel like a copied regional advertisement, Masar made it feel specifically Iraqi.
The scripts were intentionally unserious, humorous, and familiar. The content avoided over-polished corporate messaging and focused on situations Iraqi audiences could immediately recognize.
Strategy
The strategy was to position Hello as a familiar Iraqi sauce brand present across homes, gatherings, streets, food moments, and governorates.
The campaign was designed around five strategic goals:
- Rebuild brand awareness.
- Increase brand recall.
- Show Hello as widely available.
- Make the product feel part of Iraqi food culture.
- Use trusted Iraqi creators to normalize the product inside everyday meals.
Masar built the campaign across three connected layers:
1. Hero Awareness Content
Three main slogan videos carried the central campaign messages:
الكل يحبه
الكل يحترمه
الكل يريده
These videos were used for mass awareness and repeated slogan exposure on YouTube and Meta.
2. Localized UGC Content
Province-based UGC videos connected Hello to real Iraqi cities, landmarks, streets, local dishes, and food habits.
The goal was not only to show the product, but to make Hello feel like it belonged in each place.
3. Influencer & Creator Content
Masar activated 18 Iraqi creators, mostly chefs and food creators, to show Hello inside real recipes, meals, and food moments.
The influencer layer helped build trust, appetite, and cultural relatability.
Creative Direction
The creative concept was built around a simple idea:
Hello belongs to everyone and appears everywhere.
Through the lines:
الكل يحبه
الكل يعرفه
الكل يريده
الكل يحترمه
Masar turned Hello into a familiar Iraqi choice instead of treating it as just another ketchup bottle.
The campaign used two creative styles.
Creative Skit Style
For the skits, Masar used a more dramatic and exaggerated style. The goal was to turn Hello into a character inside funny situations, not just a product placed in front of a camera.
The skits included a “dealer” scene where Hello was treated like a high-value product, a talking Hello bottle forgotten at a gathering, and an old Hello bottle speaking to the newer bottles like it paved the way for them.
These stories gave the campaign something clean product shots cannot create: memory, humor, and conversation.
UGC Style
For UGC videos, the style was familiar, direct, and easy to recognize. Real streets, landmarks, cities, food moments, and local references were used to make the product feel naturally present in daily life.
One recurring hook showed a person receiving a phone call but answering with a random object instead of a phone, such as a brick or shovel. This created a simple visual interruption that made the viewer stop and continue watching.
Influencer & UGC System
Masar selected 18 Iraqi creators from a wider creator network of more than 500 profiles.
The selection was based on trust, audience fit, content style, food relevance, and real influence, not follower count alone.
Most creators were chefs or food-focused personalities because food content in Iraq performs best when people can see the product being used inside real meals.
Masar provided clear guidelines to creators while allowing them to keep their own identity and content style.
This mattered because one of the biggest problems in influencer marketing in Iraq is over-controlling the creator until the content feels fake.
Masar avoided that by giving creators a clear brand direction, then applying only the necessary adjustments to protect the message and visual branding.
The campaign included:
8
UGC videos
18
influencer videos
10+
production assets
3
campaign posters
18
influencers and creators
3
creative skits
5
governorates
3
campaign concepts
The influencer content performed especially well because it showed Hello inside appetizing meals made by trusted creators who already had strong relationships with their audiences.
How Masar Avoided Making It Feel Like a Direct Ad
The creative team intentionally avoided showing the product too early in some videos.
Instead, Masar maintained the campaign’s visual identity through the color red, familiar settings, and story structure before revealing the product more naturally.
Hello appeared inside food moments, gatherings, skits, streets, landmarks, local dishes, and creator recipes.
This helped the product feel like part of the story rather than the reason the story was interrupted.
The campaign did not ask people to care about ketchup.
It placed Hello inside moments people already cared about.
Execution
Masar handled the campaign fully, from strategy to creative direction, production, editing, design, influencer management, account management, and campaign rollout.
The campaign included:
Strategy
Campaign direction, audience understanding, province targeting, content structure, message architecture, and platform role planning.
Creative
Creative skit concepts, campaign slogans, story development, visual hooks, humor style, and UGC direction.
Production
Filming creative skits, producing campaign assets, supporting creator content, and developing visual material for multiple platforms.
Editing
Short-form editing, pacing, storytelling, campaign identity, and format adaptation for Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube Shorts.
Influencer Management
Creator selection, guidelines, briefing, review, supervision, and coordination across cities and content styles.
Design
Campaign posters and supporting static visuals connected to the main slogan system.
The most difficult part of execution was the creative skits because they required a more original direction than standard FMCG content. The client was initially unsure about the boldness of some ideas, but the skits became one of the strongest creative references for future similar work.
The campaign included:
25.09%
YouTube view rate
19M+
total reported views across YouTube, Meta, and influencer content
761K+
unique YouTube users reached
Results
The Hello Spring Awareness Campaign delivered strong awareness and engagement across YouTube, Meta, and influencer content.
