Nando's Malaysia reran the holidays people lost to lockdown

Nando's Malaysia depended on dine-in. Fishermen Integrated said MCO and CMCO restrictions caused a 74% sales dip, while larger competitors had stronger delivery muscles and louder monthly promotions.

The team noticed that Malaysians wanted to see friends, spend time with family and dine out after lockdown. Many had missed festivals, milestones and ordinary gatherings, so the campaign proposed a second chance: Re-Celebrate 2020.

Nando's began wishing people Selamat Hari Raya and Happy Chinese New Year in an apparently random September week. The odd timing was the point: it made people ask what was happening, then gave them a reason to come back and celebrate what 2020 had stolen.

Sell the celebration people missed

The campaign turned reopening from a restaurant problem into an emotional permission slip.

Mis-timed festive greetings created talk value cheaply.

The idea matched Nando's cheeky tone while solving a real traffic problem.

It bundled many missed occasions into one repeatable invitation.

A reopening message can be stronger when it gives people a lost ritual back, not just a discount or safety notice.

The work won two Golds at APPIES 2020 and a Kancil bronze for small-scale brand experience and activation. The case became a compact example of using cultural timing, not media weight, to restart a dine-in habit.