Marketing With K-Pop Stars Needs Its Own Playbook

On Oct. 17, L.A.-based athleisure brand Alo Yoga created an Instagram post featuring Kim Seok-jin, 31, a member of the blockbuster K-pop boy band BTS, modeling a $158 Make Waves Hoodie in heather gray. “Introducing our newest global ambassador: worldwide handsome #jin,” it read. The eight-word post racked up over 426,000 likes. But Brian Nam, CEO of Dive Studios, which matches Korean pop stars with brands in search of influencers, immediately spotted something unusual: Alo Yoga’s keen understanding of K-pop fandom and culture. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Alo (@alo) “That term ‘worldwide handsome’ is something only BTS fans understand—because that’s Jin’s nickname,” Nam said. “It’s that one extra level of investment to do that kind of research to understand the fans.” A generation ago, few American brands would have made such an effort. Korean pop music was mostly popular in Korea until Park Jae-sang—better known as Psy—burst onto YouTube in 2012 with "Gangnam Style." K-pop went supernova. And it hasn’t stopped. According to data from the Korea Foundation and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are 225 million K-pop fans worldwide—a 25-fold increase from 2012. In America, music analytics firm Chartmetric reports that 15% of the population identifies as K-pop superfans. K-pop buffs tend to be young (most are 18-24, according to entertainment data firm Luminate) and 67% of them say they’re motivated to spend money to “show support” for their favorite acts. Last year, American Express teamed up with girl group Blackpink for a pop-up shop in New York City. “Millennials and Gen Z are our fastest growing customer segment,” Amex’s VP of global brand sponsorships Shiz Suzuki told ADWEEK, “so we want to be where they are and provide them access and experiences to the artists they love.” American Express joins a who’s who of blue-chip consumer brands including McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, L’Oréal, and Levi's that have inked endorsement deals with K-pop artists over the last three years. (None of these companies responded to ADWEEK’s request for an interview.) But for all of K-pop’s obvious benefits, a corresponding set of challenges, complications, and hazards lurks just behind the stage curtain. “There are so many nuances culturally—even just the language barrier,” Nam said. “It’s really tough for brands outside of Korea to navigate the landscape. It’s very convoluted.” Big stars, different rules The edgy marketing that a company might do with a Hollywood celebrity won’t fly when it comes to K-pop, Nam said. Brands should be prepared to “respect Korean values and traditions.” Take wardrobe, for example. While you will almost always see K-pop talent sporting flashy—and often designer—apparel, you’ll also see more clothing than flesh. “How much somebody reveals their skin can be a very big thing,” Nam said. “In the U.S., people can walk around in tank tops or whatever they want. In this culture, that’s overly revealing.” It’s also no accident that promotional photos featuring K-pop stars rarely feature other models of the opposite sex. Much of the K-pop fantasy rests on fans imagining that they have personal relationships with their idols. “Idols are not really allowed to have public relationships and have to be careful about how they interact with the opposite gender in public,” said Mai Anna Pressley, operations manager at the Korea Economic Institute of America. Anodyne themes and imagery tend to be the standard because, in the context of global fandom, it’s simply safer. Mathieu Berbiguier, who teaches Korean studies at Carnegie Mellon University, observed that because K-pop is a truly a global craze, a brand campaign in America will be noticed—and judged—by devotees everywhere else. “American companies might have to think about the backlash that could happen,” he said. Beware the fanatics Every marketer risks offending consumers, but K-pop fans are a breed apart. “You have this pervasive fandom culture that’s important for brands to acknowledge and make sure that they're cognizant of when they build out these campaigns,” Nam said. When private photos of Riize member Hong Seunghan kissing a girl found their way onto the internet last year, fans declared they were “grossed out” and the singer lost his job. And when photos emerged of Exo member Baekhyun puffing on an e-cigarette in a restaurant in Macau, fans attacked the restaurant for “illegally filming him with a hidden camera,” to quote one. These episodes took place outside the framework of brand endorsements. But even a company that exercises extreme caution with its K-pop influencers can still run into trouble. Suga makes a public apology following his DUI incident. To