Digital Campaign Strategy to Increase Brand Awareness for Darlie Indonesia’s New Product ^†

Abstract

Darlie Indonesia aims to expand their products by launching variants of toothbrushes. This paper will describe Darlie’s strategy to increase brand awareness for their new products using the AISAS approach (Awareness, Interest, Search, Action, and Share). Marketing messages were delivered via Darlie’s Instagram account using the main hashtag #SikatDarliePastiFit and these features were utilized and categorized into three content pillars. Moreover, Key Opinion Leader (KOL), Instagram account of partners, and news online websites were also deployed to boost the reach of the messages. The results show that Darlie’s Instagram engagement is quite high, and KOL insight also shows good results. However, quiz participants did not achieve the target, since the quiz required participants to jump the AISAS process, from awareness into action and share, in a short time.

1. Introduction

Introducing a new product into the market needs a well-planned marketing campaign strategy. Competing in today’s economy means marketers have to find ways to break out of commodity status to meet a customer’s needs better than their competitors [1]. Darlie is a brand focused on oral and dental products. Darlie is well-known for their premium quality toothpaste and aim to expand their product by launching three variants of toothbrushes: Volcanic charcoal, Spiral clean, and Charcoal gold.

This paper will discuss Darlie’s digital campaign strategy, which was planned and executed by Suitmedia, an Indonesia digital media agency. The aim of this study is to find out how effective the strategy is to increase Darlie’s new products’ brand awareness. The findings of this study could provide references for other new product launching strategies using digital media.

2. Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy involves selecting and analyzing a target market and creating and maintaining suitable marketing programs which consist of a mix of marketing tools (product, distribution, promotion, and price) to satisfy the needs of the target market [1,2].

Darlie, Indonesia is known as a premium oral product brand. Young people aged 18–35 years old, SES A-B, who live in a big city where the Darlie product can easily be found, such as Jabodetabek, Bandung, and Medan, were targeted. They focused on people who appeared to pay specific attention to their appearance, such as individuals with bright teeth, and who were willing to spend a little more money to obtain premium products.

To promote their products, the brand referred to the concept of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) or the coordination of all promotional activities to produce a consistent, consumer-focused message [1]. In this case, Darlie promoted their totally new products and aimed to increase its brand awareness. The promotion and communication tools utilized by Darlie were their own media Instagram, a Key Opinion Leader (KOL), the Instagram account of partners, and an online news website.

3. Material and Method

This study is a descriptive study that describes the digital campaign strategy used by Darlie to increase brand awareness for their new product. To achieve their marketing objective, Darlie used several channels to reach as wide an audience and market as possible. To integrate these channels, Darlie used a specific approach and strategy to communicate their persuasive marketing message, as stated below.

3.1. AISAS

AISAS is a marketing communication funnel introduced by the Dentsu advertising agency in 2005 after the rapid growth of the internet globally [3]. The AISAS model consists of five stages

• Attention

In this phase, the brand continuously delivers marketing messages through their channel and their audience start to become aware and pay attention to their product, services, or advertising.

• Interest

In this next phase, interest begins to arise among their audience, who have already noticed the marketing message and might think that they need the product or service.

• Search

In this phase, due to growing interest in the product/service, the audience begins seeking more information on it by browsing and searching via the internet, collecting related information and checking product/service reviews and testimonies, etc.

• Action

After the search stage, the audience will make an evaluation based on the information they have gathered. This is a crucial phase, where marketing messages generate leads or sales, which turn the audience into the consumer. This means that the convinced audience will buy the product/service and make a transaction. Using another term, this phase can be called a conversion, which occurs when a prospective consumer takes the marketer’s intended action [4].

• Share

The marketer’s task is not yet completed after a sale. A brand should ensure that their consumer is satisfied with the product/service and are willing to share their experience on the internet, since the AISAS model was originated and supported by the internet. This activity of sharing can be manifested in many forms such as social media content, reviews and testimonials, comments on the website, etc.

