The Role of the Key Opinion Leader (Kol) Specialist in Handling the #BelajarDimanaAja Campaign on Hangeul Academy by Schoters through Instagram to Increase Brand Awareness ^†

Abstract

Watching Korean dramas has become one of the many new hobbies loved by most people during the pandemic. Hangeul Academy by Schoters sees this as an opportunity. Different from the Schoters’s competitors, Instagram was used to increase brand awareness by informing about their products and services by cooperating with KOL (key opinion leader). The purpose wants to achieve in running this campaign is to increase brand awareness and interest on Instagram. The method used by the #BelajarDimanaAja campaign is the AISAS communication model and uses a User-Generated Content Marketing strategy. As a result, in April 2022, Hangeul Academy’s Instagram followers increased.

1. Introduction

Korean culture is growing very rapidly throughout the world, especially in Asia, including Indonesia, because it has similar cultural elements. Music, movies, Korean dramas, Korean entertainment shows, cosmetics, and Korean-style lifestyles have all been known since the beginning of Hallyu [1]. Korean Wave or Korean Hallyu refers to the wave of Korean culture that flows to countries around the world, originating from pop culture and exported to countries around the world in the form of cultural products such as TV dramas, movies, Korean Pop music animation, games, and more.

With the emergence of Korean pop culture that has penetrated into Indonesia, Korea is favored by teenagers who want to know more about what people in Korea like. In addition to the cultural aspect, the interest of Korean language learners has also increased due to the many collaborations that have been carried out by South Korea with Indonesia.

Korean culture itself has a great influence on the Korean language. With Hallyu (Korean Wave), someone can even communicate a little in Korean. The easiest thing to do right now is to change the greeting that should be “Hello” to “Annyeong”. To learn Korean, students must learn the Korean alphabet, Hangeul. In the process of learning Korean, it is necessary to know all aspects of reading, writing, and listening.

The technology giant from the United States (US), Google, noted that the audience from Indonesia for South Korean drama series on YouTube increased during the corona pandemic. Searches using the keywords ‘korean drama’, ‘korea drama’, and ‘drakor’ also jumped 130% on an annual basis (year on year/yoy) last June [2].

In the pandemic era, people have more free time to do activities at home. Personal time that is usually used for traveling can be used to learn new things. Watching Korean dramas has become one of the many new hobbies loved by most people during the pandemic. Hangeul Academy by Schoters sees this as an opportunity. Korean drama viewers certainly want to learn Korean without having to attend a course outside of their homes. To be known by the target audience, Hangeul Academy by Schoters uses Instagram as a digital technology that is used to increase brand awareness compared to its competitors to inform about their products and services by cooperating with KOL (key opinion leader).

Hangeul Academy is a Korean language tutor under the auspices of Schoters, with a curriculum designed for Indonesian students who want to learn Korean from basic and advanced levels as well as scholarship classes to continue their education in Korea because Hangeul Academy wants to increase brand awareness and brand credibility to be more trusted by the audience and increase public awareness about the Korean language courses, as well as their offered scholarships to study in Korea.

2. Materials and Methods

Schoters is a company engaged in education with a focus on providing scholarship information and scholarship preparation guidance, which was established in 2018.

Schoters is located at SOHO PANCORAN, Jl. Lt. Gen. M.T. Haryono No.3, Kec. Tebet, South Jakarta City, DKI Jakarta. Currently, Schoters is under the auspices of PT Partner Impian Millenial as a company that is already a legal entity.

Schoters has been operating since January 2019, with the aim of helping high school students and professionals who want to continue their education to a higher level, which was founded by Radyum Ikono (CEO) and Muhammad Aziz (COO).

Schoters believes that everyone can get a scholarship abroad. Starting from the Sahabat Scholarship community, the Schoters digital edutech platform was born in the form of an online marketplace that provides scholarship information and scholarship preparation guidance. There are more than 10,000 scholarships from 50 countries and 5 continents that Schoters have accommodated. More than 100 mentors who have received scholarships will guide and realize their dreams of studying abroad with scholarships.

KOL Specialist Hangeul Academy team under the leadership of a Growth Marketing Leader. The Growth Marketing leader plays a role in managing the Hangeul Academy team and collaborates with a Person In Charge (PIC) who is responsible for coordinating the Hangeul Academy team and is assisted by Hangeul Academy Digital Marketing.

The job descriptions of the KOL Specialist unit in a week revolves around the cycle of the month. This work includes: determining the goals that Hangeul Academy wants to achieve, planning what to consider and how much KOL will increase the KOL budget for Hangeul Academy, increasing sales or brand awareness through KOL, establishing daily KOL listing processes according to their respective KOL categories, taking action with contacting KOL by lobbying and negotiating techniques and/or making a brief script to be given to KOL Hangeul Academy and evaluating the results of KOL performance for the whole month to make a report on KOL Performance Hangeul Academy.

The project Hangeul Academy is working on is made with the aim of reaching out to potential customers. Instagram social media is a liaison between Hangeul Academy and its potential customers. This project obtained 6 KOLs, which belong to the micro and nano categories. With the micro category, KOL has 20,000 to 40,000 followers, and the nano category has under 10,000 followers. This project uses KOL with micro and nano categories based on the provisions of the KOL SOP and adjusts the budget provided by the company.