promote its Galaxy smartphones, for instance, Samsung has retained mega group BTS since 2020. But the company was caught flatfooted when band member Suga drunkenly rode his e-scooter down a Seoul sidewalk, incurring a fine of 15 million won (about $11,500). Apart from removing some social media photos of Suga posing with his Galaxy S24 Ultra, Samsung—which did not respond to ADWEEK's request for comment—remained silent on the incident. An anonymous source told the Korea Herald that “there is a risk in promoting someone as a brand ambassador who has caused a social controversy. ... It is a serious matter.” When pop stars grow up Suga isn’t the only example of the dilemma a brand can face when it comes to the behavior of a breakout star. Five years after Blackpink’s 2016 debut, band member Lisa released a solo album titled Lalisa (Lalisa Manobal is the Thai star’s birth name). The title track "Money" set a Guinness World Record as the first K-pop solo effort to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify. But then Lisa’s effort to distinguish herself as an artist in her own right took a couple of turns. In September, a scantily clad Lisa appeared onstage at Crazy Horse, the legendary Paris burlesque house, where her show included a number called "But I’m a Good Girl." The following month, Lisa turned up at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show wearing a black lace bodysuit. Lisa version 2.0 left fans sharply divided. One Redditor applauded her for “pursu[ing] diverse opportunities rather than conforming strictly to traditional expectations for a K-pop idol.” Others dismissed her as a “stripper.” But fans were more upset than the brands—at least in the case of Bulgari. CEO Jean-Christophe Babin took to Instagram to praise the brand’s global ambassador for appearing on the runway. “Congratulations Lisa!” he wrote. For now, Lisa appears to be the rare exception to the conservative-dress guidelines Nam spoke about. Calvin Klein is infamous for some of the most concupiscent images in fashion advertising history, but when Seventeen’s Mingyu debuted the brand’s fall collection in August, an unzipped hoodie showing the singer’s navel was as risqué as it got. Even so, Lisa's experience suggests that K-pop conventions may be loosening up a bit as the genre matures. K-pop artists who assert their independence with a bit of steaminess can “give brands more confidence,” not less, Pressley said, because “brands see that they don't have to worry as much about tiptoeing that fine line of maintaining an image.” Time will tell if K-pop stars can get away with what Lisa did. But if they do, brands only stand to benefit. Appropriation versus appreciation The biggest risk for brands partnering with K-pop acts is one that’s practically invisible. Stuti Mittal is a brand strategist in Ogilvy’s Chicago office and enough of a K-pop habitué that she’s been learning Korean. As both fan and marketer, Mittal cautions that a brand that merely cuts a check to toss a K-pop star into its marketing can easily conclude its effort is a success—even when it’s not. “If you don’t put a lot of work into crafting that partnership,” she said, “fans are [still] going to buy your product, but they're not going to care about your brand.” Nam agrees. K-pop fans, he said, “are the first to know whether a partnership or endorsement is authentic” and, of course, when it isn’t. What distinguishes an effective collaboration from a superficial one, Mittal said, is the process of co-creation—inviting the K-pop stars to contribute to the campaign instead of just posing for it. “Make sure you're not doing cultural appropriation, but cultural appreciation,” she said. McDonald's BTS Meal delivered a 25.5% sales spike in Q2 of 2020. It’s the approach that McDonald’s took with its BTS Meal in 2021. The limited-time offer was really nothing more than a medium Coke and fries, a 10-piece McNuggets, and two dipping sauces—Cajun and Sweet Chili, borrowed from Korean menus. But McDonald’s promoted the meal as what the BTS boys actually ordered, which gave fans a genuine way to feel connected with them. McDonald’s later credited the BTS Meal for much of its 25.5% U.S. same-store sales growth in the second quarter. Meanwhile, though the Jin announcement is just days old, Alo Yoga already seems to be getting traction out of it. Jin’s Make Waves hoodie now bears a “Bestseller” tag on the retailer’s website. “I love you, Jin,” wrote one fan on X, along with a photo of her Alo Yoga order, just arrived in the mail.

Brands

Like Their Dance Moves, Marketing With K-Pop Stars Is Not as Easy as It Seems

The perils and pitfalls of cross-cultural marketing

Create Your Free Account

Registration Includes:

Robert Klara

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications