Indoeskrim, from Zero to Viral
Ice Cream [īs-ˈkrēm]

Ice cream. Who doesn’t love them? The soft, creamy texture that melts in your mouth. Indeed, ice cream is the perfect dessert in tropical weather country like Indonesia. Several brands are already available within this market in Indonesia, each with their own target market and brand identity. Few of the top sellers includes Haagen-dazs and Baskin Robins targeting the upper class, Campina and Wall’s for the middle class, and the new comer, Aice, which targets the lower class with their unbelievably cheap price. Being on the top of food market, Indofood as the producer of Indomie, entered the ice cream market as well. In which they joined hands in partnership with Japan based ice cream company, Meiji. This affiliation resulting the birth of Indoeskrim in 2008. Although being in the market for quite awhile, strangely enough this brand is not as well known as other competitors.
Indoeskrim?
As an Indonesian myself, frankly, few months ago I’ve never heard of Indoeskrim. Even less in buying or consuming their product. It could be said they don’t have enough brand awareness, being around for almost a decade, and still lacking brand awareness… sure it won’t be easy to suddenly increase them over a month whereas those good 10 years are still no good.
So, how could they raise their brand awareness? Indoeskrim sure does a great job at making their advertisement.

It became viral.
A good advertisement may increase both brand awareness and increasing the market. Great advertisement could also be a part of brand identity while gaining more marketing by having people talk about the said advertisement. That certainly is the case for Indoeskrim, their commercial became a huge hit, that it reaches 2 million views over a week after they uploaded the advertisement. Moreover, after it was reposted by 9gag, it became a hit meme, and known both locally and internationally. The post by 9gag’s instagram account reaches more than 10 Million views within a month after the advertisement is published.
How did that happen?
Surely, that’s the question on your mind right now. Exactly what kind of advertisement that could gain such response. It must be a great one with stunning visual, touching message, great actors. If that is what you’re expecting, then sadly you’ll be disappointed.
It was crappy.

The advertisement was so crappy and cheap that it kept playing in your head, even against your will. Set in ancient Javanese kingdom complete with soap drama plot, bad audio quality and sloppy CGI that even trainees could make. It was the worst combination ever. Not to mention the weirdly placed fridge in the middle of the forest, the use of GPS in ancient era, and yes, they do use smartphone to operate the GPS. The advertising was so absurd that it was good.
As bad as it was, job well done for this advertisement. How should I rate Indoeskrim’s advertisement? Well, I can’t say much but quoting from 9gag: “I want some ice-cream now.”
