Marketing in Korea – Hyundai “Shouting Korea” World Cup campaign (part 2)

I already introduced you to the Hyundai “Shouting Korea” campaign for the Soccer World Cup 2010 here. Now that all the videos have been released, here’s a follow-up article.

Hyundai “Shouting Korea” full campaign

All these have been released one after the other throughout the whole month of May, 2010.

Teaser : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGax0ph6yKA

Campaign website : http://worldcup.hyundai.com/

Video #1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyzqBzjzmOQ

Video #2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FIbLQlEOeI

Video #3 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CrhyDa2sAE

Video #4 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LQ8jGE1fd4 > I think it’s the funnier one.

Video #5 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUBT9hjDmBA

“Learn the dance steps” video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrKSVJfR7RA

Music Video for the song : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0a8hllj6bg

There are also several “making-of” videos, in-front and behind-the-scenes pictures, and the song was performed at one World Cup concert in Seoul already.

http://cafe.naver.com/bjphone/918381

A few words

This whole campaign covers quite a wide range of goals : selling World Cup goods (like T-shirts), having people take part in contests, selling the digital single, … as well as promoting Hyundai’s corporate image and a cheering spirit for the National team. This kind of mix of different worlds (big car company, music, sports, national spirit) is not seen that often in France (I think). Usually, we try to focus on only a few goals, worlds, or concepts, in order not to get lost in too many objectives. Is that a cultural difference or something else ?

In addition, this campaign has been released in a packed time, with Buddha’s anniversary in late May and elections in early in June. This means that there’s a lot of activity and advertisement going on right now in Korea. And the FIFA World Cup is a huge event for Korean people since it enables their country to be represented on the International scene (in a better way than the usual one – conflict between the two Koreas). Therefore, there’s also been many advertisement campaigns released with a “World Cup” theme. Many idol music groups, among the most popular ones, have also released special songs for the World Cup this month.

This campaign is therefore not a brand new concept, but it still stands out because of some specificities.

http://blog.naver.com/lynn600?Redirect=Log&logNo=10086575332

Whereas the teaser video and pictures and the music video are common campaign material, the 5-videos-long story, as well as the “teaching the cheering dance steps” concept are different.

Korean singers sometimes tell a story through several music-videos for their songs, therefore offering something like a musical short movie. So, the 5-videos story concept is not really alien to the Korean audience, but quite new in this case, since these videos are not music videos, and not telling a drama story. This format creates anticipation and excitement. And no other company or idol group has done so for the World Cup so far, in Korea, so this format makes the campaign stand out from the rest.

Plus, in this technology-driven society that is South-Korea, Korean netizens (people looking for any piece of news regarding their stars – they can be really scarily fast to find out things and spread the word out) were here given something to work on (try and find out new pictures, etc…, guess what the next video was going to be about, etc…). This shows that this campaigns is really adapted to its target audience.

Choosing one of the top idol bands of the country and the National ice-skating queen, all acting their own public roles, makes sure that both male and female citizen of pretty much all ages could be touched or interested by this campaign. Where idol groups’ songs mainly appeal to teenagers, Hyundai “Shouting Korea” campaign has the capacity to appeal to almost every Korean citizen, and this is also why it particularly stands out.

http://blog.naver.com/r_pink_21?Redirect=Log&logNo=120107255051

Finally, the campaign clearly wants to involve its audience in the process, through the cheering dance, contests, concert, etc… This is a good way to get people interested. Surely enough, young people are already learning the dance steps, and we may get to see this cheering dance in South-Africa (if so, that would be a big proof of the huge success the campaign would have had). We already witnessed in the previous 2002 and 2006 World Cups the group-oriented cheerful cheering spirit of Korean supporters, so this part of the campaign (teaching the dance steps) is not odd at all (but it would sure be in France or in the USA), and quite new also. Another thing that make this campaign stand out.

So, it seems that this campaign really stands out and is interesting to take a look at. It is also a good way to see how to communicate effectively in South-Korea in terms of marketing and communications. If you have any further comment, remark or question about this campaign, please comment in the comment section below !

In France, two stores offer to pay back big plasma or LCD TV screens if the French team wins the World Cup …. (meaning that they do not have high hopes for the French team to succeed)… It’s another context (it’s much more common for the French team to take part in the FIFA World Cup than for the South-Korean team), another culture, another spirit …