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S.Korea: Case Studies
This page covers case studies of successful instances where private or public entities used social media tools to promote their brands/products. UCC competitions and corporate blogging efforts are some of the most used forms of engagement in Korea and detailed examples together with links are available below.
Use of UCC
Many companies and even the public sectors currently make use of UCC competitions to promote products, brands and campaign. One such example is Converse Korea, asking the net users to come out with promotion video featuring the Converse sneakers. The winning UCC was run on the air by M-net, a popular music channel in Korea. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism also held a UCC event. Participants were required to create a video which features tourism resources in Korea to promote tourism to foreigners outside of Korea.
* UCC is short for User Created Content, a local acronym used in place of the much used term CGM (Consumer Generated Media).
UCC Competition
1) Baskin Robins
Leveraging on one of Korea's most popular bands, Big Bang, Baskin Robins launched a UCC contest that urged consumers to express themselves regarding its ice cream products. The contest did not limit the format of the application but opened it up to any possible form that the user could come up with. To create more participation, a side event that was carried out concurrently was a public vote of the submitted UCCs. Both creators and voters were incentivised with prizes such as iPods and clothes belonging to each of the members. An unofficial media source reported a 135% increase in sales as a result compared to the previous year.
2)Orion 'Swing Chip'
Swing Chip is one of the market leaders in the potato chip market in Korea. In order to differentiate itself from its competitors, Orion looked to online advertising instead of its usual advertisement method - a TV commercial. After consideration, Orion decided to open a contest for user created advertisements of the Swing Chip. A partnership with Daum's TV Pot allowed a smoother experience for the consumers for uploading and viewing was easy to use.
The event was jointly promoted by Orion as well as TV Pot and cross media advertising was used. A screenshot of Daum's search box were used with 'Swin Chip' written inside in order to facilitate users to participate and to form a high association as seen below.
The top prize entitled the winner with 5 million won (approximately 3,700 USD) and the entry was used as a TV commercial. Other winners' entries were used as a internet advertisements. Therefore successfully linking internet to mass media. The competition garnered 176 entries in total which exceeded the expected 100 entries. Contestants from all over Korea were invited to the ceremony held at the roof top plaza of Daum which was welcomed by loyal fans.
Individual blogs of CEOs
Korean CEOs run homepage more than blogs and lots of CEOs running blog are from IT industry. However, blogging is getting more popular among CEOs in other industries as well. Joins.com which is an online news provider of Joong-Ang Ilbo, second biggest news publisher in Korea, has been offering CEO blog services since 2006. 150 CEO blogs so far have been opened here and most of them are not from IT related; CEOs of IT or web 2.0 related companies usually set up their blogs under independent domains.
Below are some examples of popular CEO blogs.
[1] Dreamwiz – Lee Chan Jin
Mr. Lee is the first CEO who started blog back in 2004. Right after his company Dreamwiz merged with a blog servicing company Intizen, he set up his own blog to find out what bloggers really want from the blog service. Along with his personal views about the company’s new projects and businesses, he also provides reviews on gadgets on his blog. His blog is very popular among the power bloggers in Korea.
[2] Cheil communications – Kim Nak Hoi
Mr. Lee is CEO of one of the most popular local Ad agencies in Korea, Cheil communications. He shares his insight about Ad industry through his blog and he also uses it as a tool to communicate with his employees.
Korean Corporate Blogs
The current stand of business Blogs in Korea are not as popular yet, but are expected to grow very rapid.
Currently, there are around 300 business blogs only in Naver and Daum. 60% of current business blogs are IT related. However, more and more blogs have been coming out from other industries such as food (CJ Newtra and Pulmuone), Finance (Golden bridge capital and Softbank ventures Korea), Automobile (Hyundai and Kia Motors), Hospitals etc.
Blog marketing is also getting popular. Tech companies such as Samsung electronics, HP Korea, Sandisk have started to first introduce their new products to bloggers and try to get reviews from influential bloggers for viral marketing. Web2.0 experts in Korea see that issue making through blogs will be one of the most important trends for business marketing this year.
Korean companies seem to be more interested in using blogs as marketing tools to communicate with their customers rather than using them as Public Relations (PR) platforms. Corporate and Brand blogs that appear to “commercial” may not be visited. Korean companies use blogs to promote new brands or product launches.
