INDONESIA’S DIGITAL

AND CONTENT

MARKETING REPORT

IN 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary

Key Findings

Overview of Indonesia’s digital landscape

The state of Indonesia’s digital marketing in 2017• Finding 1: Social media, the most effective marketing

channel; and B2B’s focus on content

marketing• Finding 2: Increasing shares of digital in

marketing mix• Finding 3: Average and median digital spending in

Indonesia• Finding 4: Key digital marketing problems• Finding 5: Clarity on digital marketing goals and

measurements• Finding 6: Most exciting opportunities: customer

experience and content marketing

Content marketing deep-dive• Finding 1: Content marketing main goals are

engagement & awareness• Finding 2: Most effective content type: written

articles and videos• Finding 3: In-house and outsourced digital

marketing; B2B vs B2C

About GetCRAFT and this white paper

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01GetCRAFT.com

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Indonesia’s digital landscape is rapidly growing with country’s over 260 million population along with rapidly rising number of internet users, striking 40% of social media penetration rate, and developing in-frastructure. Blessed with growing economy, digital literacy, and rising urban population, Indonesia has a potential to become a hotbed of digital creativity.

However, despite being one of the most attractive and lucrative markets in South East Asia for digital marketers, digitalization taking place across indus-tries still seems to be quite overwhelming for some players, and the practice of Digital Marketing in the country is still far from its optimum state.

The proliferation of digital platforms and improved technology savviness are making consumers more discerning about how they spend their time online. With this, there is a real emerging mindset shift among marketers, as they start to think as a publisher to lure prospects to their own channels with compel-ling contents, among other strategies.

GetCRAFT observed that a lot of marketers in In-donesia are still struggling when it comes to digital marketing. An online survey was therefore initiated across big cities in Indonesia (Jakarta, Bandung, Yo-gyakarta, and Surabaya) to capture general market overview and analyse the current state of the indus-try to obtain some valuable learnings.

Based on the findings from our survey, social media tops the list on the most effective digital marketing channel in Indonesia, with organic social media cam-paigns ranked first on the list, followed by social me-dia ads. This is mainly due to high level of active users across social platforms in the country, making ways for wide marketing campaign exposures for brands.

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In terms of digital investment, marketers surveyed will spend 31% of their total marketing budget on digital in 2017 (an increase from last year), which is translated into an average of IDR 1.9 billion annual spending on digital. This shows an increasing posi-tive perception of digital marketing as it allows more detailed measurements and optimisation for perfor-mance improvements. Marketers also realise that digital marketing campaigns focus on netting long-term returns and prove to be more efficient over time.

However, growth of digital does not come without challenge. Budget restraint along with skills and re-sources gaps are two main issues faced by marketers in Indonesia. Additionally, a striking 55% of marketers admitted that they still lack clarity about how their digital marketing activities drive business objectives. Whilst financial issue in digital practices can be coped with effective strategies through content marketing, a better knowledge transfer scheme, such as semi-nars, is necessary to close skills and resources gaps.

The white paper also goes into more details on content marketing, showing that the most effective content marketing types are articles and videos. However, the use of content marketing in Indonesia is primarily still aimed for customer engagement and awareness, not yet sales or lead generation.

There is further elaboration on each finding as to what drives every trend, what opportunity is available to be leveraged for better marketing performance, as well as some strategic advices on how to improve the dig-ital and content marketing initiatives for the readers. This white paper does not only showcase the state of the industry and market overview, but also aims to address key challenges and provide some actionable strategies for all marketers in Indonesia.

KEY FINDINGS

03GetCRAFT.com

1.Social media is the most

effective marketing channel

3.Average

digital marketing budget: IDR 1.9 billion /

year

4.Key digital marketing

challenges: budget restraints and skill/re-

source gaps

5.55% of marketers lack clarity on how digital

marketing drives busi-ness objectives

6.Most exciting growth

opportunities: customer experience and content

marketing

2.Marketers spend 31.5% of their budget on digital

1.Main content marketing objectives: engagement

and awareness

2.Most effective content

marketing type: Written articles and videos

3.On doing content : B2B prefers in-house, B2C

relies on agencies

On Digital Marketing

On Content Marketing (deep-dive)

TOTAL POPULATION

LAPTOP & DESKTOP

TABLET DEVICES

MOBILE PHONE

262 million

55% 40%51%URBANISATION PENETRATIONPENETRATION

YEAR-ON-YEAR CHANGE

YEAR-ON-YEAR CHANGE

YEAR-ON-YEAR CHANGE

106 million132.7 million

TOTAL ACTIVE MOBILE INTERNET USERS

123.3 million

28%

2%

+3%

-7%

NUMBER OF INTERNET USERS

47% of total population

69%

-1%

ACTIVE SOCIALMEDIA USERS

INTERNETUSERS

MOST ACTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS SHARE OF WEB TRAFFIC BY DEVICE

04GetCRAFT.com

OVERVIEW :INDONESIA’S DIGITAL LANDSCAPE

Source: Global Web Index, GSMA Intelligence, Statista, Akamai,StatCounter, Ericsson

YOUTUBE

FACEBOOK

INSTAGRAM

TWITTER

WHATSAPP

GOOGLE+

FB MESSENGER

LINE

LINKEDIN

BBM

PINTEREST

WE CHAT

49%

48%

39%

38%

36%

38%

31%

30%

26%

28%

21%

22%SOCIAL NETWORK

MESSENGER/CHAT APP/VOIP

THE STATE OF INDONESIA’S DIGITAL MARKETING IN 2017

05GetCRAFT.com

FINDING 1SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE MARKETING CHANNEL FOR MARKETERS, BUT B2B WILL PRIORITISE CONTENT MARKETING IN 2017

Digital Marketing channels’ effectiveness (B2B & B2C)

When it comes to measuring marketing effectiveness, what

works for each marketer may differ depending on their

strategies, business objectives, resources, target audience,

and more. Effectiveness often comes down to the return on

investment (ROI) of each initiative and this is where mea-

surements become pivotal in the decision-making process.

