After more than a decade, Indonesia’s marketing landscape has undergone a remarkable transformation. From the dominance of traditional channels to the digital revolution, marketers have adapted, embracing new tools and strategies. It all only goes more interesting and dynamic. I remember the years where everyone listened to radio and got excited when the texts were read by the radio announcer, people looked for jobs on newspapers, and got fashion inspiration from magazines. Today, everything is just a click away on your mobile phone.

Back then, there was no such thing as KOLs Specialist Role, or TikTok Live Operator. Only some companies who started to have Social Media Specialist role, and it started around 2012/2013. People were still getting used to with Instagram, and if you look back your pictures that year, I believe you used one of the available filters. To utilize the social media, it was still pretty limited in terms of data collection and audience targeting. From around 2015 and a few years afterward, Facebook had a specific policy on the visual, where you could only use text max 30% of the whole visual, because they believe visuals speak louder. But now, we can even make 100% text because marketing is just so dynamic, people change, the way we see ads change, and creativity expands infinitely.

In around 2016/2017, I started to use location-based advertising, not only targeting with GPS you have it on on your phone but also utilizing a thing called beacon, to make more relevant and personalized targeting based on your physical location.

In around 2018/2019, it was the beginning of vehicle ads, specifically stickers on cars. It was not something new that time, but it was just getting more aggressive, especially in Jakarta. Now this kind of advertisement grew to even track eyeballs or even gather exposed audience’s data from their GPS and other related open data. Through this, companies would be more likely to use mixed traditional media like OOH as they adapt to the businesses’ needs; user data.

In 2020, COVID-19 pandemic prompted a widespread shift in behaviors for both businesses and individuals. With increased time spent online, the traditional experience of trying on clothes in stores evolved into a new era of live online selling. Similarly, interpersonal interactions transitioned from face-to-face engagements with sales representatives in malls to virtual conversations through platforms like Zoom or even simpler mediums like WhatsApp.

The increase of scams prompted many tech companies to bolster customer protection measures, consequently influencing the landscape of ad exposure. For instance, following the release of iOS 14.5 in April 2021, all subsequent iOS versions granted users a certain degree of control over the ads they encounter on their Apple devices. This shift has compelled companies to adopt more inventive strategies, exploring diverse channels, tailoring their messages to engage with their audience more effectively in this dynamically evolving digital age.

Now, this is era of integrated imagination. What I mean by that is, while customers get smarter everyday and audience gets to be more diverse as well, businesses have to be more data driven but at the same time compelling for the audience. The market seems like saturated right now, only the ones that have strong influence and good quality will stay. Do you have what it takes to stay?