Reported Campaign Performance
19M
5
761K
25.09
8.9M
YouTube impressions
1.26M+
TrueView views
6.36M+
influencer views
8.27M+
YouTube views from the three hero videos
362k+
influencer interactions
5.7%
average influencer engagement rate
2.5M+
Meta reach
5.26M+
Meta views across Instagram and Facebook
208k+
Meta interactions
3.1K+
new followers from Meta
96K+
link clicks
5
Iraqi governorates covered
18
creators activated
Instagram acted as the engagement and discovery engine of the campaign.
It generated:
44.3k+
shares
98.6K+
profile visits
167.9K+
interactions
1.5M+
accounts reached
30K+
saves
What Worked Best
Influencer content worked best because it showed the product in action through people the audience already trusted.
For Iraqi FMCG audiences, it is not enough to say the product exists. People need to see it used by familiar faces, in familiar meals, in familiar places.
The campaign also showed that localized UGC can create deeper engagement even when broader slogan content creates more reach.
General campaign reels were more scalable.
Province-based reels created stronger relatability.
This balance gave Hello both wide awareness and local emotional connection.
What Masar Learned
The campaign reinforced several important lessons about FMCG marketing in Iraq:
- Iraqi audiences respond better when a product feels socially familiar.
- Food content works when the product appears naturally inside meals, not as a forced ad.
- Influencer selection matters more than follower count.
- Local references increase relatability.
- Reels outperform static posts for awareness and audience growth.
- Strong hooks are essential because audience retention drops quickly in the first few seconds.
- UGC performs best when it feels connected to local culture, not just product placement.
For future FMCG campaigns, Masar would repeat the use of UGC, creative skits, and influencer content, while increasing the volume of localized UGC depending on the campaign objectives.
Why This Case Study Matters
This campaign is a strong example of FMCG marketing in Iraq because it did not treat the product as just another item on the shelf.
It treated Hello as part of Iraqi memory, food behavior, and social familiarity.
It is also a strong example of influencer marketing in Iraq because the creators were selected based on trust, content style, and audience fit rather than follower count alone.
It is a strong example of UGC campaigns in Iraq because the content focused on places, food moments, and local culture before focusing on the product.
Most importantly, the campaign shows how Masar translates a brand’s goals into a clear roadmap built around Iraqi audience behavior.
This is what Masar means by understanding how Iraqis pay attention.
Key Services Used
FMCG Marketing in Iraq
Campaign Strategy
Creative Direction
Influencer Marketing
UGC Campaigns
Short-Form Content Production
Meta Campaigns
YouTube Awareness Campaigns
Social Media Campaigns
Localized Content Strategy
Iraqi Audience Intelligence
Food & Beverage Marketing
Brand Awareness Campaigns
Multi-City Campaign Management
Frequently asked questions
What did Masar do for Hello Ketchup?
Masar developed and executed a post-Ramadan 2026 FMCG awareness campaign for Hello Ketchup in Iraq. The campaign included creative skits, UGC videos, influencer content, posters, YouTube awareness, Meta campaigns, and province-based content across Baghdad, Najaf, Babil, Kirkuk, and Anbar.
What was the goal of the Hello campaign?
The goal was to rebuild awareness, increase brand recall, and position Hello as a familiar Iraqi sauce brand present across daily food moments, gatherings, homes, streets, and local communities.
Why was this campaign important for Hello?
Why did Masar use influencers for this campaign?
Masar used influencers because Iraqi FMCG audiences respond strongly when they see trusted people using the product in real food moments. The campaign selected creators based on trust, audience fit, food relevance, and content style.
How many influencers were part of the Hello campaign?
The campaign included 18 Iraqi creators, mostly chefs and food creators.
How many views did the Hello campaign generate?
The campaign generated more than 19M reported views across YouTube, Meta, and influencer content, including 8.27M YouTube views, 6.36M influencer views, and 5.26M Meta views.
Which Iraqi governorates were included in the campaign?
The campaign covered Baghdad, Najaf, Babil, Kirkuk, and Anbar.
Why did UGC work for Hello?
UGC worked because it connected Hello to real Iraqi streets, landmarks, food moments, and local references. The product did not feel forced into the content. It felt like part of daily Iraqi life.
What made the campaign feel Iraqi?
The campaign used Iraqi dialect, local humor, province-based music, familiar streets, recognizable food moments, and social behaviors such as collective approval and familiarity.
What does this campaign show about Masar Agency?
The campaign shows Masar’s ability to build culturally relevant FMCG campaigns in Iraq through audience insight, creative strategy, influencer management, UGC production, short-form content, and multi-city campaign execution.
Ready to Dominate Attention in Iraq?
Your brand has a visibility problem.
Most brands in Iraq are not failing because of poor products. They’re failing because they’re invisible — or worse, they’re visible but irrelevant.
MASAR.
The agency that understands how Iraqis pay attention. Strategic creative and visibility systems for brands in Iraq.
contact@masar.agency
+964 790 355 3888
Mansour, Dawoodi, Baghdad, Iraq
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Services
Campaign Strategy
Creative Ideation
Video Production
Influencer Marketing
Social Media
UGC Campaigns
Branding