Our survey revealed that the majority of brands admit

that social media (paid and organic) is the most effective

digital channel to do marketing. Effectiveness level here is

gauged based on the rating (0 – 5 point scale) submitted

by each respondent, and they put social media on top of

the list. This could be due to several main reasons: its high

number of active users in the market (a third of the entire

population, or ~80 million), audience engagement-enabling

feature, cost-efficiency, and more – all of which encourage

06GetCRAFT.com

Social Media

Social Media Ads

Paid Search Marketing

Content Marketing

Influencer Marketing

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Sponsored Content

Email Marketing

Display Advertising

Webinar & Podcasts

Level of Effectiveness

brands to leverage this channel more than others.

Ranked third, paid search marketing is also deemed

effective as it enables better audience targeting. Indonesia’s

huge market asks for specific targeting to achieve more

relevant reach and prominent exposure – both of which are

offered by paid search marketing. Some of the most success-

ful social media initiatives are also combining organic and

paid campaigns, as the two have synergistic effects.

On the other hand, display advertising is ranked rather

low in terms of effectiveness. Interestingly enough, brands

are still investing in quite big amount of money for display

advertising but with the rise of ad blockers and improving

performance of native advertising, display advertising will

have to evolve or it would not survive in the market.

0 1 2 3 4 5

As social media appears to prevail over any other distribu-

tion channels, another interesting finding was revealed

when we compare how marketers in the business-to-con-

sumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) companies pri-

oritise their strategies for the 2017. B2C marketers align

their plan to focus on social media marketing in 2017, but

B2B marketers put content marketing on top of their pri-

ority list this year. This asks for further observation as to why

content marketing registers more importance over social

among the B2B marketers.

By nature, B2B firms are targeting key decision makers and

business owners — the cohort which requires a lot of

information in the process of their purchasing decision.

This makes content imperative in educating these people

about products and services which may be conveyed via

white paper, report, video, blog, article, webinar, and more.

An effective content marketing strategy is never a one-way

street; instead, it includes interaction and engagement from

Why do B2B marketers prefer Content Marketing over others?

Prioritised channels by B2B marketers

“Social media has a high penetration and reaches almost all internet users, which is a primary need for B2C - they would

like to leverage content marketing combined with social media to reach and engage consumers. In the case of B2B, since the

target is usually more well defined and smaller in number, it is possible to focus on pure content marketing.”

- Matt Wiggers, CEO at Havas Jakarta

07GetCRAFT.com

Level of Effectiveness

the audience or customers to not only facilitate knowledge

sharing, but also build brand loyalty. For B2B brands, this

means a lot as their buying cycle tends to be longer and

purchasing decision is likely to be more complex. But this

does not necessarily mean that social media channels are

overlooked by the B2B brands. Great B2B marketers uti-

lise it as one of the main distribution channels to do specific

targeting and reach out to their niche audience.

On average, marketers we have surveyed will spend 31%

out of their total budget on digital. This is an increase com-

pared to last year, according to 76% of them – with nearly

half of the total respondents admitting that this year’s in-

crease is less than 25% of last year’s spending.

On the flip side, almost a quarter (24%) of the total respon-

dents will not increase their budget allocation for digital

marketing in 2017. Their reasons may differ: financial con-

straints, business objectives and needs, knowledge and

skill gaps within the organizational structure, failure to

prove effectiveness in digital initiatives, or more. However,

this portion will have no other option than to decrease as

digital marketing will only grow and companies inevitably

will have to adjust in order to survive.

A big chunk (48%) of all marketers surveyed plan to rise

digital budget by less than 25% out of the 2016’s spending.

FINDING 2

MARKETERS SPEND 31% OF THEIR BUDGET ON DIGI-TAL, 76% SAY THIS IS AN INCREASE

Increase of Digital Marketing Spending in 2017

It is important to note that the actual amount differs for

each company size and revenue number across industries.

Whilst it seems healthy that the digital budget is increasing

within the marketing mix, it poses a question worth consid-

ering: is knowledge increasing, too? Although there is no

solid scientific evidence that marketing excellence is get-

ting better, digital is still promising a good bet as more and

more marketers are seeing higher ROI over time through

digital initiatives.

We are seeing significant digital campaign transformations

in brands from their formerly traditional initiatives. Digital

is inevitably taking shape in Indonesia, but this is not to say

that conventional marketing is neglected. Some of the most

successful campaigns combine both, and the key is really

finding the right formula of mixing them along with proper

measurements according to certain business objectives.

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Unchanged / by 0%21%

48%

24%

7%

To increase by <25%

To increase between 25-50%

To increase by over 50%

“Increased availability of data and tools for sharper targeting are the main drivers for increase in budget on digital. B2C

marketers are more knowledgeable and aware of the role of digital for their brands and this has created more confidence in using digital channels. On the other hand consumers are actively looking for information and transacting online that

are forcing marketers to build digital capabilities.”

- Pradeep Harikrishnan, CEO / Technical Advisor at IPG Mediabrands

The rising role of digital in the marketing mix today is

inevitable. Many companies are starting to shift away from

traditional media to eventually focus solely on digital as it

is considered more cost-effective. Another reason is also

because marketers are relying heavily on the market

behaviour. People spend more time on digital devices today

and depend on the information being showcased across

platforms to make a variety of decisions; marketers are le-

veraging this digital prowess to affect their targeted audi-

ence’s purchasing decisions.