The main purpose of using Instagram social media is to increase the awareness and interest of potential buyers by using KOL. Hangeul Academy wants its customers to be able to study anywhere by joining the Korean language classes offered. The target of Hangeul Academy’s own Instagram media followers has reached 50,000 followers this year. By achieving the target of 50,000 followers, Hangeul Academy wants to increase the number of students who want to learn Korean and increase sales this year. In order to achieve this main target, Hangeul Academy’s Instagram social media has a target to broadcast 2 KOLs every week. The content is broadcast when the KOL traffic hour is busy so the message reaches the audience. The content presented by KOL is also interesting and easy to understand.

The #BelajarDimanaAja project started on Instagram from February to April 2022. This project is intended to increase awareness and interest in the class program offered by Hangeul Academy by using an influencer marketing strategy. In using this marketing strategy, Hangeul Academy involved 6 KOL with micro and nano categories through Instagram social media, which was controlled by the author as Hangeul’s director with KOL. This project offers class programs with superior and quality programs at affordable prices.

KOL Specialist is responsible for considering KOL who will go through the #BelajarDimanaAja campaign through Instagram media to obtain followers who are interested in the class program this campaign. Taking into account Hangeul KOL, there are 6 KOLs that fit into the Hangeul Academy background category. Hangeul’s chosen KOL can participate in this campaign according to the specified schedule. The 6 KOLs consist of the names of Rahil Eka, Nadia Aisyah, Aulia Rizkiana, Intan Permatasari, Novi Yanti Wulan Sari, and Fahmi Maulana.

Hangeul Academy promotes class programs using KOL, which is packaged with content results that are in accordance with the character and uniqueness of each KOL so that the target audience is interested in joining Hangeul Academy’s class guidance program. The selection of KOL is based on the character criteria of someone who likes to learn new things, is interactive, likes Korean culture, learns the Korean language, is a K-Poper, is an Indonesian student studying in Korea, and follows current trends.

The target of the Hangeul Academy project for the #BelajarDimanaAja campaign has the following segments:

Demographically, Hangeul Academy has a target audience of women and men with an age range of 18–24 years with a junior–Bachelor education level, as well as university students. They also have an income level (from parents) of more than Rp 500,000.

Geographically, Hangeul Academy has a fairly broad target market for all regions in Indonesia, especially big cities such as Jakarta, Bandung, Depok, Medan, Bekasi, Makassar, Surabaya, Tangerang, Yogyakarta, Batam, and other cities can also use guidance services Hangul Academy class.

Psychographically, Hangeul Academy has a target audience of people who are interactive in activities, interested in learning new things, followers of current trends, K-Popers, appreciators of Korean culture, easy adapters to their surrounding environment, and fans of Korean entertainment.

Behaviorally, Hangeul Academy’s target audience is composed of people who like to learn Korean, like Korean culture, are K-Popers who listen to Korean songs, like Korean entertainment such as Korean drama films, and learn new things.

The project run by Hangeul Academy in the #BelajarDimanaAja campaign uses an influencer marketing strategy. The use of influencer marketing is increasingly popular and plays an important role in promotion. Using influencer marketing can effectively encourage consumers to buy the marketed product.

In the last three years, 49% of consumers have relied on influencer recommendations to make purchasing decisions, and based on the data attached, in 2022, the need for influencer marketing has increased to 16.4 billion. Influencer marketing is now a common term in the business world. Seeing this trend, brand endorsement influencers not only decorate TV screens or traditional advertisements but also dominate social media.

Influencer marketing is the process of identifying and activating individuals who have an influence on a particular target audience to engage in product campaigns with the aim of increasing reach, sales, and customer relationships and it is often able to mobilize the community to target consumer needs, that is, how they choose products to meet their needs. This attraction allows influencers to be part of the marketing promotion strategy for Hangeul Academy.

Strength: 1. Having excellent class programs such as intensive classes to scholarship classes to study in Korea. 2. The company’s institution is already a legal entity. 3. Learning is performed online, so there is no need to come to a place. 4. The price of the class program offered is quite affordable compared to other competitors.

Weakness: 1. The hashtags used by the Hangeul Academy campaign are less innovative, so some brands have also used hashtags with this phrase. 2. Lack of well-integrated marketing activities and products.

Opportunity: 1. The number of students who are currently participating in Korean culture and entertainment programs. 2. The existence of consulting services and student learning assistance so as to facilitate the needs of students, especially guidance services for students.

Threats: Presently, there are several Influencers who make Hangeul Books can be accessed directly and used to learn for free.

Competitors: Lister.co.id, Cakap.com, and Taeyang Kulture.

In the #BelajarDimanaAja campaign project, the model applied is AISAS. Attention: The target audience is aware of Hangeul Academy’s presence on Instagram content posts because Hangeul Academy uses Instagram media to promote its product services to increase awareness. The author is involved in the process of this stage in the #BelajarDimanaAja campaign project by inviting KOL/Influencers to work together and explain the campaign in detail so that KOL/Influencers are aware of the existence of the campaign.

