On National Customer Day, the Twibbons Belong to the People Behind the Counter

National Customer Day, Hari Pelanggan Nasional, or Harpelnas, is observed in Indonesia every September 4. It began as one businessman's proposal. Handi Irawan D., CEO of Frontier, put it forward in 2003 on the argument that customers keep businesses alive and deserve a fixed date the way mothers and teachers do, and President Megawati Soekarnoputri later gave it official recognition. In our Monthly Campaign series we listed it among the September dates worth campaigning for.

Four Harpelnas Twibbons caught our eye. A campaign belonging to BNI, a state-owned bank in Indonesia, went up on September 1 and held 3,803 supporters. Another campaign by another state-owned bank BRI went up on September 3 held up to 13,083. The national electric power distribution company PLN published a campaign under a division profile DIV NPS PLN on September 3, with 2,886 supporters. Lastly, there is Hari Pelanggan Nasional Astra Motor Bali from the Bali branch of Astra Honda Motor, created on August 28 by Widi Kadek, garnering 151 supporters. Every one of them carries a company's name in its title, and all four went live within a week of the date.

From left to right: campaign by BNI Menyapa, campaign by DIV NPS PLN, campaign by Widi Kadek 

The numbers are not what these campaigns offer. There is an interesting read on how these campaigns are presented. The first three are all published by state-owned enterprises with branches across the country. Their supporter counts are high, but the posts are not visible on social media, and none of the pages has a description that encourages sharing.

This is a common pattern among institutions that use Twibbons. On paper these may look like Celebration campaigns, marking a date on a national calendar. In practice they behave more like Membership campaigns. They travel through internal channels rather than search, they go up days rather than weeks ahead, and the supporters come from inside the companies named on the frames.

Which turns the day inside out. National Customer Day is named after the customer, and #ThinkCustomer is one of this year's promoted hashtags, but the Twibbons that mark the day are worn mostly by the people who serve those customers. The customer becomes the occasion, not the participant.

And before we call that a flaw in the observance, think of it as the people behind the counter getting a day to say publicly that their work is worth doing. Yes, the day centers on the customer, but it is also a moment for employees to take pride in the fact that people came, and stayed because of their service. Besides, companies boost their own services in other ways, not through encouraging the use of a Twibbon, but through promo and discount offers dedicated to their customers.

One campaign notably took a different approach. Astra Motor Bali sports a slogan, Satu Hati Menemani Setiap Langkah, "One Heart Accompanying Your Every Step." The page was created by an individual rather than a company division, and it spells out how to distribute the Twibbon: post at the same time on September 4, use four required hashtags, tag three accounts. Under the hashtag #harpelnashondaasmobali2026 you can see dozens of posts of salespeople posing with buyers.

Even though Astra took a slightly different route, all four campaigns are similar in one way: they are meant for people within the internal network of the company. Companies that create campaigns know their own employees are their asset. These campaigns became visible because they have the people who show up as supporters.

Twibbonize functions not only to promote something new to the public, it also works to strengthen your company's own branding. National Customer Day is only one instance. Check our guide on how a frame works for an employee or event activation, or to celebrate other commemorative days within a company. In this case a Twibbon is not doing the work of rallying people, it mobilizes people, hundreds at a time, in a short window of time. That way any company can make a celebration visible without much effort or cost.