Digital allows detailed measurements and optimisation for

better marketing performance, along with the ability to facili-

tate real-time interaction with targeted audience. Many other

new technologies are also driving brands to keep experiment-

ing and investing more to improve their digital excellence.

Moreover, digital marketing generally focuses on netting

long-term returns. More marketers are starting to become

more aware of this: as they add more permanent content

and attract or retain more followers, their results will start

to compound. Over time, this is a more significantly cost-ef-

ficient investment than any other traditional marketing

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Shares of Digital in Annual Marketing Spending in 2017

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Digital gains momentum in marketing

methods, proving a higher ROI when optimised properly,

no matter the industry.

The digital landscape is always changing and will continue

to do so. However, no matter the channel, customers will

always stay as the focal point of all marketing strategies.

Digital offers a bright future for marketers because as

technology improves, there will be more innovative, effec-

tive, and greater ways to serve the customers’ needs.

13.80%

25.64%

22.64%

31.03%

6.90%

> 40%

31 - 40%

21 - 30%

11 - 20%

0 - 10%

The growing role of digital in today’s marketing practice is

reflected in the increase of brands’ digital spending. Our

survey reveals that in terms of the amount being spent on

digital this year of 2017, the biggest chunk of respondents

(almost 25%) admit that they will spend IDR 251 – 500 million

this year only for digital marketing initiatives. The second

highest rank (covering inputs from 20.69% of the total

respondents) of annual digital budget is in the range of IDR

1 – 3 billion.

It’s important to note, however, that the data being showcased

here is based solely on our market survey and may relatively

differ in the reality of each marketer, depending on the size

*Average digital marketing budgets are calculated with exclusion of outliers (IDR >30 billion) in the market

FINDING 3

AVERAGE* AND MEDIAN DIGITAL BUDGET IN INDONESIA ARE IDR 1.9 BILLION/YEAR* AND IDR 875 MILLION/YEAR, RESPECTIVELY

Amount of Digital Marketing Spending by Brands in 2017 (IDR)

of the company, their spending interpretation, as well as

the definition of each digital marketing initiative they are

carrying out.

The numbers shown here are sourced from a variety of

industries, which may have different standpoints and in-

vestment priority. Companies that are reliant significantly on

digital as part of their business by nature would skew higher

on this scale.

It is also highly possible that over time the average number

of digital spending will ascend across the industries as tech-

nology advances and available skills in the market improve.

10GetCRAFT.com

3.45%

11.34%

9.34%

20.69%

20.35%

24.14 %

6.90 %

10.34 %

> 10 billion

5 - 10 billion

3 - 5 billion

1 - 3 billion

501 million - 1 billion

251 - 500 million

50 - 250 million

< 50 million

As marketers are getting better at learning from their

previous year’s marketing performance through different

quantifiable metrics, they now have better grasp of what

is working or not, and how much they should spend to

achieve certain objectives. They are willing to spend more

not only because of the potentials they are clearly seeing

in the market, but also because of the confidence in digital

based on its effectiveness that can be more clearly mea-

sured in comparison to the traditional medias.

Across industries, marketing spending eventually is pri-

marily determined by the revenue and company size, the

market’s competitive landscape, the nature of the business,

marketing objectives, capacity of resources, and their own

target demographics – as to how they behave along the

purchasing journey.

On a macro level, the rising budget for digital in Indonesia

is driven mainly by market condition such as intensive so-

cial media activities, high use of mobile, improved internet

and telecommunication infrastructure, as well as technolo-

gy-driven customers’ purchasing journey.

An evolving digital landscape in Indonesia is also driving

digital marketing spending across other industries. E-com-

merce, financial technology, fast moving consumer goods

(FMCG) and gaming, are namely some main industries

driving the growth of digital advertisement spending in the

country. This is also made possible by the government sup-

port, as they recently announced to invest as much as USD

1.5 billion in high-speed internet connection, pushing fur-

ther the development of telecommunication infrastucture

towards LTE.

Last but not least, the millenials’ buying power is also driv-

ing this digital budget increase. As these digital natives are

entering high-spend life and settling down through careers,

starting families and homes, they become the key targeted

consumers. Being digital savvy as they are, brands are beef-

ing up digital campaigns to reach this audience group and

this will only grow because over time brands will get better

and more efficient in performing digital campaigns.

A foreseeable trend is, a shift towards quality over quantity

when it comes to what the digital spending increase would

mean. Many marketers in Indonesia today are still primarily

allocating digital budget for volume-based advertising and

marketing strategies, but this is starting to change as they

are realizing that these volume-based metrics (e.g. impressions)

can potentially annoy or spam the audience.

The growing prevalence of consumers data is also progres-

sively transforming how marketers do digital marketing in

Indonesia. Continuous technology advancement will only

make it easier for everyone to attain data - and this will

not be the issue in the coming future. Marketers will be

required to develop more advanced and meticulous strat-

egies to reach a new level of personalised customer expe-

rience (CX).

It is expected that companies will spend more money on

higher level of data intelligence technology or stacking up

on more data analysts for better understanding on cus-

tomer behavior and what they need. It will not be about

‘how much’ one spends for digital marketing, but ‘how’ they

spend it.

Despite some current concerns such as digital effective-

ness, ROI, and rising trend of ad blocking, digital invest-

ment will remain a strong highlighted area, and will grow

even stronger in the upcoming future.

Annual Digital Marketing spending in Indonesia: what are the drivers?

