If your brand plans to run a year-end advertising campaign in Jakarta, covering the 12.12 shopping peak, Christmas, school holidays and New Year's Eve, the sites and creative should be locked by early November. The city's movement pattern changes in December. Office corridors stay busy until mid-month, malls take over the weekends, families leave for Bandung and Bogor once school breaks, and on New Year's Eve the crowds gather on foot in central Jakarta. A site that delivers well in August can be the wrong choice for the last week of the year.
This guide is written for regional marketing teams and international agencies buying Indonesian out-of-home from outside the country. It covers the local calendar, which sites suit which week, how to structure creative across phases, a realistic production timeline and the cost variables you should brief for.
The Indonesian year-end calendar, phase by phase
Teams planning from Singapore, Sydney or Europe often treat "Q4 holidays" as one block. In Jakarta it behaves more like five short windows, each with a different audience mindset.
| Phase | Approximate timing | What the audience is doing | Media that fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warm-up | Mid to late November | Normal commutes, starting to plan purchases and trips | LED on office corridors, Transjabodetabek buses |
| Shopping peak | Early to mid December, around 12.12 | Hunting promotions, malls crowded at weekends | LED and billboards near malls, DOOH with rotating creative |
| Christmas and school break | Third week of December | Inner-city traffic eases, routes to Bandung and Bogor fill up | LED in Bandung and Bogor, transit media |
| New Year's Eve | 31 December to 1 January | Large pedestrian crowds in the city centre | Robotic LED at Bundaran HI, on-ground activation |
| Back to work | First week of January | Returning to offices, new-year plans | Office-corridor LED with fresh messaging |
Two local points matter for international briefs. Christmas Day is a national public holiday in Indonesia, and the government often adds a collective leave day (cuti bersama) next to it, so approvers on the local side may be away for longer than you expect. And because Indonesia is a diverse, Muslim-majority country, broad seasonal messages such as "happy holidays" or New Year greetings travel better on public screens than overtly religious creative.
Choosing sites for a year-end advertising campaign in Jakarta
The useful question is simple: in the week your ads run, where is your target audience physically moving?
Bundaran HI for New Year's Eve
The Bundaran HI and Thamrin area is usually one of the main gathering points for New Year's Eve in Jakarta. LED Mandarin, on the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, is Indonesia's first robotic LED, with three screen faces (27 x 9 m, 8 x 16 m and 27 x 9 m) facing the roundabout. Because the screens physically move, a countdown sequence or a midnight creative switch reads as a moment in the evening rather than another loop. Specifications are on the robotic LED service page.
If roads around the area are closed for public events, your audience that night is standing pedestrians rather than passing drivers. That changes the creative brief: you can carry more detail, and a QR code becomes practical because people have time to scan it.
Sudirman and Gatot Subroto before the break
Until mid-December, office commuting on the business corridors continues as normal. LED Dukuh Atas (7 x 14 m) faces Jl. Jend. Sudirman towards Senayan, and LED Jamsostek on Jl. Gatot Subroto carries a 15 x 30 m screen. These suit messages people need to act on before they go on leave: year-end card promotions, savings products, gift pre-orders. Permata, for example, has run campaigns on both LED Dukuh Atas and LED Jamsostek.
Routes to the malls
For the shopping peak, place the message close to where people buy. Billboard Kota Kasablanka (8 x 16 m) on Jl. Dr. Saharjo faces towards Kuningan. LED Mega Anggrek on Jl. Arjuna Selatan has two 9 x 18 m faces, Side A towards Tangerang and Side B towards Semanggi, so you can choose the inbound or outbound flow. Inside the mall, the LED screens at Agora Lifestyle Mall in Tanah Abang reach visitors who are already shopping.
Holiday traffic to Bandung
Once schools break, part of Jakarta's population moves to Bandung and Bogor for the holidays. In Bandung, LED Buah Batu A (4 x 8 m) faces towards the Padalarang toll road, while LED Sunda and LED Riau B face towards BIP and the city centre. They let you speak to weekend visitors and local residents in the same buy. See the digital billboard Bandung page for the full list.
Plan creative in phases, not one visual for seven weeks
The most common mistake we see in this period is a single Christmas-themed visual still running in mid-January. On LED, creative can be swapped without print costs, so use that. Prepare at least three versions: a promotion with clear dates, a seasonal greeting and a new-year version. Fix the switch dates in the playout schedule from the start, so nobody needs to send instructions while your team is on leave.
Supply creative in Bahasa Indonesia, or at least with Indonesian key lines. English headlines work in some central Jakarta locations, but promotional mechanics such as dates and discount codes should be in the local language. Slot length matters too: a promotion with a code needs more reading time than a greeting. Our article on videotron ad slot length and frequency covers this in more detail.
Night viewing deserves a test. Much of the year-end activity happens after dark, and a full white background can glare on an LED screen at night, while thin dark text on dark backgrounds disappears. Ask for your files to be checked in night mode before they go live.
Static billboards and buses
Printed media follows a different logic. The visual is produced and installed once, so it must stay relevant for the whole contract. Avoid promo dates that expire halfway through. Product name, main benefit and an undated call to action are the safer choice.
Transjabodetabek buses move across several areas of Greater Jakarta in a day, which makes them a good supporting layer around a few focused LED sites. Disney, for example, ran its campaign for the film Wish with a full wrap on Transjabodetabek buses. Wraps need production and installation time, so they belong in the plan from week one. Format details are on the transit media page.
A working timeline, counted back from launch
- October: send the brief (product, target areas, flight dates) and request availability. Central Jakarta sites for the last week of December are typically the first to be booked.
- Early November: confirm sites and dates, and lock creative specifications (resolution, ratio, duration) for each screen.
- Mid November: final creative in for technical and content checks, with time left for one revision round.
- Late November: print production for billboards and bus wraps, then installation before the peak phase.
- December: live, scheduled creative switches, and site-by-site field photo documentation.
Remember that production suppliers and your local partners also slow down in Christmas week. A revision requested on 24 December may only be handled after the holiday.
What drives cost in this period
We do not publish prices because each proposal is built per campaign. For a useful quote, brief us on these variables:
- Sites and screen sizes, and whether you need one face or several.
- Flight dates and contract length. Weeks overlapping Christmas and New Year's Eve are usually the most requested.
- Slot duration and plays per hour on LED.
- Production for static billboards and bus wraps.
- Extras such as scheduled creative switches, special documentation or on-ground activation.
Advertising tax and permits follow regional regulations for each site. Ask the team early what is included in the proposal so nothing appears later in the process.
Adding an activation where the crowds are
New Year's Eve and December weekends bring people together in one place, which opens room for direct interaction: a seasonal photobooth, an AR game or an interactive screen linked to the LED. These need location permits and security coordination that take longer to arrange than screen bookings, so decide on them together with the site plan rather than afterwards.
What to send us first
Message the team on WhatsApp at +62 822 8810 8888 or use the contact page with three things: the product or offer, the target cities or areas, and your flight dates. Attach a key visual if you have one. We will check availability for the weeks you want and come back with a recommended media mix and a proposal.
