Ramadan is one of the largest shopping events in the retail calendar – think of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US with all e-commerce merchants offering special Ramadan deals. Ramadan is also a time when consumers have extra disposable income thanks to the seasonal Ramadan bonus from employers.

It’s a perfect momentum for Google Search to re-introduce its Shopping feature which answers consumers’ needs to compare different prices for the same item across various e-commerce sites on one single platform.

The challenge was to break through from the cluttered media environment of Ramadan in which many eCommerce sites themselves are competitively promoting their deals to consumers.

The objective of communication is to increase search queries relating to Ramadan shopping, particularly in the three strategic categories of Fashion, Beauty and Consumer Electronics.

THE MEME-TERVENTION

Engaging with Ramadan shoppers with a format that Indonesians are used to share with each other during this time period - Memes.

Memes have become a shortcut for our audience to convey even the most complex messages in an instant with a simple picture. And during Ramadan, the usage of memes is heightened as they also use this platform to greet friends and family.

So we decided to hop on the pop culture wagon and used meme-inspired imagery and language to deliver our message and differentiate ourselves with other brands that uses too much sentimentality that has become a cliche in Ramadan season.

Though Indonesians have extra spending power from their 13th-month salary - thriftiness and general Indonesian shopping behaviour as ‘value maximisers’ still applies. They go back and forth between e-commerce platforms to find the best price from trusted sellers and ensure they are not missing out on a better deal.

Google Search through its shopping feature plays the voice of reason, so users are well-informed and make wise decisions with their Ramadan purchase.

Multiple 15-second videos were created and shown across YouTube and Social Media.

The videos took cues from the language of memes that the audience was already familiar with. This was inspired by our finding that our audience spends a third of their online time on social media (source: GWI, 2019). Furthermore, memes have increasingly become top choice for consumers to convey information. Therefore, they are well versed in the tropes and imagery of internet memes.

We used popular meme aesthetics and vernacular to convey what happens when someone stumbles upon an irresistible shopping item, whether offline or online.

This campaign also utilised contextual banner ads which was paired with a relevant meme with relevant shopping category.

It didn’t take long for our consumers to create their own memes that poked light fun at impulsive shopping, kicked off by memes posted by influencers.

This campaign garnered an engagement level of more than 4.4 million on social media, and indicated that it was successful in creating a conversation around the work, and also around the product.

It helped increase relevant Search queries during that period by a whopping 9.9%, which is 98% higher than the intended query uplift. This is a large number considering that Indonesians are already using Search for many other purposes.

Google’s mission has always been to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Before, Indonesians turned to Search to find general information and learn about topics of interest. As technology evolves, Search has the opportunity to provide information beyond what is expected by our audience.

This campaign helped change a deep-rooted perception. More importantly, it has changed the behaviour of Indonesians: getting them to use Search to make better decisions in their daily lives.