What the future may hold

“Digital marketing budgets in Indonesia generally range from IDR 1 - 2 billion, with most brands spending 11-20% out of

their total marketing budget. This said, there are some outliers who are investing heavily into digital due to the fact that they can measure, optimise, and see overall better results - and this

trend will only continue to rise.”

- Patrick Searle, Co-founder and CEO at GetCRAFT

11GetCRAFT.com

FINDING 4DIGITAL MARKETERS’ KEY PROBLEMS ARE AROUND BUDGET RESTRAINTS AND SKILLS/RESOURCES GAPS

More than half (51.72%) of the brands surveyed admit that

budget restraint is the main factor hindering their Digital

Marketing initiatives, followed by skills and resources gaps

to make these initiatives happen (44.83%).

Our survey also revealed other issues including establish-

ing and sustaining customer engagements, lack of proper

tracking and measurements, and weak data analytical skills.

The latter two problems are highly associated with the second

biggest challenge, which is skills and resources gaps. Without

proper talents and capability, tasks such as digital marketing

tracking and data analysis would be affected, which may

result in campaign ineffectiveness. Furthermore, many

marketers are finding it difficult in moving past descriptive

analysis (how much/many/often), towards predictive anal-

Brands’ Biggest Challenges in Digital Marketing

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Budget restraint

Customer engagement

Skills & resources gaps

No tracking / proper measurements

Weak data analytical skills

No clear ROI

Dependency on third parties / agency

Lack of tools to help my digital marketing invitatives

No clearly defined goals

Misalignment between in-house team and third parties (agency)

ysis (big data use to optimise marketing campaigns, foresee

customer behaviors, and leverage opportunities).

Interestingly enough, no clarity of ROI scored rather low

in the survey regardless of the fact that there are signifi-

cant skills and resources gaps. To some extent, this reflects

a positive possibility that some marketers have already

proven the ROI through numerous digital experiments and

optimisation.

Closing these gaps are not easy and challenges will surely

take time to overcome, but some strategic actions can be

taken to start addressing these problems starting in an or-

ganisational level, namely by focusing on content market-

ing and investing more in education or knowledge trans-

fers.

Coping with budget restraints through Content Marketing

One possible solution to cope with the budget issue here

is through content marketing and sponsored content. The

traffic of content marketing campaigns compounds over

time, making them highly cost-effective. In Indonesia, run-

ning large high quality content marketing campaigns is gen-

erally 2-5 times more cost efficient than paid media. And if

desired, content marketing content can break-even or become

profitable by letting third party brands run sponsored con-

tent across different media platforms.

Content marketing in Indonesia also makes it easier for

startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to com-

pete in the same landscape with bigger players via social

media, of which costs are nearly zero. Content marketing is

actually so cheap that it is highly suggested that all kind of

companies (startups to SMEs to big, global brands) include

it in the marketing mix. One single article, for example, is

reusable for social media posts (across channels), blog post,

email marketing, and effective driver for organic SEO.

Another way to address this issue is by making an informed

financial decisions across different fronts, from determining

how to do the digital campaigns (in-house vs. outsource via

agencies), to prioritising initiatives according to the objectives

and needs, etc. It is also feasible for high upfront investments to

result in high ROI, if done properly with optimisations.

It is clear to see that the industry critically requires some

solutions to close these gaps. In some cases, the problem is

rooted on inadequate organisational support to invest in digital

developments via tools and training, or lack of proper struc-

ture that enables quick knowledge transfer among each oth-

er. Each brand is encouraged to closely assess their weak

points and start identifying the best ways to address them.

In order to achieve optimum digital literacy through knowl-

edge transfer, a streamlined, effective system has to be es-

tablished : from hiring an internal resources with relevant

capacity to continue growth, documenting all the mar-

keting processes and its results, to eventually facilitating

hands-on training from past projects and best cases.

The system also goes a long way and has to be expertise-fo-

cused. A non-traditional method such as “reverse-mento-

ring”, where younger employees introduces and teaches

new technology to an older colleague, can work well in the

digital landscape, as this practice implies reciprocity and

generates cross-generational trust.

In the macro level, conference, seminars or other sharing

sessions are needed to be more often facilitated in the

industry. Transparency in best practices can also be enabled

much more easily across the industry stakeholders with

the technology advancement. Facilitating an unbiased plat-

form to share insights, for instance, would help information

distribution more fairly and efficiently.

“In Indonesia, digital talents are very scarce - not because we are lacking great local talents, but due to the explosion of demands for digital marketing professionals from many com-panies wanting to go online. Meanwhile, budget restraints is

a result of the lack of knowledge on utilising digital marketing channels.”

- Timothius Martin, Head of Performance & Branding at Matahari Mall

13GetCRAFT.com

Knowledge transfer to close skills and resources gaps

FINDING 555% OF MARKETERS STILL LACK CLARITY ABOUT HOW THEIR DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGNSDRIVE BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

There is a knowledge gap among marketers in understanding

proper digital marketing measurements – and this is partly

due to lack of relevant skills and talents as shown on our previ-

ous finding. Whilst the majority of them have clear marketing

goals, almost half of them cannot really measure how their

digital campaigns contribute to the business goals. Lack of

agility to adopt new technology can also be the reason why

brands find it difficult to gauge their digital marketing strategy.

Successful digital marketers anywhere start with proper un-

derstanding of both objectives and their performance mea-

surements. In Indonesia, sadly, marketers are still struggling

to comply with both, resulting in ineffective digital campaigns.

In order to resolve this, marketers need to firstly identify what

goals they want to achieve for each of their digital campaigns:

Is it brand awareness? Is it customer engagement?

