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Indonesia welcomes messenger-based branding era
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Messenger penetration – A recent survey reveals that rapidly growing messenger penetration has given marketers the option to implement messenger-based branding to introduce their products or services.
(AP/-)
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lthough people across Asian countries, including Indonesia, still heavily use social media to socialize, a survey reveals messenger penetration is strengthening, giving marketers the option to use messenger-based branding to introduce their products or services.
TNS Global research data said that 55 percent of global internet users used instant messaging apps everyday in 2015. The figure is higher among Asia-Pacific users, reaching up to 61 percent. Globally, the penetration of messenger apps has increased by 12 percent as people would rather use closed platforms.
"In Indonesia, people are leaving social media for sharing and shifted through messenger, especially after the 2014 presidential election. During the presidential election campaign, we were really divided into two sides, supporting Jokowi or Prabowo. When we posted something about our preferred figure in social media, we could be 'attacked' easily by the rival candidate supporters and that was uncomfortable," Enda Nasution, cofounder of Indonesian social media platform Sebangsa, told thejakartapost.com recently.
He referred to the 2014 presidential candidates Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Prabowo Subianto.
The TNS survey reveals 54 percent of Indonesians are still socializing on social media platforms such as Facebook, only slightly higher than messenger penetration, which stands 48 percent. This figure shows significant increases from previous periods. In East Asia, messenger use is even higher than social media.
Content sharing is increasing as well, according to the survey. About 23 percent of Indonesians watch videos shared through their timelines or messengers on a daily basis. The percentage of "incidental videos" is almost the same with video platforms such as YouTube or Daily Motion, in which 24 percent of Indonesians watched them on daily basis.
TNS Asia Pacific digital director Zoë Lawrence said the finding opened a new dimension for the marketers. Asian social media such as LINE (Japan), Kakao Talk (South Korea) and WeChat (China) provided the feature for the brand to communicate with their customers through official accounts. Facebook Messenger later followed, installing a bot in its messenger.
"If you can talk to the brand then your costumer will be engaged more and we see that in Asian markets, people does not mind having bot conversations," Lawrence told thejakartapost.com on Thursday.
The bot right now is smarter and more interactive compared to the past. The Facebook Messenger bot, for example, enables users to order Uber rides and food deliveries. In Indonesia, LINE messenger has such a facility to order Go-Jek rides.
"Now, you can carry out customer service activities through the messenger and the process is interactive, more interesting rather than filling in a blank form on a website," Lawrence said.
However, content sharing is different in every market and in the digital market. Lawrence suggested marketers adapt local values to the story they wanted to build in the brand or people would not watch and share it.
"Brands need to understand what is important in the culture and develop content that not only stays to your brand values but also leverages what is happening culturally," Lawrence said. (ebf)
