Political ads can go either way – it can be good or bad; for GO-JEK, its fictional politician is raking in massive positive engagement. The Indonesian-based ride-hailing platform introduced its character in January 2019; the intention is to make him the face of this all-new politically-inclined campaign.

The fictional politician, going by the name Aji Mumpung, has a very active Twitter account that shares GO-JEK’s promotions; he also posts on other things like social issues of the day and his daily walkabouts/visits. Boosting his offline presence are the outdoor posters and billboard that sport his likeness. These are put up alongside real political candidates who are competing in Indonesia’s 2019 elections.

At press time, Mumpung’s Twitter is topping 4,600 followers. The idea, according to Vijay Anand, Senior Vice President, Creative, GO-JEK, rides on the election fever that now grips Indonesia.

“Since elections happen to be a hot-topic right now, we thought it’d be cool to do something fun; a campaign that will catch our consumers’ eyes. We took angles that focus on helping users save money and stretched it to tie into our discount promotions. It all started out by creating a fictional politician who shares about creating plans to help the people. Our social team worked hard to get him trending for three days and even get mentions during the presidential debates. As a result, most are labeling this idea as ‘Harvard Level Marketing’,” Vijay shared.

When the reveal came, response has been overwhelmingly positive. Since Mumpung did not take any sides, Indonesians of all walks of life love how engaging he is. The GO-JEK character is so popular that his outdoor pieces are now hijacking the narrative from other real political posters.

“Even famous social media celebrities and key-opinion leaders are sharing billboard real estate with [Mumpung],” Vijay added.

Of course, it seems like the Aji Mumpung campaign came out at the right time; it is now riding this huge wave of interest for politics as Indonesia goes into election overdrive. For Vijay, the presidential debate push the narrative far and wide as interest on Mumpung shot up.

“The development of the character took much research on existing pop culture and the realities and humour of political advertising; specifically, those that locals are so familiar with. This, coupled with sharp content ideas from the social media team and creatives, help build a famous character everybody would love in under two weeks! The key thing here was that everyone had fun doing it,” said Aaron Gomez, Vice President, Digital, GO-JEK Creative Labs.

How this will unfold later on will be something to keep an eye out for. The massive positive response proves that with the right focus and attitude, even a fictional politician can ace this race.





Text by: Victor Yap