Brands’ Clarity on Digital Marketing Strategy

Lead generation? Subscription or web visit growth? Many

can be explored according to the unique nature of each

business and its needs.

In an ideal condition, both marketing and business objectives

are the same – say, increasing sales, and this happens rather

often in the e-commerce business. The purchase journey is

rather short and clearly quantifiable. On the other hand, in

some cases such as in most of the B2B industry, marketing

objective may be capturing leads, while the actual business

goal is sales increase – and here a gap exists.

However, minimizing this gap is possible through smarter an-

alytics which entails identification of different touch points

along the customer journey. Once identified, it would then be

easier for marketers to understand how they can convert leads

to the actual business goals and optimise it over time.

14GetCRAFT.com

No Clarity

45%

7%

48% Clarity on both goals andmeasurement metrics

Clarity on both goals, but NOT on how to measure

Why do B2B marketers struggle more on digital marketing?

Area of understanding in Digital Marketing, B2B vs B2C

Our survey revealed that there is a relatively fair split

among the B2C marketers when it comes to the understand-

ing of digital marketing. 52.17% of them admit to have clar-

ity on both goals and measurement metrics, and the re-

maining 47.83% have a difficulty in measurements.

B2B brands, however, appear to struggle more with only

16.67% of them are able to fully grasp both digital market-

ing goals and its success measures. A third of the total B2B

marketers surveyed have no clarity on either objectives or

measurements, and the remaining 50% admit difficulties only

in gauging their digital marketing performance.

By nature, the B2B companies deal with other businesses

whose buying cycle tends to be long and requires more parties’

consideration. Not all the touch points in the buying jour-

ney can be enhanced via digital, and they try to generate leads

hoping that their campaigns are closer to the end of the

marketing funnel to help them make sales – and this makes

digital seem hard to prove its ROI as quickly as expected.

In order to address this issue, B2B marketers have to realise

that digital marketing, especially in their case, cannot be

“There is a lack of industry-wide knowledge transfer when it comes to digital marketing best practices, as it is now done exclusively amongst group of companies or within

clients-vendor relationship, resulting in lack of knowledge, confusion of practices and measurement metrics. Hence,

education initiatives are needed to help marketers learn and refer to the best practices. Digital media companies also need

to start standardising their metrics, so results can be more clearly measured and compared.”

- Anthony Reza, Co-founder and CEO Indonesia at GetCRAFT

15GetCRAFT.com

ultimately tied to complete revenue attribution. Instead,

they can measure conversion rate or customer satisfac-

tion rate that could contribute to the company’s busi-

ness objectives. Some B2B companies even choose to have

bigger control in the buying process by digitizing it, for in-

stance by providing a self-service platform to help custom-

ers manage and customise their own inquiries, and enable

the company to track each touch point, collect more data,

and optimise it for their marketing purposes, among others.

Clarity on goals, BUT not on how to measure

Clarity on both goals and measurement metrics

No clarity

52.17%

16.67% 50% 33.33%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

B2C

B2B

47.83%

According to our survey, brands in Indonesia believe that

customer experience, content marketing, and mobile platform

hold the top 3 exciting opportunities to explore in the

digital marketing space this year.

The three areas are interconnected with each other and

can be leveraged with proper integration. The improvement

of customer experience can be done via great, relevant con-

tent that helps customers make purchasing decisions along

their journey through mobile devices. Given the potential

growth of mobile use in the country, brands can then focus

on the betterment of our customer experience through dif-

ferent types of content made accessible on mobile across the

different touch points.

FINDING 6CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND CONTENT MARKETING, THE MOST EXCITING GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES

Most Exciting Growth opportunities in Indonesia’s Digital Marketing in 2017

16GetCRAFT.com

Customer experience

Content marketing

Mobile

Social media

Personalisation

Big data

Automation

Omnichannel campaigns

Native advertising

SEO / SEM

Webinar

Social media does not score primarily high in the rank as the

channel is relatively getting saturated. Although there are

new apps / features rolling in and growing popularity such

as Snapchat, the market is not yet ready to consider this as

one of their significant touch point in the customer journey.

The different opportunity areas which are identified and

ranked here are not only based on the marketers’ percep-

tion on potential effectiveness and benefit consideration,

but also on the market’s habit and its readiness. Brands align

their strategies to match the audience’s receptiveness, ensur-

ing that they are using the relevant channels or familiar with

the initiatives, and whether they have a sufficient adoption lev-

el to make this viable.

Customer experience: more than just marketing objectives

When it comes to customer experience, brands can look

at the overall customer experience as digital touch points

which they can optimise to improve through, for example,

different kinds of engagements. Marketers’ focus are now

back on customers and how to improve their experience

with the brand. They realise that this is critical because bet-

ter customer experience can either strengthen or weaken

purchasing intent, customers’ loyalty, engagement, and

brand advocacy.

There are many ways that marketers can use to improve

customer experience. For instance, leveraging digital tools

by enabling automation, utilising customer data to provide

unique customisation, and even using mobile-first strategy

to delight the customers with high phone activities rate.

Practically marketers could go the extra miles by creat-

ing compelling contents to lure visitors (or prospects) to

brand’s website, specialised microsite, or social media ac-

count. Visitors will be eventually asked to supply informa-

tion that will later be used to market more directly to them.

This is when content marketing meets marketing automa-

tion technology in customer acquisition. Content market-

ing attracts visitors then marketing automation move them

through the buying journey.

Marketers could also mine marketing insights from the

data gathered through digital tools by diligently listening

to their voices on social media, you can even understand

their behavioral pattern, changes in lifestyle, or even un-

derstanding deeply what they really need to create new

stories to engage them, or even develop new services and

products to meet their demands.

