Since its establishment in 1992, Bakti Budaya Djarum Foundation has been committed to its mission to support and preserve the rich cultures of Indonesia. With a firm commitment and ever-greater sense of responsibility to support the cultural and performing arts community devastated by the pandemic, Indonesia Kaya charged forward to produce and promote show events throughout 2021.  

 The most ambitious of these events was a hybrid six-part musical series called NURBAYA. Though we were prohibited by the client and the government from conducting the usual live media previews, in-person press conferences, meet-and-greets, and post-event media interviews, the agency requirement remained the same: to provide optimal publicity and media coverage pre-, during and post-event. As the media was experiencing a flood of online meeting and attendance requests on a daily basis, Red Havas was further challenged to achieve the necessary attention, interest and attendance from the media for our weekly 20-minute musical series. 

All media relations activities were conducted through earned efforts.  Our public relations campaign involved three strategic pillars: pre-event hype, community engagement, and sustenance.  

Hype before the launch was created by initiating a talent search throughout Indonesia for one of the lead parts. The pre-event campaign ran for five months, reaching seven key cities: Jakarta, Bandung, Jogja, Medan, Palembang, Makassar and Surabaya. Amplifying the publicity of the talent search in mass media, a media outreach campaign was implemented to enhance awareness, understanding and interest from the media in all key cities. The outreach included media visits, meet-and-greets, press releases, press conferences and interviews. 

A community outreach campaign was also conducted to spread awareness about the search among performing arts groups, academies and talent agencies. The talent search program was also an opportunity to create an organic digital conversation from the registered participants, as they were required to upload their acting talent in social media with our hashtag and tag. 

To ensure constant and steady media coverage for each of the six episodes, we developed a series of media relations activities that involved all platforms — online, social and electronic. We continued to approach media from all major regional cities, especially the seven cities we visited during the talent search phase. And of course, we pitched the national media, top online media and news-based social media accounts. A key content strategy was to highlight each episode’s theme in relation to today’s life and situation. Providing access to the lead cast, director and producers was also well-received by the media, providing a steady stream of stories and posts.