The ease and interactivity offered by the internet make it possible for marketers to deliver their marketing message using the AISAS model. The prominent characteristic here is “share”, where an audience can become actively involved and become a marketing agent via internet networks.

3.2. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is the utilization of social media technologies, channels, and software to create, communicate, deliver, and exchange offerings that have value for a target market [5]. Social media has become a powerful tool for branding due to its ability to connect consumers in a more interactive and personal way [6]. Social media is also known as owned media, which is originally owned and managed by the brand. Social media is generally used by a brand to share content to their audience in various formats such as pictures, videos, text, audio, etc.

A survey by We Are Social in 2022 found that Indonesia’s social media-active users reached 191 million in January. The trend is increasing every year, indicating its potential for social media marketing. Among the popular forms of social media is Instagram, which is actively used by 99.15 million people in Indonesia, or 35.7% of the population [7]. Instagram also has many features and can accommodate contents in many formats. Thus, it can be concluded that Instagram is a good option for digital campaigns.

3.2.1. Instagram Marketing

Instagram is a photo and video sharing app/website, where millions of users can share their content to their followers. Twelve years since its initial release, Instagram has been equipped with many features: feeds, instastory, filters, carousels, reels, insight, Insta- gram for business, partnership content, ads, etc., which brings many advantages for personal and business use.

Basically, to start using Instagram as a marketing channel, a brand should prepare their Instagram profile, collect followers organically, and use their account as promotional media [8]. To attract followers and increase trust, a brand should regularly post content on their profile. Additionally, to ease this task, a brand should use the content pillar strategy for their content planning. Content pillars are 3 to 5 topics the brand will consistently discuss, amplify, and create content for on social media. Content pillars help a marketer gain clarity on their brand niche and also simplify content planning [9].

3.2.2. Influencer Marketing

Goldsmith and Clark argued that electronic word-of-mouth or information obtained from someone who has personally used a product has more of a substantial impact on consumer decision making compared to traditional marketing [10]. This phenomenon has been strengthened by online social media, where everyone can generate content. This indicates the huge effect of user-generated content culture, where regular people are able to contribute data, information, or media that then appears before others in a useful or entertaining way. The use of such content has seen rapid growth in recent years, in part because it is fairly inexpensive to obtain [11].

Using social media, ordinary people have started to post content and influence their followers [12]. Hence, their social media activities could affect the attitudes and behaviors of their followers. That is how they became digital influencers and how influencer marketing started. Unlike celebrities, influencers are thought to be more reachable, relatable, and believable [13].

Influencer marketing represents a USD 10 billion industry as of 2020 and is becoming of increasing relevance for many firms, especially those operating in a business-to-consumer environment [14]. In selecting an influencer, a brand should refer to the objective of the influencer’s marketing campaign. If a national or international brand wants to create awareness for a new product, then big influencers are the way to go. Not only do these accounts ensure sufficient reach, but they also allow for associating the firm with a face that is easily recognized—a factor especially important for brands with an aspirational image. On the contrary, if a client mostly cares about reaching an audience in a specific geographic location (e.g., national brands, local chains only present in some cities) or aims at creating content that is perceived as highly relatable, then smaller influencers may be the better choice [14]. In Indonesia, influencers should also be familiar with the term Key Opinion Leader (KOL) or people who have a large number of followers in their social media. The website Dreambox classifies the KOL into three categories: Nano KOL, who has 1000–10,000 followers, Micro KOL who has 10,000–100,000 followers, and Macro KOL who has 100,000–1,000,000 followers [15].

4. Discussion

Darlie’s digital campaign to increase brand awareness of their new product began in March–April 2022. The main media used were Darlie’s official Instagram account, the Instagram account of their partner, the Instagram account of a KOL, and a media publisher. Darlie applied the AISAS approach to deliver their marketing messages through these media. Generally, this campaign period was divided into five main phases:

(1)

Preparation

In this phase, Darlie’s marketing team and Suitmedia made preparations, conducted research, and started contacting media partners/KOL.