What is also critical but is unfortunately often overlooked

is creating and nurturing the right culture for customer

experience-centric business. Organisational and operational

improvement in transparency, more seamless technology,

the culture of empathy and colectiveness or a sense of being

as part of an entity, would make it easier for the team to al-

ways prioritise customer experience above other things.

Content marketing holds promise as storytelling becomes

increasingly pivotal in any marketing strategies nowadays,

given that over time the cost per view for doing content

marketing is cheaper than doing paid and programmatic

media. Marketers are also realising that content marketing

also allows brands to communicate in much more ways to

the audience compared to paid media, hence there’s higher

efficiency to bring them closer to the business objectives.

Unlike other types of marketing, almost every opportunity

is a content opportunity – from new product release, hot

market issue, to even customer data, which can all be leveraged

through content. The opportunities are also existing across

numerous channels, from social media, news platform,

email, paid media, to offline events – all of which are sought

after by marketers in today’s digital era.

Marketers’ ability to incorporate customer journey with

their content marketing strategy will be crucial. By under-

standing every moment of the funnel to target the right

audience with the right story at the right moment, then it

will be able to turn audiences into customers, and further

nurture them into brand advocates. It is about creating the

right story for the right audience, when to inform or edu-

cate and when to entertain.

“Customer experience is one thing that should allow the company to genuinely differentiate itself, and that in itself

makes an exciting opportunity. Although customer experience professionals have been around forever, but as a profession,

less so. Finding genuine customer experience professionals is still quite hard here, but at least it is growing in importance.”

- Colin McDougall, Chief Marketing Officer at AXA Indonesia

17GetCRAFT.com

Why and how to take advantage of content marketing opportunities?

CONTENT MARKETINGDEEP-DIVE

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Our survey revealed that the most prioritised content marketing

goal is customer engagement, with almost 60% of our total

survey respondents putting this on their list. The idea of using

content to increase user engagement starts with understanding

the customers’ needs and their pain points, then deliver it

through insightful content. Marketers nowadays realise

that relevant content helps them to influence their customers’

behaviour through useful information wherever they are

within their purchasing journey.

The fact that social media activities are particularly high in In-

donesia is game-changing, as the use of content helps shift

marketing from ‘all about the company’ to ‘all about the

customer’, encouraging them to interact with the brand.

The second most prioritised goal of content marketing is

brand awareness, shown by 55% of our surveyed marketers.

Clearly, relevant quality content is imperative to help properly

define a brand’s identity and correlate it with their customers.

Brand awareness is imperative in any kind of marketing, as

FINDING 1CONTENT MARKETING IS GENERALLY BEING USED FOR ENGAGEMENT & AWARENESS, NOT YET SALES/LEAD GENERATION

it helps customers recognise and distinguish brands in a

competitive landscape.

In the chart, the first two content marketing objectives also

show that marketers are focusing on invoking brand loyalty

in the eye of their customers, proving that content market-

ing focuses on long-term instead of immediate results.

However, web traffic, although related to brand awareness

measure, is not scored as high. This shows that marketers

have started to shift towards value-based marketing objectives

with more personalized and higher business impacts, rather

than tricky numbers like web traffic that lacks context and

provides less meaning in the whole marketing strategy.

It is also worth noting that engagement, however, is one lay-

er closer to the end of the marketing funnel, bringing audi-

ence or potential customers towards the purchasing point.

It enable marketers to measure and sometimes predict the

conversion rate from awareness to targeted actions.

Content Marketing : Brands’ Main Goal

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Customer engagement

Lead generation

Brand awareness

Customer retention

Lead nurturing

Web traffic

Improve search engine rankings

Content marketing for B2B and B2C: goals VS measurements

When it comes to measuring success, brands in Indonesia

align their metrics with the objectives that they are trying

to achieve. B2C companies are prioritising metrics such as

social media engagement rate (likes, shares, retweets, etc)

and website traffic that can reflect how high their custom-

er engagement quantifies. For B2B brands, however, customer

engagement rate does not rank as high in their content

marketing measures scheme, but specific call-to-action such

as leads generation rate and subscription are on top of the

list.

The reason behind different tendencies between B2C and

B2B marketers in terms of measurements is rooted in the

nature of their business. Whilst B2C firms are targeting

general audience with relatively short purchasing cycle,

B2B companies are targeting businesses which tend to

take more thoroughly informed decisions and have longer

purchasing cycle. B2C therefore uses content to gain cus-

tomer engagement that can increase brand loyalty and put

them on top of their customers’ minds. B2B companies, on

the other hand, leverages content to help their customers

make an informed decision and shorten their purchasing

cycle.

“Lead generation is closer to sales and more suitable for B2B. In the case of B2C, the sales conversion on digital platforms

are yet to be developed fully and hence the preference for awareness &

engagement using content.”

- Pradeep Harikrishnan, CEO / Technical Advisor at IPG Mediabrands

Content Marketing success measures / KPIs

B2B B2C

20GetCRAFT.com

Today’s marketers are leveraging interactive content in

order to increase customer engagement. We have also

observed that interactive content tends to gain message

involvement and customers’ purchase intent than the static

ones. In such case, some are even measuring the depth of

user interaction with the website to see how engaged and

explorative a person is with a brand’s website content. Lead

generation, however, can be measured by specific call-to-action

that is included in the content. For B2B case in particular,

great content can better guide potential customer to a specific

landing page, which entails specific action that can eventually

be nurtured and converted into a quality lead.

