Marketing in Korea – Hyundai “Shouting Korea”, with KIM Yuna and BIGBANG

The buzz

These past weeks, there’s been a “buzz” going on in Korea (especially in the Kpop World) :

- Hyundai company revealed different pictures on different days, featuring Korea pop-sensation group BIGBANG with the Nation’s little ice-skating queen, KIM Yuna (and “Commercial Queen”).

(source of both pictures : http://seoulbeats.com/2010/05/kim-yuna-in-cornrows/ )

A very good way to get the buzz started !!

From the red-colored clothes, I first guessed that it was probably about the upcoming Soccer World Cup (I know Korean people are crazy about Soccer – especially when it comes to cheering their National team). But why is it a campaign led by Hyundai ? I saw at the end of the video that Hyundai is an official partner of the 2010 World Cup …

The “Shouting Korea” campaign

- Now, one month before the start of the World Cup in South Africa, the “Shouting Project” website has been launched here.

One video has already been revealed to the public, and four more are supposed to be revealed up to the beginning of the World Cup, as well as a music video for the cheering song (1). The whole is supposed to tell a story.

Here’s the link to the video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyzqBzjzmOQ

Basically, in this video, the members of BIGBANG are trying to find a good way to cheer for their National Soccer team. They decide to create a song (since they are singers), and go out to find people with loud voices to shout with them.

It seems that the campaign’s purpose is to create a “cheering spirit” in Korea, through a World Cup cheering song (nothing new, since for at least the two past World Cups, Korea star singers have released World Cup Cheering songs, and other groups are planning to do so for the 2010 one), contest to win tickets to some World Cup plays, … and it’s a good way to promote Hyundai.

Anyway, put together KIM Yuna, who is known by pretty much every Korean citizen since she is so successfull on the International scene (2), and BIGBANG, one of the most popular and respected pop-idol Korean group these days (and also famous all accross Asian countries),  and you know you are facing a campaign aimed at the whole nation, and that relies on National Pride (through the success of Korean athletes, singers and companies at the International level) !!

I wonder how it will turn out … and what kind of benefits it will bring for Hyundai. We’ll see that later.

Sport marketing in Korea vs in France

What’s sure is that the World Cup is always seen as a good opportunity in Korea for making commercials, or releasing cheering songs sung by the country’s most popular singers. These days, many commercials are being released (or on their way to be) with a World Cup theme, and used to sell all kinds of products. The National spirit seems to be a good seller in Korea !

It’s interesting when we compare that to the situation in France : in France, people are only wondering about which players will be selected in the National team, and there is no national euphoria about the Soccer World Cup, and I didn’t see any ad using the World Cup theme yet (maybe I didn’t look hard enough). Why is that so ? Isn’t Soccer the #1 popular sport in France ?

I’ve seen commercials in 2002, when the French team was still the World Champion team, but not much afterwards … It seems that in France, sport only sells when our team is the winner. In Korea, sports sells as long as the country is represented on the International level (Olympic Games, Soccer World Cup, …), and even more when Koreans win.

What do you think ?

Anyway, I guess I will enjoy watching the Korean supporters during the World Cup. The 1st time I became aware of them was during the 2002 World Cup : they caught the hearts of several people around me too, for their genuine supporting spirit, euphoria and fair-play.

I guess I will cheer for the Korean team too, no matter how far or not they go, just because it’s fun and nice.

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(1) : Source : http://www.mydaily.co.kr/news/read.html?newsid=201005111042591112&ext=na

(2) See the following article to learn more about the marketing surrounding KIM Yuna.

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May 14th update : the second video has been released (check it out here)

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