It’s no doubt, South Korean industry has absolutely taken the world. Best known for its high-production value and multi-general composition, the Korean music industry has rapidly ascended to global recognition. And we’re not only talking about the Asian countries here, but we’re talking across the universe.
It’s way more fascinating—the whole process of it including the content, the curation, and the dynamic of creation. It is also a huge success for social media marketing; enabling K-pop artists to reach larger masses with almost no advertising spends.
So how do they reach such a global audience with music that’s made mainly in Korean language?
Here are some of their marketing strategies that is also the recipe of their success:
BRILLIANT TEASER STRATEGY
Many of us are familiar with this strategy already.
The teasers are hell of a fire! Overflowing visuals that are one-of-a-kind to the point that you’ll know which K-pop idol or group it is based on the visuals and style. The K-pop industry are really the masters of teasing the audience, special mentions to the entertainment powerhouses JYP and YG entertainment.
GENERATING CURIOSITY
Agencies take this opportunity to appeal to the curiosity of K-Pop fans by releasing mysterious clues, either in the form of cryptic messages on social media, highlight reels, or through vague imagery.
As expected, these clues generate enormous amounts of engagement – prompting fans to decipher and decode until they solve the puzzle or continue to theorize.
GAMES AND REALITY SHOWS
With the COVID pandemic affecting all physical activities in the past years, we can still call this generation as the digital era where everything is digitalized. K-Pop giant, BTS, have managed to integrate themselves into the world of gaming; and have just launched their newest game in collaboration with Net marble, called BTS Universe Story.
In the gamification industry, the septet has also joined forces with Line Friends to launch BT21, an animated series and toy collection; broadening their target audience to appeal to a larger demographic of both children and adults.
CONTENT DELIVERY
Another amazing K-pop strategy they do to gain local and global visibility is to make the most out of their existing content. K-pop labels maximize and make the most of their contents.
Music videos are given and there are also videos that include different scenes from different places, and not only dance scenes, performance videos are focused purely on dancing. This type of strategy delight both the audience and social media algorithms.
BRAND DEALS
Idols often endorse companies or become brand ambassadors which often opens up a whole new world of visibility. One good example is Mamamoo’s Hwa Sa who received numerous endorsements and participated in many collaborations over the past few years including Dior, La Perla, Miu Miu, Balmain, Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander Wang, Bottega, Veneta, Givenchy, and Burberry.
Brand deals are beneficial not only for the idols, but also for the label behind them because they give a tremendous amount of visibility.