0%0% 10%10% 20%20% 30%30% 40%40% 50%50% 60%60% 70%70%

Number of leads generated

Customer engagement rate

Quality of leads

Subscription growth rate

Website Traffic

Sales revenue

Lead conversion rate

Search engine ranking

Whilst the utmost idea of great content marketing is the

ability to do better storytelling, many formats are being put

into consideration by marketers in Indonesia when it comes

to communicating to their targeted audience. According

to our survey, written article is the most favorable type of

content they are using within their marketing strategies

based on its effectiveness. Our respondents rate written

articles with average score of nearly 4 out of 5 (with 5 being

the most effective). Types of written articles here can be a

news or feature article, sponsored article, blog post, how-to

or instructive content, and more.

Video scores the second highest on the content marketing

rank in our survey. The definition of a video here is now not

as narrow as advertisement video being put up on Youtube

or Facebook – but instead an extensive range of other vid-

eo formats. From creative campaign videos that bring light

to pain points, to customer testimonials and personalized

FINDING 2WRITTEN ARTICLES AND VIDEOS ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE CONTENT MARKETING TYPES

Content Marketing Initiatives : Level of Effectiveness

21GetCRAFT.com

Written articles

Videos

E-newsletters

Infographics

Case studies

White papers and reports

Webinars

Least effective

product demos, video will play a starring role at all stages

of the marketing and sales funnel in 2017.

In the future, video will account massively of all online

traffic, it is not only considered as the most effective way

to convey messages, but also key differentiator between

brands and their competitors.

The lowest ranked format in terms of marketing effec-

tiveness here is webinar, and this leaves so much room for

growth. As stated by many other studies, webinars can be

very effective as it offers very immersive content experi-

ence, real time content delivery, live interaction, and more.

It is important to note that however each marketer may

identify effectiveness differently, as they are measuring

content marketing metrics according to their own specific

needs, goals and business objectives.

Most effective

Video is gaining its power and is getting increasingly popular

within Indonesia’s digital landscape – especially among

youth. Video is considered to be more visually engaging, ex-

pressive, and easier to invoke to the emotions of the

audience. Although the initial production cost can be rela-

tively higher than written content, a series of videos with

consistent publication frequency can build loyalty and en-

gagement, which increases viewership over time and can

progressively bring down the cost per view. In another term,

the return on investment can be proven over time, with

stronger branding and engagement as a result.

The internet has always been dominated by text, but now

with technology advancement (and its continuous develop-

ment), video is getting more accessible to more people, and

it is becoming one of the most effective media in conveying

brand messages to audience. It is not only attention-grab-

“Video is getting increasingly popular among the marketers and consumers themselves. By nature, the ability of video to show specifically how to use products or its services, and its

engaging visual are making it vital in customers’ buying deci-sion process. To top it off, as the infrastructure provides more stable internet connections, video consumption continues to

rise. Best cases of video production and distribution have also shown that this method gets very cost-efficient over time.”

- Patrick Searle, Co-founder and CEO at GetCRAFT

Video marketing : building momentum in Indonesia

The power of written content

22GetCRAFT.com

The tendency towards written articles when it comes to

content marketing type is primarily based on the multi-purposes

and advantages it serves. When budget and affordability

are taken into consideration, written article can serve its

marketing purpose rather well as its production cost is

relatively lower than, for instance, video.

Written content can also help increase web page rank

through search engine optimisation (SEO) by using

relevant, valuable tags and keywords. It can definitely help

boost brand awareness if combined with strategic distribution

plan, e.g. via integrated channels such as news platform,

owned media, and social networks.

Written article also tends to be more recyclable over time

without much effort, some content can be updated and re-

published to convey messages to the audience. In Indonesia,

particularly, written content may be more effective to

deliver a message to a targeted audience as it is more easily

accessible, and quickly loaded, and simpler in comparison

to video and other marketing formats.

bing, video is reliable in conveying factors that text cannot:

emotion and personality.

Opportunities for video marketing is inevitably growing

as internet infrastructure in Indonesia is getting stronger,

more solid and stable. Growth of mobile and smart

phones allowing fast online video display is also driving

the marketers’ intent to focus more on this format. With a

highly visual content, video is becoming more preferred

to media consumption during tedious times, including

commute. We are also seeing exciting potentials for the

video marketing as there are more portals enabling easier

video consumption in Indonesia, combined with relatively

affordable connection schemes provided by telecommunication

providers in the market.

Influencer marketing is also playing its role when it comes

to video. Non-celebrities who like to share their interests

and make appealing content can now even gain their own

audience, creating a market which previously was non-exis-

tent. Brands realize the power of this format, and are leveraging

it through partnerships and professional contracts to

improve brand exposure and customer engagement.

Brands have to be able to create video contents that reso-

nate with Indonesian culture, understanding how they con-

sume information when your main objective is to inform

and what make them laugh or touched when your objective

is to engage with entertainment.

It is an ongoing debate in any market as to whether it is better

to do content marketing in-house or via external sources

with stronger strategic and execution capabilities. Apart

from skills and available resources, some other factors are

also typically taken into consideration, such as budget,

nature of the business, and its general marketing objectives.

Our survey revealed that a striking 83.3% out of the total

B2B marketers choose to do content marketing inter-

nally via specific in-house content team. On another hand,

more than half of B2C brands tend to rely more on relevant

agencies to help them execute their content marketing

initiatives. The rest however, have started to internalize

the process and own their dedicated team to do it – inde-

pendent from the support of external agencies.

