It is already dark, and someone is still changing trains. On their phone is a photograph of a table set for dinner. In front of them is the arrival time of the next service. This could open a seasonal brand film: instead of rushing its character into a warm living room, it first takes seriously why they are not there yet.
Seasonal advertising often starts with a scene that is already complete: everyone has arrived, the lights are on and food is on the table. For other people, an important moment may occur in transit, during a break at work or after returning alone to their accommodation. Including them can do more than add another identity to the cast. It can change what the brand is trying to express.
The important moment does not wait for everyone to get home
IKEA’s Iftar At Ours offers a specific starting point. Mother London’s published project description identifies a situation in which sunset coincides with the evening commute, leaving some Muslims breaking their fast on the way home. IKEA worked with AMALIAH and interior designer Noor Aliyah Ali on pop-up gathering spaces in London and Manchester. Delivery partner Bearded Kitten’s project account explicitly places the context in Ramadan 2026. (Both consulted on 17 October 2026; neither page gives a publication date.)
This analysis draws on those written accounts, not a viewing-based review of the complete films or a current invitation to attend. It concerns a particular situation described by the project partners, not the lives of all Muslims, cities or households.
The interesting creative question does not require people to reach an ideal setting first. If an important moment coincides with commuting, could a feeling of home appear before arrival? Moving the setting from the living room into the journey changes the need: from joining an already-prepared gathering to finding somewhere to pause and be with others now.
For a brand film, that is a deeper change than adding seasonal decorations. It affects where the story starts, why someone acts, what a space offers and which feeling the ending should fulfil. A brand need not tell everyone’s seasonal story, but it should be clear about the particular life it has chosen to depict.
A story can stay with people before they get home
Consider an explicitly fictional Mid-Autumn Festival film about someone working a late shift. This is a creative exercise, not a client project, and it does not equate Mid-Autumn and Ramadan practices. They share only one writing question here: how can a story work if a character cannot yet enter the customary gathering?
A familiar version has the character checking the time, catching transport and running, before opening the family door at the last moment. That can work, but it places all the emotional weight on arriving in time. If every such character must end by rushing into a family meal, life on the journey becomes only a disappointment waiting to be removed.
Another version could let the character sit briefly with colleagues who have not left yet. Someone makes space; another divides the snacks they brought. Conversation gradually moves from work to where each person is heading. There need be no grand reunion, nor any suggestion that colleagues replace family. The character simply has a moment of company in the present.
The difference is not the intensity of sadness or warmth, but what the character can do. In the first version, the journey must be overcome before the celebration can begin. The second acknowledges that travel and working patterns also form part of seasonal life. The choice belongs to the brand, people and real material, not an automatic assumption that being away from home is a device for producing tears.
Give the character choices as well as disappointment
Even a story involving loss can leave someone decisions of their own: whom to contact, whether to join a nearby gathering and how to arrange the time ahead. Avoid making their sole task to look exhausted while the brand suddenly supplies everything. Particular choices let emotion belong to that person, rather than merely furnishing the background for an end-line.
These are possible script directions. No film or audience study was made for this article, and neither version is presented as more moving or more likely to generate sales.
Local to whose life?
Bearded Kitten’s account also describes drawing on different histories, identities and migration experiences within British Muslim households, rather than a generic idea of a Muslim home, and using a familiar British terraced-house form. This is the partner’s description of its design work, not a definition of every household.
A useful creative implication follows: a country, religion or seasonal label cannot by itself determine what a room should look like. People’s experiences, ages, housing situations and particular relationships may suggest different details. The work is to find material relevant to these characters, not a standard living-room image that supposedly represents everyone.
Specificity changes performance, too. Two friends sharing a place and strangers tentatively sitting together involve different actions. One person inviting another is not the same relationship as someone being directed to receive help. Even accurate clothing and food cannot make characters specific if they repeat an identical set of grateful expressions.
Developing a script with people familiar with the relevant lives should allow them to change the question, not merely confirm that props are correct at the end. A team may assume the problem is a missing meal; someone else may care more about having somewhere to pause, joining comfortably or not being portrayed as needing rescue. None of those answers is prescribed here. The point is not to lock the emotional ending before listening.
Connect the brand’s contribution to what people can do
A seasonal expression can be an observation, or it can connect to an actual service or event. Both can support creative work. Viewers should be able to distinguish a fictional scene from a specific arrangement they can participate in. Warm images cannot replace clear information about location, timing and participation, or make an event that has ended appear to remain open.
If the brand is telling a story about company, build an appropriate relationship between the characters and the brand expression; there is no need to invent a large-scale initiative. If it really offers a space, product or service, explain how that changes someone’s possible actions. Finding a place, setting down belongings or beginning a conversation gives the creative discussion more substance than a claim to make the world warmer. What a particular project can offer must still be supported by the actual arrangements.
Return to the person changing trains at the start. A film need not erase their journey or supply a perfect ending. It can acknowledge that when an important moment arrives, people are not always in the places advertising expects them to be. One starting point for seasonal creative is to see where they actually are, then decide whether the brand has a fitting role.
If you are developing a seasonal brand film for a particular market, bring specific characters, the rhythm of their lives and a confirmed brand contribution to a conversation through ONCE’s video production solutions: where should this story begin, and for whom should it make room?