(2)

Teaser

After preparation, the team started to post teasers showing the Key Visual., followed by posting content on Darlie’s official Instagram account. Then, they continued posting content on the KOL Instagram story towards the end of the teaser period.

(3)

Launch

At the launch phase, the new products were officially launched and could be obtained on the market. Darlie enhanced their promotional message to gain more reach and awareness via KOL, their media partner’s Instagram, and a media publisher.

(4)

Amplifying

In this phase, Darlie tried to increase their number of audience to further the AISAS process.

Darlie not only needed an audience, they needed customers. Darlie made “The Product Sampling Activity”, “First Impression Activity”, intensify KOL post, and continued to post articles on a media publisher’s website.

(5)

Ramadhan

Darlie’s digital campaign was timed to coincide with Ramadhan, which performed with Ramadhan-related-content such as THR (Eid Fitr allowance), video engagement, shared stories from their audience, a photo competition, and also supported by a KOL post.

The first form of media used was their official Instagram account. Darlie regularly uploaded content categorized into three content pillars: (1) Trivia Quiz: content about a giveaway and quiz, (2) Trivia/ Engagement: the content of the quiz or Q&A to increase audience engagement, and (3) Product Knowledge: content focusing on sharing product knowledge and benefits. Content was spread to gain brand awareness via feeds, Instagram story, and reels. The results showed that Trivia Quiz and Trivia were content with the highest engagement, compared to Product Knowledge content. Darlie tried to engage audiences using a giveaway–quiz with a prize; CTA (call to action) captions were used in every post. Darlie also inserted the main hashtag for this campaign, #SikatDarliePastiFit. However, the problem was the quiz requirement. One quiz after the launch phase required the audience to buy the product and give their first impression.

The second form of media used was the Instagram account of their partner, which participated in reposting content from Darlie’s Instagram. There were four media partners that posted Instagram reels and Instagram stories.

The third form of media was Darlie’s KOL Instagram. KOLs as digital influencers are now considered more credible than traditional media. However, a KOL as an agent of marketing should possess criteria that do not contradict the image of Darlie as a brand. For this campaign, there were three new products with their own USP (unique selling proposition) and product differentiation. Differentiation is the act of designing a set of meaningful differences to differentiate a company’s offer with their competitors. Product differentiation can be distinguished into form, features, performance quality, conformance quality, durability, reliability, and ease of repair [16]. Thus, each KOL in Darlie’s new product campaign had their own product to promote, and they should represent the product image well.

Darlie’s marketing team conducted research and made a list of potential KOLs, then matched them with their brand’s timeline, budget, and KOL availability. After quite a challenging process of selecting a KOL, Darlie decided to use three macro–KOLs and one micro-KOL that posted Instagram reels and several Instagram stories based on a brief from Darlie’s marketing team (Figure 1).

The fourth media format was news media or publishers (Figure 2). For the launch phase, the suitable articles were a press release and hard-news article. While in the amplifying phase, Darlie was helped by a media publisher to post several articles related to Darlie’s new product. The article used was a feature light article, which was included alongside a promotional message.

5. Conclusions

Overall, Darlie successfully launched their new product using several digital media: their official Instagram account, Instagram accounts of KOLs, Instagram accounts of partners, and media publishers. The results show that Darlie’s Instagram engagement score increased to 3.708 and @darlie.id experienced an increase of 632 new organic followers. KOL engagement was also impressive and had good insights. However, Darlie seemed slightly rushed in this AISAS approach and pushed its audience to make a conversion through their Trivia Quiz content. Audiences needed to jump forward from the Awareness stage into the Action and Share stages in a very short amount of time. This might be challenging for a new product in its first official launch month.