Hello and welcome to the fifth volume of Brand Creative DIgest!
Remember last week’s entries on Sejauh Mata Memandang's installation and Design as A Means of Disaster Management (should we go to Sency and Dialogue and see the exhibitions together?! It’s inspiring)? Concerns about the rising sea level and the rising volume of plastic trash found in the sea are rising, and tech brands like us should really, really raise the issue in our conversations. After the government of Bali enacted the island-wide ban on single-use plastic, Go-Food Bali is leading the initiative to reduce plastic bag as a means of food packaging by delivering series of workshop with their restaurant partners that started last month. Consumers also raised their concerns: 13.000++ people signed on a petition asking Go-Food and GrabFood to provide options for not using plastic utensils https://www.change.org/p/gojekindonesia-bantu-kurangi-sampah-sediakan-pilihan-untuk-sertakan-alat-makan-plastik-sekali-pakai?recruiter=392912241&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial.pacific_post_sap_share_gmail_abi.gmail_abi&recruited_by_id=795a9a30-652e-11e5-bc85-25a09766fe49&use_react=false. Looking for inspiration? An exhibition on how design can be a part of the global efforts towards a sustainable society is going to be open for public this Wednesday at Erasmus Huis, Kuningan (should we come together as well?): https://twitter.com/RmcVermeulen/status/1126775942557458432
What’s your favorite Podcast? While Americans already had a long affair with Podcasts, Indonesians are just starting to pick it up–possibly with the help of Spotify’s entry to our market. More and more Podcasts being produced every week–among them are @christabelle’s gigs–and while American brands have found (or carved) its place in Podcast medium, Indonesian brands haven’t really tap into this versatile medium. Where do you think Traveloka could be a part of the conversation?
I recently spotted a new breed of travel ‘grammers: hotel reviewers. These peeps are college-students (or at least they look like them) who get paid for posting pics and pseudo-reviewing luxury or boutique hotels. They made staying at suites seem accessible to people their age, and as a staycation aficionado myself, I do notice the age drop among luxury/boutique hotels guests. Indonesia’s luxury market IS on the rise: it seems that our generation is beginning to embrace premium-priced goods and services, probably informed by the overall rise in income. From mid-2015 onwards, Indonesian consumers are proven to be a big spender on global luxury market (see here https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2016/08/26/indonesia-home-to-asias-largest-online-luxury-goods-sales-report.html and here https://www.statista.com/outlook/21000000/120/luxury-goods/indonesia) We even see it ourselves in the demand for luxury hotels and luxury class cinema: general Indonesian consumers no longer shy away from ‘luxury’. Reinforcing the report on kidult, this market redefines the notion of luxury used to center around old European aesthetics: we see it in the rise of luxury hotels that defies the old-school notion of luxury (Katamama: no chandelier, no gold trimmings, no baroque furniture, no grand piano by the grand staircase), we see it in the opening of luxury boutiques that tread on street style side (Off-White recently opened their first boutique in Plaza Indonesia; Invincible, a multi-brand luxury streetwear store recently opened in Pacific Place). Where else could we take this trend forward? How else could we redefine ‘luxury’?
Speaking of luxury, do you know that Rihanna is starting her fashion line with global luxury conglomerate LVMH, a conglomerate that owns Louis Vuitton, Dior, Kenzo, Loewe, Celine, Fendi, Marc Jacobs, Rimowa, and Givenchy, among others? This is a groundbreaking moment in fashion and luxury as she will be the first woman to create her own brand in the LVMH conglomerate and the first person-of-color (she’s a black Barbados woman!) to do so! Her brand, Fenty, also echo the redefinition of luxury. With her brand, Fenty, and brands like Off-White that Virgil Abloh started (another person-of-color, he will be in Bali next week!), more and more diverse creatives are reshaping what ‘luxury’ means from the convention of just a handful of white male creative directors. What an exciting, and important, time to be alive as a creative!
P.S: Young Lions announcement is gonna be out real soon :D
Have a good week ahead y’all!