There Is Always A Way to Go Viral on Social Media

Is Gojek Indonesia's marketing campaign in 2019

"The perfect way to use social media as an exposure ❤️" -@Tyobian ?

A driver of Gojek, Indonesia’s ride-hailing company like Uber, delivered Indonesian local foods to Los Angeles in 48 hours after Brian Imanuel Soewarno (Rich Brian), a famous International rapper from Indonesia, poured his cravings on Twitter.

Twitter Threats of Gojek Indonesia and Rich Brian

As soon as after 88rising, an Asian-focused music label behind Rich Brian posted a picture of a Gojek driver delivering food to Rich Brian's house in New York, the event went viral instantly and drew local and international media attention!

You may think that it is only a gimmick - which might be true because the event happened on the same day as Gojek launched a campaign 'There Is Always A Way' (Indonesia = Pasti Ada Jalan). The campaign marked the 'fresh' start of the company's ambition as a leading tech company by entering international markets and making Gojek a world-class workplace. Some communication initiatives were undertaken to communicate the campaign message, especially on social media, including this viral event.

Thanks to Rich Brian’s fans and Gojek’s followers who kept retweeting, and reached wider netizens. Some Twitter users considered the event as an excellent social media marketing, so they were interested in being involved in the conversation.

From the social media marketing perspective, Gojek’s campaign reflects how powerful (electronic) word of mouth is.

Why Twitter?

Gojek used Twitter not only to respond to Rich Brian's craving but also to attract the public and media on an international scale. Most of Gojek's customers were on Twitter given the highest number of followers, more than 1 million (as of 17 March 2022), among its other social media. Meanwhile, Rich Brian has over 2 million followers and 88rising has more than 570 thousand as of 17 March 2022. A large number of ready-made followers benefit the company to engage a broad global audience caused by the simple action of retweeting, thus "going viral" likely to happen. Under those circumstances, Twitter was a worthwhile channel for Gojek to enter a global market where thousands of netizens, even other local prominent brands, can involve in the thread through tweet replies or retweets.

The Actors

Applying Kaplan and Haenlein's concept of messengers of viral marketing campaign, I tried to identify actors of this Gojek Indonesia's marketing campaign:

• Rich Brian could be a market maven as he has a large amount of marketplace information and actively engage with his fans on Twitter

• 88rising could be the social hub because of its large number of social connections from its artists, for instance, Joji, NIKI, Keith Ape, and Higher Brothers.

• Netizens (fans, fans’ followers, followers’ followers, you name it!) may be the salespeople that helped amplify the message by giving responses, which subconsciously made the event and the tweet more relevant and persuasive to other netizens.

The next question may be...

Why Rich Brian?

Rich Brian is a millennial International rapper from Indonesia who started his music career on YouTube in 2015. He was recruited by 88rising, an international record label and creative agency focusing on Asian talents in 2018. He has gained popularity because of his achievements, such as being the first Indonesian-Chinese rapper to hit #1 on the iTunes hip hop chart with his debut album Amen.

Here, Gojek selected an opportune celebrity. Rich Brian is not only physically attractive but also familiar to target audiences. His background aligned with the company's image. Both Rich Brian and Gojek are from the same country with great achievements and have a similar target market and communication channel of social media).

The representation of a company's brand values through human-being presence make the brand more personal and relatable with the consumers, so-called brand anthropomorphism because people tend to relate to the world around them. They connect themselves emotionally with distant celebrities, speaking as if they know them, and forming a strong relationship with them.

Memorable and Interesting Message

Despite the messengers, Kaplan and Haenlein also pointed out the importance of memorable and interesting messages to succeed in the viral marketing campaign.

Gojek's initiative of delivering local food to New York city draw extensive public attention, because it was an 'extraordinary action'. The interaction between Rich Brian and Gojek's Twitter admin seemed natural as the conversation did not necessarily promote the tagline, rather expressed excitement. The use of information-based content and conversational human tone on social media is effective to gain trust and enhancing a long-term relationship with customers, especially in a high-context culture, such as Eastern countries like Indonesia.

Lastly... Is it a

Pure Luck?

Hmm, tough question.

Kaplan and Haenlein categorise social media viral marketing campaigns on social into four groups, and one of them is “strokes of luck”. It is an unexpected event that became viral and benefits the company.

Referring to the analysis above, I would say that Gojek’s case is not a lucky viral event. Assuming that the company was truthful that the event was pure luck, however, audiences were not informed about how the company delivered the food. Also, based on my observation, most news articles in local and international media reported the viral event from the same angle. They only presented the event chronology, and only a few of them interviewed the Gojek team. It may have something to do with the company's framing strategy in which information has been decided by the company and is presented in such a way to make it salient to the public.

All in all, Gojek Indonesia could be considered a smart social media expert. They empower netizens to make their campaign viral. There's always a way to be viral!

What do you think? Have you ever found other similar cases?

Share your thought(s) in the comment section below!

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References:

Kaplan, A. M. & Haenlein, M. (2011). Two hearts in three-quarter time: How to waltz the social media/viral marketing dance. Business Horizons, 54(3), 253–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2011.01.006

Zhang, X., Tao, W. & Kim, S. (2014). A comparative study on global brands: micro blogs between China and USA: focusing on communication styles and branding strategies, International Journal of Strategic Communication, 8(4), 231–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/1553118X.2014.886251