Marketeers once again held the Marketeers XFest 2023, repeating the success of previous years. It was the third time that Marketeers XFest had been held. This year, Marketeers XFest carried the theme DESIGN YOUR FUTURE: Pursuit of Personal & Professional Passion.
The series of events for Marketeers XFest 2023 consisted of a Conference, the Marketeers Innovation Challenge (MIC), which was a creativity and ideas competition for Gen Z, and the Youth Choice Award. Unlike the previous two events, this year's Conference, which was the biggest event for Gen Z, was held for two days. In collaboration with the International Marketing Community of BINUS (IMCB) as a strategic partner, Marketeers XFest was held at Anggrek Campus-Binus University from March 7-8, 2023.
The first day featured workshops with speakers who were professionals from various industries and successful entrepreneurs. On the second day, which was the peak of the hybrid conference, speakers from well-known companies such as Pertamina, Antam, Telkomsel, V2 Indonesia, BCA, and Dentsu Indonesia also came to this event.
There were 28 speakers who filled Marketeers XFest 2023, involving 600 offline audience members and more than 3,000 online participants. These participants were students from dozens of prestigious universities in various cities in Indonesia, including Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Salatiga, Purwokerto, Surabaya, Malang, Mataram, Samarinda, Palembang, and others.
"Marketeers XFest is a platform for brands to engage more with Gen Z. This generation, known as the first digital natives, was born between 1995 and 2010. They are the key to marketing success today. Some of them have already colored the working world and created a dynamic work culture. Therefore, it is time for brands to start getting closer and building a positive image with Gen Z," said Iwan Setiawan, CEO of Marketeers, when opening Marketeers XFest 2023 on Wednesday (08/03/2023).
Iwan added that the Gen Z character is very different from the previous generation. This makes brands often misstep when designing strategies to approach this generation. Therefore, brands must truly understand the life and character of Gen Z. He mentioned that one of Gen Z's characteristics is authenticity.
"They are an authentic segment who want to express themselves as they are and not fake like the previous generation. In addition, Gen Z tends to focus more on the utility or functional benefits of products. Gen Z feels happy when they can gather with their family or friends," he said.
Marketeers XFest became even more weighty with the presence of the Marketeers Innovation Challenge (MIC), previously known as the Marketeers Case Competition. This year, there were 50 groups from various prestigious campuses in Indonesia, such as UGM, UI, Undip, ITB, IPB, Universitas Brawijaya, Binus University, and others who registered for MIC and involved more than 300 students. The Marketeers Innovation Challenge received full support from MyPertamina, Telkomsel, and Antam.
Next, Marketeers Youth Choice Award (YCA) 2023 was also held at Marketeers XFest 2023. This is an award for brands that are the choice of Gen Z. Marketeers Youth Choice Award is based on online voting involving 1,222 respondents from students in various campuses in Indonesia.
