JAKARTA, PRINDONESIA.CO – Rizky Salerina, Public Relations Specialist of the University of Indonesia, revealed the fact at the PR INDONESIA Meet Up #21 with the theme “Public Relations Rewind 2019 & Outlook 2020”, at the Institut Francais d’Indonesie on Thursday (19/12/2019). Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency, it is recorded that 88 million populations in Indonesia are millennials. This will trigger a demographic bonus in 2030. “Two-thirds of them are millennials workers. One third are millennials who are still attending school and university,” Rizky said.

According to Sari Soegondo, Management of the Education and Training Sector of the Association of Indonesian Public Relations Company (APPRI), this condition also influence political regeneration in Indonesia. Sari added, the explosion of the millennials population not only occurs in Indonesia but also throughout Asia.

Responding to Sari’s statement, Rizky said that millennials now play a strategic role, namely strengthening political position, participation in politics, entering the government, and the return of the student movement. “In addition to the return of demonstrations to express their aspirations, millennials also directly involved in running the government. For example Nadiem Makarim, the Minister of Education and Culture. “The millennials who are active outside the government sector, are now given a great opportunity to be directly involved in the government,” Rizky continued.

Rizky said, to face the year 2020, there are several things that must be done by public relations. First, learn and apply technology. Second, make millennials the main target of the message. Third, create creative content. Fourth, choose media according to its character. Last, be young. “At least the enthusiasm (of being young),” he said.

Humanist and Relevant

Millennial trend also affects the consumption of digital media. One of them is the use of social media as the impact of the post-truth era. The public will look for information in accordance with what they believe. According to Inadia Aristyavani, Regulator and PR Department Head of Tugu Insurance, in today’s era, the public is no longer hesitates to create a digital opinion movement. If there’s a product or service that is not good, they don’t hesitate to boycott the product or service online. “For example, by uninstalling an application, giving bad ratings on Playstore, to give bad comments,” said Inadia.

This condition has experienced by three well-known companies, such as Bukalapak, Tempo, and Tokopedia. Desy Fitriani, Business Development Manager of Isentia, said that of the three cases, Tokopedia is seen to succeed in regaining the hearts of the public, especially the younger generation, by choosing BTS, a Korean boy band as their brand ambassador. From the data they collected, the buzz about Tokopedia x BTS has reached 5.788.

Meanwhile, Ani Natalia, Head of Sub Directorate of Public Relations of the Directorate General of Taxes (DJP), said that to target millennials and support economic transformation, DJP provides digital taxation service. “It also aims to simplify the bureaucracy,” she said. Not only that, Ani views that communication is important to pay attention to the human aspect and must be relevant in the midst of an all-digital and robotic era. (rvh)