All Eyes on Foniks: The Trendvertising Agency

Jakarta, 29 May 2023 - What happens when a celebrity, media maven, and trend-creator meets an award-winning ad man? Launched as a joint venture between Indonesia’s pioneer and largest creative business platform FAB Indonesia and media conglomerate MRA Media, Foniks vows on creating ‘everlasting trends' to inspire human behavior. Operational since last year, the agency has worked with numerous brands including Betadine, Head and Shoulders, Pantene, Uniqlo, Tiptip, Philips Smart Lighting, Klarens and Bvlgari.

A term coined by its founders, 'trendvertising' refers to the practice of leveraging current trends to create compelling advertising campaigns - merging the two worlds from which they both hail. “We empower brands to become trendsetters themselves,” says Ramadhan who serves as Managing Director. He adds, “With the extensive reach and influence of MRA as the biggest lifestyle media publisher in Indonesia, backed with FAB’s vast resource and expertise as one of the largest tech-based creative business platforms in the country, simply put, trends live and breathe among us”.

Foniks utilizes its extensive network and influencer connections to create impactful brand collaborations, capitalizing on the high demand for influencer marketing in Indonesia, where studies show that over 60% of the online population has made at least one purchase based on influencer recommendations.“We have embraced this trend and positioned ourselves at the forefront of this movement. Our ability to identify emerging opportunities and forge connections with influential voices allows us to not only shape conversations but also drive cultural movements,” noted Prada, who serves as Creative Business Director. “An example of it is what we did for Bvlgari,” Ramadhan recalls of their work for the luxury retailer in 2022, “an integrated end-to-end campaign promoting the brand’s iconic B.zero 1 rings, aimed to captivate a younger consumer demographic”. The campaign was successfully carried out with the help of some of the most sought-after personalities from Jakarta's lifestyle and nightlife scene, achieving an impressive reach of over 1.5 million.

Known as an avid trend-creator himself, Ramadhan started his early days as a radio broadcaster, making a name for himself through popularizing iconic catchphrases on air such as “Cyiin” in 2007; a word created by author Albertine Endah in which Ramadhan along with then co-host Melaney Ricardo introduced to the public through their “Drive and Jive” program on Hard Rock FM Jakarta, to more recently an online social campaign entitled “#NextLevelBatik” in 2020; a hashtag initiated by Ramadhan aimed to promote the use of Indonesian batik for daily wear, gaining massive attention from the public with support of notable figures from tv host Najwa Shihab to Indofood’s Axton Salim, as well as many more, resulting to a whopping 14.500+ posts (and still counting) on Instagram alone.

“He is a walking content powerhouse all on his own,” Prada says proudly of his partner. He adds, “A big part of what we offer in Foniks is credited to his massive network and on-ground insights across such diverse and influential ecosystems, which in turn become the stimulus behind our creative operations, an edge that is totally unheard of in this industry”. 

As the creative force behind Foniks, throughout his career, Prada  brings a wealth of experience in creative advertising from his previous posts in local and multinational firms namely What If Asia (also part of FAB Indonesia), Leo Burnett and Publicis Groupe. Throughout his illustrious career, Prada has handled a multitude of global brands including McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Mercedes Benz, Nestle, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Prudential, Uniqlo, Betadine, Philips, Kohler, as well as local giants such as Telkomsel, Jenius, Mayora, Orang Tua, Tempo Scan Group, and BliBli. Winning multiple awards from Citra Pariwara, to earning Indonesia’s first AdFest 360 Lotus and Gold Clio.

Learn more about Foniks: here.