The use of corporate blogs in Korea is not very common. Message control has been paramount for Korean businesses. This could be attributed to the fact that Koreans have a high Uncertainty Avoidance Index. One goal of Koreans is to control everything in order to eliminate or avoid the unexpected. For companies to have a corporate blog, you will be dealing with international and global media and hence, 100% control of your message is lost.
1) KIA Buzz
KIA Buzz is KIA’s official blog for sharing information on KIA vehicles, news, information and opinions. KIA Buzz is written by a wide range of KIA experts and management from across the organization to help bring KIA closer to its customers, industry leaders and anyone who is passionate about the automotive industry.
2) DHL Story
The blog was launched to enhance customer relations. DHL hopes that the blog will be a new way of communicating with their customers and in turn provide relevant consumer insights on the logistics industry. The public can find answers to questions such as “what will be the future of the logistics industry?” and “what is the meaning of the carbon dioxide footprint to be imprinted on the DHL delivery service?”. The DHL Story evoke discussions on subjects such as DHL global news, overseas customs procedures and working conditions at DHL are covered through active storytelling.
Source: http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-eastasia.asp?parentid=87641
3) LG X-Canvas TV Blog
This blog is dedicated to its LG’s High Definition Television (HDTV) product line. LG X-Canvas blog tries to send marketing messages using a more personal and human voice, an effort to decommercialize its marketing effort. Entries include: “Introduction to Time Machine Feature”, “X-Canvas takes the world”, “X-Canvas TV Commercial” and “Tips on using HDMI Slot”.
We have 2 examples of companies promoting their products or brand through the company/brand mini-homepage.
[1] TTL (A mobile phone subscription brand)
TTL, a brand name of a mobile phone subscription plan targeting to young people in early 20s or late teenage promoted various events using their mini-homepage. They awarded the event participants with the E-nuggets and they also freely distributed TTL logoed wall papers which successfully exposed the brand to the young target customers.
[2] Cheong ha (A Korean alcohol brand)
Cheong ha, a Korean alcohol brand has promoted events through the mini-homepage. One such an example was that the company asked the event participants to post their photos with featuring the Cheong ha product. Those who selected earned prizes. The company also utilized the mini-homepage as a path to receive suggestions from customers who have any good idea on how to improve the product. Useful feedbacks were awarded.
Other pages in this section are:
Use of UCC
Many companies and even the public sectors currently make use of UCC competitions to promote products, brands and campaign. One such example is Converse Korea, asking the net users to come out with promotion video featuring the Converse sneakers. The winning UCC was run on the air by M-net, a popular music channel in Korea. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism also held a UCC event. Participants were required to create a video which features tourism resources in Korea to promote tourism to foreigners outside of Korea.
* UCC is short for User Created Content, a local acronym used in place of the much used term CGM (Consumer Generated Media).
UCC Competition
1) Baskin Robins
Leveraging on one of Korea's most popular bands, Big Bang, Baskin Robins launched a UCC contest that urged consumers to express themselves regarding its ice cream products. The contest did not limit the format of the application but opened it up to any possible form that the user could come up with. To create more participation, a side event that was carried out concurrently was a public vote of the submitted UCCs. Both creators and voters were incentivised with prizes such as iPods and clothes belonging to each of the members. An unofficial media source reported a 135% increase in sales as a result compared to the previous year.
2)Orion 'Swing Chip'
Swing Chip is one of the market leaders in the potato chip market in Korea. In order to differentiate itself from its competitors, Orion looked to online advertising instead of its usual advertisement method - a TV commercial. After consideration, Orion decided to open a contest for user created advertisements of the Swing Chip. A partnership with Daum's TV Pot allowed a smoother experience for the consumers for uploading and viewing was easy to use.
The event was jointly promoted by Orion as well as TV Pot and cross media advertising was used. A screenshot of Daum's search box were used with 'Swin Chip' written inside in order to facilitate users to participate and to form a high association as seen below.
The top prize entitled the winner with 5 million won (approximately 3,700 USD) and the entry was used as a TV commercial. Other winners' entries were used as a internet advertisements. Therefore successfully linking internet to mass media. The competition garnered 176 entries in total which exceeded the expected 100 entries. Contestants from all over Korea were invited to the ceremony held at the roof top plaza of Daum which was welcomed by loyal fans.
