# The 'Dating with Technology' playbook: 0 to 100K followers in six weeks > How one content concept, treating gadgets as characters you are in a relationship with, took @nugrahalabib from zero to 100,000 followers in about six weeks, and what I would ask of a brand that wants to use it. I started my TikTok account, now @nugrahalabib, in November 2021 with no audience and one idea. In under a month and a half, roughly six weeks, the account passed 100,000 followers. The idea was called "Dating with Technology", tagged #pacarcanggihku, and the series has since collected more than 40.9 million views. The account now has 130K+ followers, and by 2022 it was averaging more than 2.5 million views a month. This is the playbook behind it, including the parts that did not work. - **100K** followers (in under 1.5 months) - **40.9M+** views (on #pacarcanggihku) - **15.9M** views (on the top video) ## The concept: gadgets as characters Most tech content reviews things. Mine gave them a personality. The hashtag roughly means "my high-tech partner", and every video treated the device as someone you are in a relationship with: it gets moody when ignored, it shows off, it needs reassurance, it surprises you. Humanising a gadget does two things. It gives the viewer an emotional reason to keep watching that has nothing to do with whether they are shopping for a phone, and it forces me to explain a feature through behaviour rather than a spec sheet. A product that remembers where you left off is a character trait. A number of gigabytes is not. ## The hook, then the structure Every video followed the same skeleton, which is what let me publish consistently without starting from a blank page. - First second: a line of dialogue or a reaction, never a title card. The device "says" something, or I react to something it did. - Seconds two to five: the tension. What does the device want, what did I do wrong, what is about to go wrong. - The middle: one feature, shown rather than described. Only one. If a second feature wanted in, it got its own video. - The last three seconds: the payoff of the relationship beat, and a reason to come back, usually a loose thread about the same character. Consistency was the other half. The same characters, the same framing, the same posting rhythm. An audience learns a format faster than it learns a person, and once they know it they will watch a video about a product they have no interest in, just to see what the character does. ## Turning specifications into stories The skill underneath all of this is translation. A brand brief arrives as a list: chipset, battery capacity, refresh rate, a certification. None of those are stories; the job is to find the moment in someone's day where the spec becomes a feeling. Battery capacity becomes the partner who is still awake when you get home late. A high refresh rate becomes the one who never makes you wait. A water-resistance rating becomes the one who does not panic in the rain. The spec is still there for viewers who want it, usually in the caption, but the video is about the feeling. It is the discipline I learned from copywriting long before I posted a clip: benefits first, specifications as evidence. ## Picking products with data, not taste From May 2022 to June 2024 I was an exclusive creator and affiliate for Shopee, including the 9.9, 11.11 and 12.12 campaign periods. That relationship gave me something creators usually guess at: numbers. For each product I could see click-through rate and conversion rate, and I chose what to feature by those two figures rather than by personal taste. The rule I settled on: a product had to earn its place with a click-through rate that showed the story worked, and a conversion rate that showed the story was honest. Soft-selling only works when the product matches the promise, and the data is how you check. When the two numbers disagreed, the video was usually the problem, not the product. ## What did not work Plenty. Videos that opened with the product name instead of the character lost viewers in the first seconds. Over-produced clips that looked like an advertisement did worse than the ones shot in my room, because the format's whole appeal is that the relationship feels real. Posting in bursts and then going quiet cost more reach than any single weak video. And when I accepted briefs that asked me to read a script rather than play a scene, the audience noticed immediately, and so did the brand. The general lesson: the format is the asset. Every time I bent the format for a client, we both lost. ## What a brand should send in a brief I have run campaigns with ASUS, Philips, Bibit and Bardi, and the best briefs shared a shape. If you are a brand and want to work with this format, send: - The one thing you want a viewer to remember, in a single sentence. Not five key messages. One. - The full spec sheet anyway, so I can pick the detail that turns into a story. - What must not be said, including claims that need substantiation, so the video never has to be re-cut. - The audience you are actually trying to reach, and the objection you think they have. - Freedom on the script. Tell me the outcome; let the character deliver it. A brief like that takes an afternoon to write and saves both of us a week. Where to go next: if you are planning a campaign and want a format people watch on purpose, [get in touch](/contact). Source: https://nugrahalabib.com/writing/dating-with-technology-playbook Author: Nugraha Labib Mujaddid (https://nugrahalabib.com) Published: 2025-11-18. Updated: 2026-09-25.