Social Media Influencer in Wayang Performance: the Punakawan

Nowadays, the role of social media influencer in introducing a brand and raising brand awareness through social media is quite significant. Even though most of the social media influencers are not celebrities who have previously been famous in conventional media, they hold the same significant role in influencing the society. In the world of Wayang, there exist characters who have roles akin to the social media influencers that introduce messages from sponsors or brands within the Wayang performances. These characters are called the Punakawan, four Wayang characters that have a more fluid and comedic dialogue in Wayang performances. This article will analyze the characters of four Punakawan by using personal branding strategy approach based on eight main concepts of personal branding to understand the image of the Punakawan and the way they represent themselves within the society. The result is that the social media influencer and the Punakawan Characters have a similar role that is to deliver messages through the way that already becomes almost every person’s favorite. The difference is a social media influencer could have just deliver any positive and negative impact to the audience. However, the Punakawan would always deliver a positive impact due to their presence is already being a part of the cultural heritage that always brings values of humanity and kind-heartedness