With 197 million people online in Indonesia,1 it’s important for brands to know where and how to connect with this large group of digital consumers. YouTube, with more than 100 million monthly users in Indonesia, offers a ready base for brands to grow their online audience.2 To unlock the potential of video marketing, however, brands need to push the boundaries of creative storytelling to make an impact and meaningfully connect with people.
Among the brands already using YouTube marketing to build impactful campaigns are the winners of Indonesia’s first YouTube Works, an award that celebrates the most creative video campaigns on the platform. The winning brands used YouTube as a creative canvas to reach people in personal ways and leveraged the platform’s versatility to run video marketing campaigns that drove action and business results.
Here’s a closer look at some of these award-winning brand storytelling campaigns, with key learnings on their insights and creativity, to help you take your brand storytelling further.
Tell compelling brand stories with powerful personalization
The "Save 20 OCBC NISP" campaign, winner of The Unskippable and Best Media Orchestration awards
The pandemic prompted many, including Indonesia’s youth, to become more aware of the need to save for an uncertain future. The less financially savvy among them, however, were unsure of how to get started. To meaningfully connect with these youth, financial service provider OCBC NISP leveraged YouTube’s versatile formats to launch a campaign that was personal and relevant.
Its “Save 20 by Nyala” campaign showed how young Indonesian adults, by starting the habit of saving Rp. 20,000 ($1.40) a day, can thrive in various ways, including starting an online business, getting married, and buying a house. It used creative elements like humor, quick pacing, and tight framing in the video campaign to keep viewers engaged beyond the first five seconds. It further personalized the video using YouTube Director Mix to create variations of the ad with headlines and images that spoke to the audiences’ various viewing interests, such as lifestyle, gaming, and family.
The video became one of the most-watched campaigns in Indonesia in 2020, reaching 56.9 million people. It achieved a 32% retention rate and averaged a 42% view-through rate, well above the industry benchmark.
Pond’s Men White Boost, winner of the Best Creative Personalization award
Skincare brand Pond’s wanted to connect with young Indonesian men and overturn negative perceptions of men’s grooming when it relaunched its product Pond’s Men White Boost in 2019. To successfully influence its audience, it tapped YouTube for its “Muka Cerah Pantang Nyerah” (Carry On with Your Bright Face) campaign.
The series of short, impactful YouTube videos features Pond’s Men White Boost users getting smacked in the face repeatedly and in various relatable situations, such as on a date, on a soccer field, or on crowded public transport. Despite life’s hard knocks, the Pond’s users always emerge with a bright smile and flawless complexion.
The campaign was intentionally slapstick to appeal to its audience on YouTube, who prefer entertaining content. The videos were also delivered to audiences with a high affinity using YouTube’s interest-based targeting.
The brevity and personalized humor of these ads packed a punch and drove results. The campaign achieved a 68% higher click-through rate than the best-performing Pond’s Men campaign, making it a top performer in the category. It was also a significant contributor to the total sales of the Pond’s Men line, which grew by 16%, more than 3X the target. This achievement was all the more impressive given that revenue in this category had been declining.
Tell meaningful brand stories with creative collaborators
Grab Siap Antar Ramadanmu, winner of the Best Collaboration: Brand & YouTube Creators award
When COVID-19 happened a month before Ramadan in 2020, it dampened the spirit of the season for many. Nevertheless, technology brand Grab wanted to reassure Indonesians that they could still enjoy the best of Ramadan and that the brand was committed to helping people celebrate the season by delivering what they needed, from iftar meals to Ramadan gifts.
To drive this message home, the brand leaned into YouTube’s content creator ecosystem and made audience participation the heart of its “Siap Antar Ramadanmu” (Ready for Ramadan) campaign. It invited people to share videos on YouTube of themselves lip-syncing and dancing to the campaign jingle; these videos were then featured in the campaign video. By collaborating with the people, Grab injected authenticity and relatability into its brand storytelling and created an uplifting sense of community during a difficult period.
The collaborative campaign resonated with audiences and achieved a 2.5% uplift on ad recall, as well as a 2.6% increase in brand consideration and a 1.4% increase in favorability. Its performance also surpassed the previous year’s Ramadan campaign, with a 16% higher completion rate and a 2X higher click-through rate.
Use creative storytelling across the full customer journey
Telkomsel Kuota Ketengan, winner of the Best Creative Effectiveness & Grand Prix awards
When Indonesian telco Telkomsel wanted to expand its reach in the market, it chose to focus on the often overlooked segment of young Indonesians who use mobile data for social media and have limited budgets. It created affordable data packages that gave users short-term or unlimited access to social media, and it marketed the offering using the idea of “ketengans,” which are cheap, single-serve sachets used to sell everything from shampoo to coffee in Indonesia.
Its “Kuota Ketengan” (Single-payment Quota) campaign comprised a series of vibrant, engaging YouTube videos that promoted its “ketengan” data packages. The campaign was amplified across the customer journey with a comprehensive YouTube media plan. It used broad targeting based on data package interest, followed by contextual targeting using TrueView in-stream and bumper ads to connect with 15- to 24-year-olds who were interested in media, entertainment, movies, social media, and photography. YouTube Discovery was also used to reach affinity audiences who searched for related topics on YouTube.
The campaign was a success, exceeding its target of purchase transactions by more than 30%. YouTube bumper ads used in contextual targeting also achieved a high click-through rate of between 0.12% and 0.17% range for each target group, surpassing the 0.05% benchmark. Broad targeting based on interest, on the other hand, achieved high view rates of 30% to 49%, exceeding the 20% benchmark.
With more than 100 million monthly YouTube users in Indonesia, brands have the opportunity to meaningfully connect with audiences and drive business results by leveraging video marketing. Find out how other brands tapped the power of YouTube to achieve creative and business success in the first YouTube Works Indonesia awards.
