Smartfren Andromax: Giving Indonesians a new way to selfie
- share
- copy link
SUMMARY
This case study shows how Smartfren, an Indonesian telecommunications brand, increased its sales using a smartphone feature driven campaign.
While the smartphone category was growing at 49% in Indonesia, Smartfren's Andromax model was registering a sharp decrease, leaving the brand no room for profit.
In order to turn the situation around, the band focused on launching a campaign centred on its new smartphone model and its main feature: a front facing flash.
Coining the term 'Jofie', meaning 'Selfie Dance', the campaign used social media, TV, online and PR events to engage its audience and spread the concept of a dancing selfie.
As a result, Smartfren Andromax increased its market share to 9%, and its sales by 113%, in one year.
Campaign details
Brand Owner: Smartfren
Lead agency: McCann Worldgroup
Brand: Smartfren Andromax
Country: Indonesia
Industry: Internet service providers; Mobile and cell handsets
Media: Earned media, buzz; Events and experiential; Internet - general; Online video; Other and ambient media; Social media; Television Budget: 1 - 3 million
Market background and cultural context
The smartphone category in Indonesia was growing at 49% Year-on-Year while Smartfren Andromax' sales were dwindling in 2014. Andromax went from selling 111K units in March 2014 to selling 88.3K units in Aug 2014 (Source: GfK Feb 2015 Report).
Multinational brands such as Samsung, Lenovo, Asus, Sony & Apple were all benefiting from this growth.
To help Andromax jumpstart its growth, the plan was to launch a new smartphone –Andromax V3S.
Andromax was experiencing negative growth. From selling 116K units in July, Smartfren Andromax was selling only 65K units by Oct 2014.
Therefore the key challenge was to arrest negative growth by launching a new smartphone and match category growth of 52% in sales.
Objectives
Smartfren Andromax was launching a new product in the market: V3S. With this new product in its arsenal, it was an opportunity to correct the downward spiral that Andromax was facing.
- The key objectives mapped for the campaign were to:
- Increase spontaneous brand awareness;
- Increase market share – grow sales of units by 50% (matching the category growth), by changing the perception of Andromax from being a me-too, low quality product manufacturer to a brand that youth could associate with and were proud to carry around;
- Drive stronger brand engagement with the youth.
And thereby, propel Smartfren Andromax back into a growth trajectory in Indonesia.
Insight and strategic thinking
Smartphone penetration in Indonesia is at 23% (Source: Nielsen report 'Asian mobile consumers 2014') and growing fast. This is largely driven by 16-34 year olds.
Out of these as well, Andromax decided to sharply target the emerging Indonesian youth - 14-25 yr olds (Size: 21 million) – people upgrading from mobile phones to smartphones not just because of their increase in spending power but also because of their hunger for digital connectedness and influence.
The strategy was built with insights on this emerging Indonesian youth. Young Indonesians dominate conversations on social media. As per on device research, Indonesia is the social media capital of the world generating 385 tweets per second.
According to a Millward Brown AdReaction study done in 2014, Indonesians with smartphones spend on an average 181 minutes using them a day, more than any other nationality.
These always-on participants are constantly looking for new ways of self-expression and telling their narratives. Selfies in particular are a very important part of this personal storytelling. No wonder the selfie stick 'Narsistick' was invented in Indonesia!
The new Andromax with its front flash could help young Indonesians write the next chapter in self expression and taking a selfie.
Taking ordinary selfies was going to be a thing of the past. Now it was time for Jofie – a 'New Way To Selfie'. This newly coined word meant 'selfie dance', a combination of Joget (dance) and Selfie.
Creative and/or channel execution
Read this article on warc.com to view the video
The front LED flash would enable them to be more expressive even in lowlight conditions inviting people to not just 'take a selfie' but 'do the Jofie'. The idea was launched in three phases:
Seeding Phase: Step up from selfie to Jofie
Smartfren seeded the phrase 'Jofie' on social media, without any details about what it meant. And people, on social media started creating their own interpretations of what that could mean. For instance: JOkowi SelFIE (mr President doing selfie), Jogging selFIE (Selfie while jogging), Jongkok selFIE (selfie while ducking), and many more memes.
Launch Phase: Jofie 'A new way to selfie'
- Aired the Jofie TVC through terrestrial TV station.
- Orchestrate key opinion leader engagement and user generated content activities in digital;
- Created interactivity by asking people to submit their own way of doing Jofie and win the Jofie competition.
Amplification Phase: Magnify the Jofie fever
Create a flashmob and Jofie tutorials in areas where people gather in large numbers in 8 big cities in Indonesia, showing them how to Jofie.
Performance against objectives
Increase spontanegous brand awareness
- Just a few months since the launch of the campaign, brand health metrics started to see an upward movement.
Souce: Millward Brown Tracking, 2015 (Note: Confidential company information)
Andromax was able to increase its spontaneous awareness by 5% in such a short period of time.
- Increase market share
Grow sales of units by 50% (matching the category growth): By changing the perception of Andromax from being a me-too, low quality product manufacturer to a brand that youth could associate with and were proud to carry around.
Smartfren Andromax increased its market share by the end of 2014.
Samsung and Lenovo saw a decline during the last quarter while Andromax was put on a growth trajectory. With this unique campaign Smartfren surpassed its sales target, added a new word to the Indonesian vocabulary and demonstrated that through imagination a small Indonesian brand could take on the smartphone giants of the world (Source: GfK Feb 2015 Report).
- Drive stronger brand engagement with the youth
Smartfren's social media following has also improved significantly during the launch period. Facebook fans increased by 20,000 in just one month since the campaign launched.
Twitter followers increased by 10.000 in 2 months.
It didn't just grab more followers, Smartfren also warmed up the Twitter-nation with #JOFIE conversation through social media activation. #JOFIE fever has reached more than 17 million twitteratis within 2 months of the campaign launch.
That's how a local, challenger brand like Andromax swept the nation and gave Indonesia a new way to Selfie through the Jofie.
Lessons learned
Don't just glorify the product feature, glorify its purpose
In a highly competitive category where one brand outshouts the other and glorifies the hero features, Smartfren Andromax changed the conversation completely. Andromax didn't just talk about the feature, but gave a new meaning and purpose to the feature that was relevant to the youth.
Leverage the cultural truths surrounding your category
Ask yourself, in your market, what are the category usage nuances and what is the most relevant cultural truth surrounding it? Like their global counterparts, Indonesians also love selfies and using selfies to tell their personal narratives. But, they were looking to inject their own way of telling their personal narratives that was different from the rest. Thus, JOFIE was born – a new way to selfie that combined dancing while taking selfies. And this instantly gave Indonesians a new conversation to participate in and a new way to selfie-express themselves.