Interest: The target audience is interested in the interesting content that Hangeul Academy presents on Instagram social media posts. Moreover, the target audience is interested in participating in the challenge giveaway held by Hangeul Academy by giving attractive prizes through KOL or Influencers. The author is involved in the process of this stage because the author accompanies KOL during the content creation so that the resulting content attracts attention and increases the trust of potential buyers.

Search: The target audience finds out information about Hangeul Academy guidance through Call To Action social media and links that will lead the audience to the Hangeul Academy website.

Action: The target audience follows Hangeul Academy’s social media activities and registers for the intensive class program held by Hangeul Academy.

Share: The target audience shares content posts about the class program held by Hangeul Academy through the audience’s social media, such as sharing experiences in participating in the Hangeul Academy Korean language class program.

Quoted from Hootsuite, User-Generated Content Marketing or UGC is any content (such as photos, videos, text, and comments) that users create to post or share on social media. Usually, they do this to share their experiences and opinions using the brand’s products/services. Sometimes, they also use hashtags and mention brands to find. If this is the case, brands will often republish and display content on their website or social media and use it as one of their marketing materials [3]. In this project, KOL can use interesting and creative language procedures when pitching content so that the target audience is interested and confident to join the class program at Hangeul Academy by Schoters.

With this strategy, KOL can convey informational messages about the campaign to properly promote and increase the trust of Hangeul Academy’s target audience because UGC marketing looks natural and direct from customers’ perspectives.

In carrying out this campaign project uses Instagram as a marketing tool for KOL or Influencers to market the class program held by Hangeul Academy by Schoters. This project runs from February to April using a Media Scheduling strategy that schedules advertisements in selected media during a predetermined campaign period. Media Scheduling helps Hangeul Academy broadcast its marketing content so that the message may be conveyed and can achieve the right marketing goals.

Hangeul Academy campaign uses the Pulsing method in this Media Scheduling strategy. This method is a combination of Continuity and Flighting, usually media scheduling used by consumer products that launch promos or sales increase programs in the middle of the year or when sales levels are down. This Hangul Academy product category uses a pattern of product categories whose level of use or consumption is relatively less stable.

Measurement in this project is carried out to determine the audience’s reaction with campaign insights so that it can be seen that the advertising campaign is effective; thus, measurement can determine individual characteristics or circumstances with appropriate results. The following measurements are used in Hangeul Academy’s Instagram campaign insights:

• Impression: The total number of results of all user accounts that saw the post of the content;
• Reach: Number of user accounts that saw content posts;
• Likes: The number of content results users liked;
• View Rate: Number of users who visited the Instagram profile;
• Click Rate: The number of users who clicked on the content;
• Link Click: The number of users who clicked on the link on the Instagram profile;
• Replies: The number of replies to that Instagram content;
• Share: Number of user accounts sharing the content.

Evaluation is very important for the success of this campaign project, as the goals that Hangeul Academy wants to achieve are influenced to make decisions and improve understanding of something. With the evaluation, the benefits of KOL or Influencers can provide clear information that will be taken into consideration for decision-making by potential buyers or audiences so that they do not hesitate when making choices in buying Hangeul Academy class programs.

3. Results

The author concludes that running a campaign involves many roles in each division, one of which is KOL Specialist. KOL Specialist is responsible for connecting KOL/Influencers to brands in marketing the products or services of class programs offered by Hangeul Academy. Therefore, KOL Specialists have the ability to maintain relationships and communication with KOL/Influencers as representatives of the Hangeul Academy by Schoters team to contact and explain collaboration offers and convince KOL/Influencers, which will then benefit both parties.

In this campaign project, the KOL specialist is trusted to participate in handling the #BelajarDimanaAja campaign starting from the KOL/Influencer search process to connecting with KOL/Influencers every day to achieve the goals that have been determined. This campaign project will achieve awareness and stable sales in product or service marketing. At the same time, KOL/Influencers receive rewards generated on marketing products and services to consumers making purchases. With the role of KOL specialist, the goals of the #BelajarDimanaAja campaign project are in line with the goals that Hangeul Academy wants to achieve.

Hangeul Academy has had an Instagram account since January 2022 called @hangeulacademy, which until 10 April 2022, had 5902 followers with a total of 42 posts. Presently, this increased to 12.4 thousand followers.

In the final result, the writer concludes that this campaign project takes place in accordance with the objectives to be achieved if each field helps the other and works together to complete and be responsible for the work and tasks that have been given.

4. Discussion

In the future, the KOL/Influencers that will be invited to collaborate with Hangeul Academy should be KOL/Influencers who fall into the minimal mid-micro category by reducing the number of people while the exposure that will be received will be greater because they are already better known by the target audience.

Figure 1 and Figure 2 are the screenshot of two KOL/Influencer who worked with Hangeul Academy, source from their Instagram. Figure 3 is screenshot of KOL/Influencer brief deck from the KOL Specialist. Figure 4 is screenshot of the report from the KOL/Influencer about their Instagram post in accordance with the brief.