Jakarta, Indonesia – As part of the hype during the popular 12.12 sale period across online e-commerce players, popular Indonesian e-commerce player Tokopedia has engaged with Kobo Kanaeru, the biggest Indonesian virtual YouTuber (VTuber) in terms of subscriber count; and popular online music creator Harry Citradi, also known as Heiakim, to create the platform’s latest 12.12 campaign jingle. First uploaded on Tokopedia’s Instagram and X (Twitter) accounts, the jingle proved to be a viral success, prompting the company as well to upload a 1-hour version on its YouTube channel.
While campaign jingles are pretty common, this was the first time Tokopedia tapped a VTuber for its own campaign. Despite the fact that the jingle borrows cues from popular Japanese pop culture trends like anime and VTubers, it is also worth noting that the company took into consideration its roots of local culture relevance to create the new jingle. In turn, this made the campaign more popular especially to the younger consumer demographic while still rooted to be relevant across Indonesians.
MARKETECH APAC caught up exclusively with Jonathan Locanawan, senior lead for social media at Tokopedia, to learn more about the campaign’s creative process, as well as hear his insights on how brands can be authentic in tapping the younger demographic.
Understanding the roots of Tokopedia’s “Waktu Indonesia Belanja (WIB)” campaign
To fully understand how Tokopedia came up with the new Jingle, Locanawan notes that it is worth noting to understand how its yearly 12.12 campaign came to life.
In 2020, the company introduced the monthly shopping festival, “Waktu Indonesia Belanja” (WIB) or Indonesian Shopping Time. Since Waktu Indonesia Belanja was launched to be an inclusive shopping campaign for all Indonesians across the country, they created the WIB campaign jingle with tunes that took major inspiration from ‘Ampar Ampar Pisang’, a South Kalimantan traditional song that would resonate with most Indonesian people.
“The Waktu Indonesia Belanja campaign and its campaign jingle itself were met with high enthusiasm. This became the impetus for Tokopedia’s continued innovation into providing new ways that cater to the ever-evolving preferences of Indonesian consumers. For example, we continuously try to develop a more ‘personal’ approach between Tokopedia and the audience through social media,” he explained.
And while they believe that the monthly campaign was a success, they believed they need to penetrate the much younger audiences, especially those who are active online in social media. This is where the Tokopedia team found out how fans of Japanese pop culture are one of the most active demographics in Indonesia, and yet remains untapped by the market.
“We saw that Japanese popular culture represents a big yet untapped market in Indonesia, especially in the social media sphere. We also learned that Kobo Kanaeru—a female Indonesian
VTuber or virtual content creator who uses an animated avatar—and Harry Citradi or popularly known as Heiakim, are one of the biggest and well-known content creators in Japanese pop culture in Indonesia, especially amongst younger generations including millennials and Gen Z,” he added.
Why collaborating with Kobo Kanaeru and Heiakim is the correct step for the brand’s authenticity
When asked how the jingle came to life, they said that this was done in-house, alongside active participation with Kobo Kanaeru and Heiakim. It is worth noting as well that while they were the ones that provided that initial ideas, the co-creation of the jingle was mostly done by the duo. For Locanawan, this speaks on their mission of always tapping into these collaborations, providing trust to its consumer base.
“Tokopedia always believes that collaboration with partners, including content creators, always goes beyond the numbers of likes and followers. Tokopedia is a business of trust, so to maintain business continuity, maintaining the trust of Indonesians is the most important thing,” he said.
Moreover, it is also worth noting that Tokopedia wanted a fresher take on its campaigns, hence the brand is willing to explore more niche cultural trends to bring colour and life to its campaigns.
“Appealing to the younger audience is definitely one of the main drivers for this collaboration as we continuously try to stay relevant with the Indonesian consumers. However, we were also aiming for distinctiveness. Amongst the sea of heavy promotions from the entire industry, we knew we needed to come up with something special to really stand out from the crowd yet still maintain the local authenticity, sensibility and voice of ‘Tokopedia’, he explained.
Advice on brands on how to ride niche cultural brands to stay authentic
Tokopedia believes that tapping creators that share the same brand value to the company and creative positive influence to the Indonesian society help them create authentic campaigns while also at the same time being at the top of mind of the younger demographic.
According to Locanawan, with Tokopedia willing to explore unique yet relevant niches, the brand has seen greater increase on positive brand mentions, higher views on its social media
accounts, like TikTok; and even noted an increase in better engagement with their audience through Tokopedia’s social media accounts.
“As brand marketers, we need to always be sensitive with the ever changing trends in pop culture to remain relevant. By fully immersing ourselves in the culture and by having the campaign co-created together with the creators, we were able to launch content that effectively rides the wave while maintaining the authenticity and voice of ‘Tokopedia’,” he explained.
Lastly, when asked what should brands do in terms of exuding authenticity to its consumers, Locanawan had this to say: “Regardless of whatever strategy is used, consumer centricity has always been our guiding star—how we can ensure our consumers can benefit from the products, services and partnerships provided. That is what Tokopedia will always do to keep winning the hearts of Indonesians.”