Individual blogs of CEOs
Korean CEOs run homepage more than blogs and lots of CEOs running blog are from IT industry. However, blogging is getting more popular among CEOs in other industries as well. Joins.com which is an online news provider of Joong-Ang Ilbo, second biggest news publisher in Korea, has been offering CEO blog services since 2006. 150 CEO blogs so far have been opened here and most of them are not from IT related; CEOs of IT or web 2.0 related companies usually set up their blogs under independent domains.
Below are some examples of popular CEO blogs.
[1] Dreamwiz – Lee Chan Jin
Mr. Lee is the first CEO who started blog back in 2004. Right after his company Dreamwiz merged with a blog servicing company Intizen, he set up his own blog to find out what bloggers really want from the blog service. Along with his personal views about the company’s new projects and businesses, he also provides reviews on gadgets on his blog. His blog is very popular among the power bloggers in Korea.
[2] Cheil communications – Kim Nak Hoi
Mr. Lee is CEO of one of the most popular local Ad agencies in Korea, Cheil communications. He shares his insight about Ad industry through his blog and he also uses it as a tool to communicate with his employees.
Korean Corporate Blogs
The current stand of business Blogs in Korea are not as popular yet, but are expected to grow very rapid.
Currently, there are around 300 business blogs only in Naver and Daum. 60% of current business blogs are IT related. However, more and more blogs have been coming out from other industries such as food (CJ Newtra and Pulmuone), Finance (Golden bridge capital and Softbank ventures Korea), Automobile (Hyundai and Kia Motors), Hospitals etc.
Blog marketing is also getting popular. Tech companies such as Samsung electronics, HP Korea, Sandisk have started to first introduce their new products to bloggers and try to get reviews from influential bloggers for viral marketing. Web2.0 experts in Korea see that issue making through blogs will be one of the most important trends for business marketing this year.
Korean companies seem to be more interested in using blogs as marketing tools to communicate with their customers rather than using them as Public Relations (PR) platforms. Corporate and Brand blogs that appear to “commercial” may not be visited. Korean companies use blogs to promote new brands or product launches.
The use of corporate blogs in Korea is not very common. Message control has been paramount for Korean businesses. This could be attributed to the fact that Koreans have a high Uncertainty Avoidance Index. One goal of Koreans is to control everything in order to eliminate or avoid the unexpected. For companies to have a corporate blog, you will be dealing with international and global media and hence, 100% control of your message is lost.
1) KIA Buzz
KIA Buzz is KIA’s official blog for sharing information on KIA vehicles, news, information and opinions. KIA Buzz is written by a wide range of KIA experts and management from across the organization to help bring KIA closer to its customers, industry leaders and anyone who is passionate about the automotive industry.
2) DHL Story
The blog was launched to enhance customer relations. DHL hopes that the blog will be a new way of communicating with their customers and in turn provide relevant consumer insights on the logistics industry. The public can find answers to questions such as “what will be the future of the logistics industry?” and “what is the meaning of the carbon dioxide footprint to be imprinted on the DHL delivery service?”. The DHL Story evoke discussions on subjects such as DHL global news, overseas customs procedures and working conditions at DHL are covered through active storytelling.
Source: http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-eastasia.asp?parentid=87641
3) LG X-Canvas TV Blog
This blog is dedicated to its LG’s High Definition Television (HDTV) product line. LG X-Canvas blog tries to send marketing messages using a more personal and human voice, an effort to decommercialize its marketing effort. Entries include: “Introduction to Time Machine Feature”, “X-Canvas takes the world”, “X-Canvas TV Commercial” and “Tips on using HDMI Slot”.
We have 2 examples of companies promoting their products or brand through the company/brand mini-homepage.
[1] TTL (A mobile phone subscription brand)
TTL, a brand name of a mobile phone subscription plan targeting to young people in early 20s or late teenage promoted various events using their mini-homepage. They awarded the event participants with the E-nuggets and they also freely distributed TTL logoed wall papers which successfully exposed the brand to the young target customers.
[2] Cheong ha (A Korean alcohol brand)
Cheong ha, a Korean alcohol brand has promoted events through the mini-homepage. One such an example was that the company asked the event participants to post their photos with featuring the Cheong ha product. Those who selected earned prizes. The company also utilized the mini-homepage as a path to receive suggestions from customers who have any good idea on how to improve the product. Useful feedbacks were awarded.
Other pages in this section are:
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Latest page update: made by haeyoung
, Apr 10 2009, 11:03 PM EDT
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