Both companies are of the view that AR can empower creativity and engagement among users of the IM3 Ooredoo provider, Snapchat instant messaging users and various brands.

As part of their partnership, 2021 will see several programs by Indosat Ooredoo and Snapchat to bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds with AR, while bringing communities and businesses closer together despite the pandemic.

Some of these programs include the launch of an AR Creator Fund, a series of programs introducing various funding opportunities for Indonesian creatives working in augmented reality.

This program will include webinars, competitions and announcements of potential job opportunities for participants.

“Indosat Ooredoo is committed to bringing the most innovative digital experiences to people in Indonesia by teaming up with world leaders in this space. We’re delighted to announce this collaboration with Snap to empower the creativity of Indonesian developers and designers and help brands to harness the potential of AR to engage customers and transform industries,” director and chief operating officer of Indosat Ooredoo, Vikram Sinha, said.

“We believe that an exciting digital future lies ahead and Indosat Ooredoo is committed to empowering young people to compete on the world stage by collaborating with Snap to build a thriving augmented reality ecosystem in Indonesia. We are also pleased to introduce iAds to our enterprise customers, positioned as an innovative digital marketing channel to help create awareness and generate sales leads for their brand,” he continued.

In addition to the big program, Snap plans to launch a new AR Lens each week for Indosat Ooredoo subscribers, while Indosat Ooredoo will provide subscribers with data offers for new Snapchat users on their plans enabling them to maximize their engagement with AR experiences on the platform.

As part of this partnership, Indosat Ooredoo has also been appointed as an authorized sales representative for Snap to manage advertising opportunities for the Snapchat platform in Indonesia.

Digital transformation and augmented reality

Many homebound individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic are turning to digital platforms to serve their day-to-day activities, from work, study and daily necessities such as food and groceries to entertainment. The fact that internet penetration continues to increase, especially in Indonesia, has made life during lockdown much easier.

At the same time, the increasing internet penetration rate and increasing digital platform adoption during lockdown have together spurred the digital transformation of so many businesses to survive by serving their homebound customers’ current needs better.

As brands accelerate their digital transformation in the face of COVID-19, Indosat Ooredoo will support their leverage of AR, as the company believes that AR can greatly enhance digital transformation. For instance, AR technology can help customers browse and inspect products online before having them delivered to make sure the products come in the exact specification they need. This is why AR can be a great enhancement to advertisements as well.

The Snapchat Generation: Bridging creativity and technology

AR can also help millennials and Gen Z power their creative streaks through technology. As we all know, both generations are mobile native and they prefer to use technology for as many tasks as possible. People also refer to them as the Snapchat Generation because they prefer to use pictures over words when they communicate using Snap compared to people from the previous generations.

Furthermore, they use augmented reality every day, spending on average more than 250 million minutes engaging with AR Lenses to express themselves and explore the world around them.

“We are excited to announce our strategic partnership with Indosat Ooredoo to build on the momentum we are seeing in Indonesia. Snap believes that reinventing the camera represents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Augmented reality allows our community to discover and experience the world around them in new and immersive ways,” Snap Inc. international markets managing director Nana Murugesan said.

“With this increasing engagement, we are also focusing on our growing community of Lens creators as well as extending the capabilities of our AR platform. We continue to invest in Lens Studio, our desktop application for creating augmented reality experiences. With Lens Studio, we are making the AR creation process easier, while simultaneously providing more sophisticated tools in order to unlock the creativity of our Indonesian community and brands,” he added.

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