How Go-Jek is disrupting the marketing landscape in Indonesia?

In the new age Digital Era it is not only what you are selling that decides the success of your brand but also how you are selling & marketing it

Founded in 2011 by Nadiem Makarim and Michaelangelo Moran, “Go-Jek” has become the most popular technology-driven personal ride-booking app in Indonesia. With the slogan “An Ojek for Every Need”, not only does it allow customers to arrange transportation quickly and easily using a smartphone application, it also provides an in-city courier services, food delivery services through Go Food, Go-Massage for massage service, Go-Glam for salon and beauty service, Go-Clean, and many other services.

Competitive pricing, reliability, and generally good service quality, has attracted increasing numbers of customers to Go-Jek. After it launched the flat rate promo of IDR10,000 for all services on June 2015, the search for Go-Jek has soared and it has become the most searched brand compared to the other famous personal ride-booking app, such as GrabBike, BluJek, and Uber.

How Go-Jek gained its popularity in Social Media?

As the pioneer of motorcycle taxi app in Indonesia, many digital marketing tactics were used by Go-jek to increase their social mentions, especially on Twitter and Instagram.

These are few things that managed to provoke the popularity of Go-Jek on Social Media.

Campaign Assessment Summary

• Unique Promos – One of their promos to boost up Instagram mentions was by holding a selfie contest with Go-Jek Drivers and posts it on Instagram by using #GojekDimanamana to win IDR100,000 credit. Another powerful promo of Go-Jek that significantly increased the brand awareness of Go-Jek on Twitter was the referral code promo to get IDR50,000 discount for those who downloaded Go-Jek app. Many people shared this promo on Twitter while using #GojekGotMeHere. 

• Good-Looking Go-Jek Drivers – Not limiting itself to men as chauffeurs it has also hired beautiful women. These good-looking drivers have successfully garnered the attentions of many netizens. Many “memes” created out of these drivers’ photos have gone viral on Social Media, especially on Instagram with #MemeGojekKece & helped in creating a differentiation factor for Brand.

• Rejection from Traditional Ojek – There were many protests that came from local Ojek, even violent actions toward Go-Jek drivers from these local Ojek, but it only served in intensifying Go-Jek brand awareness among the people. These violent cases garnered people’s sympathy & there were many shared tweets to support Go-Jek drivers using #SaveGojek.

With the emergence of personal ride-booking apps along with the demand for such services it is not the service itself that will differentiate them but the innovative digital campaigns that these new age internet start-ups leverage to market them aggressively are the strategic plays that will differentiate them from traditional incumbents.