Producing content is not only a matter of writing (or filming

or designing, in this matter). Ideally, it goes a long way:

FINDING 3B2B BRANDS INVEST IN DEDICATED IN-HOUSE CONTENT TEAM, WHILST B2C RELIES MORE ON AGENCIES

How Brands do Content MarketingB2B vs B2C

23GetCRAFT.com

from having the operational and general knowledge,

understanding of the objectives, proper collaboration, and

setting the right measures. This notion will then show it-

self what the chart aims to showcase and what reflective

means it offers to the industry.

It is fair to underline that this chart represents resourcing

propensity by brands from different types of industry in

Indonesia, across a variety of company size: from startups

and small-medium enterprises (SMEs) to big, global corpo-

rates. Thus some determining factors e.g. financial capabil-

ity, team capacity, market maturity, and audience may vary.

This finding calls for further assessment and industry at-

tention: will market dynamics outpace the agency model

– and if so, what needs to be done? Is there a critical neces-

sity to streamline the work and processes involved? What

move is right for both parties to spur growth? And more...

Outsource via agencies

In-house by specific content team

39.13% 60.87%

83.33% 16.67%

B2C

B2B

By nature, B2B content marketing tends to focus more on

shortening their customers’ purchasing cycle. It therefore

aims to enlighten their customers with insightful content

and proper call-to-action to better help generate leads.

With this idea in mind, it is considerably more effective for

them to involve sales/business development team in their

marketing projects to help deliver the message and accom-

plish their business objectives.

Among the majority of marketers we surveyed, indepen-

dence and internalization of marketing processes may be

a result of this situation. However, this does not always

come with adequate skills and resources. Reverting to our

finding about clarity on digital marketing, some B2B have

admitted that although they have set clear goals, they are

still struggling when it comes to measuring their marketing

initiatives in this digital era.

Whilst there is no absolute correct answer to every marketing

maneuver, the key suggestion is to have a complete realisation

on existing gaps and capabilities within the company itself,

and how to react upon it. Investing in in-house content team

for example, is not always easy. The risk of hiring wrong

talents and bad hire could be costly for the company, but

if done properly the company could operate their content

initiatives effectively and efficiently. To minimise the risks,

companies often hire some experts to conduct trainings for

their in-house team, ensuring they are well-equipped.

Working with an agency, on the other side, offers an in-depth

experience, advisory services to address possible knowl-

edge gaps, and objectively a set of expertise across the re-

quired niche fields. Whilst the costs required may vary when

compared to hiring in-house content team depending on the

company’s size and marketing needs, hiring an agency can be

highly cost effective as their existing structure diminishes

the costly risks of bad hire in an in-house team. Agencies also

offer a longer-term consistency as it eliminates the element

of employee turnover.

In the end, solutions may differ for each marketer depend-

ing on the company’s affordability, needs and objectives –

but the confusion is addressable through smart, informed

decisions.

In our survey we have discovered that B2C brands are

prioritising customer engagement when it comes to the

objectives of their digital marketing initiatives – and this

requires them to be highly innovative and captivating in

terms of content and how it is being delivered. Agencies,

having a forte on this specific area, gets into the frame and

have so far been able to capitalise in the market through

their creative approaches.

It has also been observed that brands working with agencies

on content creation (among others) can be more cost-effective

rather than they do it internally. Great and clear commu-

nication on content objectives and channels between both

brands’ and agencies’ sides can result in an actual effective

content marketing. Over time, this would result in higher

return on investment and less spending in comparison to

repetitive trials and errors that may come as the cost of

doing it in-house without the required expertise and direc-

tion.

“B2Bs’ tendency to rely on 3rd party is due to the nature of the job: for lead generation, it can be better to have the sales

or account representative involved, but overall we see that there is a trend that companies do not handle their social and content media in-house anymore. It is becoming more difficult

to bring an engaging campaign - more experience, knowledge and facilities are needed - and running that all

in-house becomes too much. ”

- Matt Wiggers, CEO at Havas Jakarta

Why do B2B brands internalize content marketing process?

In which direction should I go?

B2C’s reliance on agencies

24GetCRAFT.com

About

About this White Paper

GetCRAFT is Southeast Asia’s premier content marketing network. The company helps connects brands with 2,000+ vetted content creators and sponsored content channels for their content marketing, influencer marketing & bespoke native advertising needs.

This white paper is developed independently by GetCRAFT based on the market survey conducted in 2016 - 2017 across big cities in Indonesia: Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Surabaya. The sample size of the respondents is 150 coming from brands, agencies, and media. The demography of respondents encompasses managers, directors, VP and C-level market-ers, with brand categories spreading across the following industries: FMCG, retail, technology, e-commerce, tourism & hospi-tality, banking & finance, energy, manufacturing, and more.

For more information, visit our website : http://getcraft.comOr contact us at hello@getcraft.com.

25GetCRAFT.com

Matt WiggersCEO

Havas Jakarta

Colin McDougallChief Marketing Officer

AXA Indonesia

Pradeep HarikrishnanTechnical AdvisorIPG Mediabrands

Timothius MartinHead of Performance & Branding

Matahari Mall

Patrick SearleCo-founder and Group CEO

GetCRAFT

Anthony RezaCo-founder and CEO Indonesia

GetCRAFT

Patrick has spent the last 10 years in 3 different countries helping some of the world’s largest brands with digital. He is now on a mission to help Indonesian brands and agen-cies tell amazing stories that both educate and inspire people to take action.

Passionate in helping brands and companies to tell meaningful stories and give real impact to people’s lives, Reza has had 7 years marketing and advertising experience where he set up and led teams in McCann Erickson, McCann Digital, Sampo-erna Foundation, and Social@Ogilvy.

We are thankful for the valuable contribution to this white paper from :