Social Media Content

Short and chunkable think pieces on trending topics for @rompimpah social media account

Being a strategist demands me to stay up to date with what’s going on in the world and to be able to connect the dots between a trend and a larger narrative. During my tenure at romp, I took the initiative to turn some of the trends I’ve observed into content for the company’s social media page. Below are some examples of the posts that I’ve written.

In his book ‘Sneakonomic Growth’, author Dylan Dittrich explains that today’s sneaker culture plays by the same rules as trading stocks — or in our opinion, like collecting fine art. #Sneakersheads are not something new, but they are certainly a subculture that continues to grow. Mostly young, eager and well informed, these consumers represent a new breed of ‘collectors’. A pair of Air Jordans or Compass shoes are certainly not as expensive as a Mondrian painting, but they can act as access point for young people today to own and collect items that may sell at a higher value later in the future.

The law of scarcity also helps. As people, we always want what we can’t have or might not be able to have. So when a pair of shoes comes with a limited edition tag, our perceived freedom of choice to buy what we want, when we want it feels threatened. We’ll start thinking: what if I don’t make the purchase, and regret it later?

Since it started trending in March, #Dalgona has managed to become the most Google searched type of #coffee worldwide, boosting the sales of instant coffees in the process. But it didn’t stop there. With articles still being written about the drink as early as eight hours ago, the trend has also been adapted onto bubble teas… pastry toppings… donut stuffings… jellies and even martinis, both by budding entrepreneurs and chain stores alike

Can we say this is a new flavor? Or is this a one hit wonder? Who knows. Dalgona is not the first food trend, nor it will be the last. But if anything, it is proof of just how far humans are able to ‘make do’ with what we have. We can stay home and still have instagram-worthy treats. We can still bond over the shared experience of straining our muscles from whipping coffee. And with any culinary hypes, there will always be people who simply wants to taste it, those who wants to try making it and those who sees the business opportunity to take it beyond.

Less than three months since its release, #AnimalCrossing New Horizons have become the biggest single game launched on the #NintendoSwitch. But the most interesting part about this game isn’t its sky rocket figures (13 miliion copies sold worldwide!) or its timings with the current situation (escapeism and entertainment in the middle of worldwide pandemic)

Rather, it is how – despite the cheerful and family friendly graphics, the platform could be adapted by just about anyone. Muslims are using the game to host in-platform suhoors. Couples are holding symbolic weddings. Friends are coming together for happy hours and birthday parties. A dominatrix is using the platform to connect with its clients. Players are also able to visit Singapore’s Sentosa Island, LA’s ‘Urban Light’ installation, Indonesian warungs, watch virtual talkshows or dress themselves in high end designer coutures

Everything about the game is deeply personal, yet communal all the while. It gives you freedom to decide who you are and what you want to do. You can drop in or drop out as you wish. It is infinite, yet real time. And so at heart, it allows people to simply exist and share virtual spaces in a way that imitates real life, connecting with others at a time when it is most needed and when ‘likes’ or two dimensional faces on a screen could not suffice

What about you? Why do you play Animal Crossing?

The market for house plants are blooming, with some mom & pops and e-commerce stores saying that they are able to double their sales in the past few months. Is this another new hobby that people picked up whilst staying at home, or are they here to stay?

Though the rise of a foliage fans might seem like a current hype, today’s generation love affair with plants have been building up these past few years. And why that is because it has a lot to do with the way modern people behave.

As people spend more time on screens, the more they crave to do things with their hands and slow down a bit. Fewer young people are also now owning their own place, and house with outside space is a luxury especially in the current urban landscape. A potted plant, be it succulents or a monstera, caters both needs: it helps nurtures a sense of self love and wellness, encourages people to slow down and offers a sense of permanence – especially during a time where things seems uncertain.

Bikes are booming, especially for the past couple of months. Is this another pandemic fueled trend, or are these riders here to stay?

A recent survey done by research company Jajak Pendapat shows that out of 1047 Indonesian cyclicts, 76% of them have only bought their bikes in the recent months. 49% of these cyclicts consider themselves social bikers, 28% of them consider themselves followers.. and only 23% are health enthusiasts. The trend to cycle have always had its ups and downs. But where fixies were once considered ‘hipster bikes’, the need for cycling today may be fuelled more by context rather than lifestyle.

So maybe.. maybe it’s less about not being able to go to the gym, or about staying healthy. Maybe biking today, for most people, is about mobility. It’s having the option to go out of the house, to connect with friends and family in a safe and controlled way. Maybe most people just simply misses the sun and the wind in their faces. Whatever the reason, may we all remember to stay safe.

From Travis Scott to recently BTS, it’s fair to say that Fortnite is showing us how gaming platforms can become a whole entertainment venue by itself. And while there are plenty of articles diving deep into how the platform is forging the path for virtual concerts in the future, we were more intrigue by Fortnite’s ability to engage with different fandoms – both separately or all together.

Fortnite, by default, doesn’t charge its players to play or win – but charges them for looking cool while doing it. Users can buy skin or emotes, two features that are ripe for collaboration on its own (recently, they partnered with Marvel). Fortnite’s Party Royale Mode (a combat free zone where players can just hang, as opposed to killing each other) creates a space not only for gamers, but for different types of people to come together (regardless of background, demographics or interest). Simply put, it doesn’t try to define any fanbase – but embraces and provides a space for these fanbases to congegrate.

Combine these two factors together, and you’ll have the building block to build not only an immersive virtual experience, but an entirely new industry – filled with endless possibilities of cocreation between audience, IPs and companies. Now, doesn’t this sound like something brands could – or should potentially tap into?

If you were to take a wild guess, who would Fortnite engage with next?

The future of entertainment includes a genre driven by women and fancition. Fiction, by default, has always been a female domain: studies by Nielsen Book Research have shown that women outbuy men in all categories of novel except fantasy, science fiction and horror. Not only buy, women also read more books (nine per year for women, as opposed to five per year for men).

The same pattern can be observed on the Internet. Fanfiction, or fanfics for short – are mostly written by young women, with a median age of 15 and a half. Often associated with “plot less romances” or “literary porn” (partially thanks to Fifty Shades of Grey), a study by MIT found that these women are motivated to write simply to “become better at it” and to “gain mentorship directly from the community channels on fanfic platforms”. It’s also proving to be paying off, as more and more fanfics today are being adapted onto screens.

Fifty Shades raked in $572 million in box office. The Kissing Booth, Netflix’s 2018 most watched “coming of age” movie was adapted from Wattpad. As many as 14 Indonesian movies since 2017 have also been sourced from the same platform. So while it’s easy to brush fanfics as another subculture of the Internet, there’s no denying that (1) it pays off to know your captive market really well (2) women are hungry for more fiction and (3) never underestimate the power of the female audience. If anything, there’s still much to discover.

Fun fact: Did you know that out of 432k Naruto fanfics in Fanfiction.net, 35.9k of them are written in Bahasa Indonesia?

Acknowledgements:

Graphic Designer

Danang

Copywriting

Athia Fadhlina