In 2019, the perception of muslims in Belgium was at an all time low. The constant news reports that high profile Islamic terrorists responsible for several attacks in Europe, had operated from Belgium, fueled a widespread fear and hatred towards muslims.

As a public broadcaster, radio station Studio Brussel felt the need to bring some much needed perspective to the narrowmindedness. And we did so in a way that fits the brand: through music.

Getting native Belgians and immigrants to find a common ground doesn’t just happen overnight. We didn’t just create a campaign, we created a full fledged radio show that aired every week during ramadan, starting at sundown (the iftar). We called it: Ramadamadingdong.

It was a highly polarizing radio show that amassed massive PR coverage. Its purpose was to bridge the gap between Belgian natives and the Belgians with foreign roots.

It was hosted by 3 Belgian-born Moroccans with a humoristic and modern view on life. During the show they tackled taboo topics and invited famous Belgians to fast with them during the day and join them for ‘Iftar’ (or supper) at sundown. They also answered questions from listeners and gave insight into the life of modern muslims.

The radio show proved how entertaining, enriching and important cultural diversity is.

A muslim radio show on a public broadcasting channel? We knew the backlash on social media would be huge. But, we also realised that fighting against something is a much stronger and more unifying human emotion than fighting for something. So, we used the haters to make the supporters of our cause just as vocal.

What did we do? As the ‘haters’ were fighting the idea of muslim-themed content on their radio station, we enabled our supporters to fight the hate itself. We ridiculed the most outlandish reactions we found online, created tools that helped you to calculate how much it would cost to send all of the immigrants back to their countries and we even installed a complaint telephone number.

And, it worked. We offered reasons for discussion and answers at the same time. A public debate about diversity erupted and of course, right and left-minded media joined in.

We didn’t create a campaign. We created a full fledged weekly radio show that aired live on national radio in Belgium.

It ran during the Ramadan, from May 5th 2019 until June 3rd 2019, once a week, each Tuesday.

The show ran from sundown to midnight. We took this very literally. Each episode started at a slightly different time, aligned with the exact moment the sun went down and ‘iftar’ started.

Radio station, Studio Brussel has an average of 600.000 daily listeners on a total citizen count of 11 mio.

The show was funny, raw, chaotic at times but most of all: real. Its content was not only live on the air but also featured on Studio Brussel’s social media, in a series of stunts, in the press and on the station’s website.

The show attracted a new audience that interacted live on air and via social media with Studio Brussel. The number of live listeners was twice as high as before and the radio station’s engagement rate online more than doubled (x 2,5 to be exact).

Ramadamadingdong was picked up by a lot of press, resulting in an earned media value of € 2.070.600 with a media investment of a mere € 700,-.