Batam - Gateway Between Singapore and Indonesia

TPM Outdoor has been marketing Out-of-Home media locations in Indonesia for the last decade and more, the focus of our outdoor advertising in Indonesia is for Jakarta, Bali, Surabaya, Medan, Perkanbaru, Batam and even as far flung as Balikpapan and Pontianak.

Batam, which is the largest city in the Riau Islands Province of Indonesia, is part of the growth triangle incorporating Singapore, the state of Johor in Malaysia and the provinces of Riau and West Sumatra in Indonesia since the early 1990s. Thanks to its close proximity to Singapore, Batam enjoys both industrial and tourism related inflows from Singapore. In 2010, approximately 58% of foreign tourists came from Singapore, and 13% from Malaysia.

Although Batam is slightly larger than Singapore, it only has a population of 1 million. Batam is  one of the top five largest Indonesian cities in terms of GDP - however the real economic potential of Batam has not been fully explored yet due to little or no governmental trade promotion and labour issues. A recent Jakarta Post article summarises its current economic situation :

 In 2011, the total number of new foreign companies was 91 with a total investment of US$103,081,403. Those numbers fell to 54 companies with $90,914,786 total investment in 2012 and to only 47 companies in 2013. Last year, however, total investment increased considerably to $155,206,217. “The [investment] value increased [in 2013] because there was a company investing a huge amount of money,”
Purnomo said. So far, he continued, Singaporeans were still the biggest investors in Batam, contributing a combined investment value of $4.2 billion from 979 companies. Businesses from China, Japan, India and Malaysia also made significant investments in the province.

Batam has many international ports of call including 3 international ferry terminals, a number of private resort ferry terminals and also the Hang Nadim airport which serves mainly domestic routes. The ferry terminals serve routes between Singapore and Batam or Batam Johor and also to the Riau Islands like Tanjung Pinang on a daily basis.


Advertising in the ferry terminals are the best ways to reach out to Indonesians coming to Singapore or Singaporeans looking for a quick weekend get away.


Advertising in the ferry between Batam and Singapore can be effective as there is much captive time for the passenger inside the ferry. The travelling time between Singapore and Batam can be between 45-60 minutes with no mobile signal for some of the way. Singtel did head-rest advertising inside the ferries to promote their data services - so when the passengers are bored mindless in the ferry, and trying to surf Facebook or play Candy Crush.. I guess the message is clear!


Many advertisers such as tourism, industrial materials, health, education targeting Indonesians coming to Singapore can also benefit from advertising in Batam.

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