Telum caught up with Eddy Suryadi, Head of Sales Marketing from Gushcloud Indonesia to get his insights about the state of influencer marketing in Southeast Asia, how brands can leverage influencer marketing to step up their communications efforts and trends he's most excited about in the year ahead.

Can you share the state of influencer marketing in Indonesia today as compared to other markets in the Southeast Asia region?
Influencer marketing in Indonesia is still rapidly growing, making it one of the leaders in Southeast Asia’s digital landscape with an annual growth rate of 10 to 11 per cent. With over 191 million social media users, surely influencer marketing is something that brands will always consider.

Influencer marketing across Southeast Asia exhibits diverse characteristics influenced by each country's digital landscape, social media usage, and consumer behaviour. In Indonesia, we see the continuous growth of nano influencers both in Instagram and TikTok, thanks to the true diverse landscape of Indonesia and its huge amount of social media users, helping brands execute hyperlocal marketing campaigns tailored to specific cities or areas, ensuring they're attuned to the local context.

While for countries like Singapore and Thailand, they are more focused on the utilisation of micro and macro influencers with a strong emphasis on beauty, fashion and lifestyle sectors.

What are the common misconceptions that brands should know about influencer marketing in Indonesia?
From my experience, I have identified several misconceptions:

• Influencers are content amplifiers

We cannot think that influencers are simply a brand’s content amplifier. This is because effective influencer marketing in Indonesia should involve authentic storytelling and audience engagement.

• More followers = Better results

It’s not about us selecting influencers based on their numbers of followers. We should also deep dive into more detailed metrics like audience interest, brand affinity and followers' credibility. In many cases, utilisation of smaller but highly engaged audiences delivers more impactful results.

• A one-off campaign is enough

A one-off campaign with influencers will only put them as an amplifier. In Indonesia, we see the growth of long-term partnerships between brands and influencers so they can build a consistent brand message, trust and showcase brand loyalty.

What measures do you put in place to protect brands from potential risks when working with influencers?
There are several steps to consider before engaging influencers. The first step is to do a thorough curation process by understanding some important metrics. We do have proprietary tools where brands can generate a deeper insight and understanding, to ensure the influencer aligns with the brand’s values.

It should be mandatory for brands to provide brand guidelines as well as ask influencers to get content approval from the brand first to maintain a consistent messaging, tone and style. A clear contractual agreement and compliance with regulations to ensure all content are within the guidelines or any social media regulations, as well as clear in terms of intellectual property rights, exclusivity and confidentiality. This will help to protect the brand from potential legal issues.

Last but not least: post-campaign monitoring, as we need to track the effectiveness of the campaign and help in planning future collaborations. This includes media monitoring / listening tools, which are also key factors for agencies and brands to track public sentiment and help brands to monitor and respond quickly to any potentially harmful content.

⁠How should brands balance social media efforts between brand awareness and boosting sales?
Balancing social media efforts between brand awareness and sales requires a strategic mix of content, media types and timing. There’s no one strategy that fits all objectives. So defining clear objectives for each stage is very important.

Use owned media to build a long-term brand identity and engage with audiences consistently. Leverage this platform to provide detailed product information clearly and attractively, and also highlighting user-generated content as well as posting regular updates or special offers.

Paid media can be used strategically to increase reach and target specific demographics, aligning with awareness goals.

Earned media can create social proof that drives both awareness and sales. Encourage reviews, shares and mentions by creating shareable content and inviting customers to share their experiences.

What marketing and communications trends are you most excited about in the coming year?
I would say AI Integration will still dominate the trends. AI is set to revolutionise marketing strategies by enabling hyper-personalization, predictive analytics, and automation of routine tasks. This allows brands to deliver tailored content and optimise campaigns in real-time.

Another thing that is also interesting is the power of an integrated shopping experience. In Indonesia, TikTok partners with Tokopedia, and just a few months ago, YouTube launched YouTube shopping in partnership with Shopee. This integration allows and enables creators to showcase and sell products directly through their social channels, offering viewers a seamless shopping experience. As brands really care about the return on investment and sales impact, we can expect another big thing in the coming years that offers a merger of content creation with e-commerce.

Eddy Suryadi has been helping brands build and maintain awareness through social media, communications and marketing strategies for over 13 years. At Gushcloud Indonesia, he collaborates with brands to coordinate their marketing and communications efforts, particularly through influencer marketing.