Ged Carroll

Category: korea | 韓國 | 한국 | 韓国

Annyeonghaseyo – welcome to the Korean category of this blog. This is where I share anything that relates to the Republic of Korea, business issues relating to Korea, the Korean people, Korean culture and the Korean language.

At the time of writing this category descriptor its been about 10 years since I have last been able to visit Korea. In that time the country has risen on the world stage.

There have been continual disputes with Japan and more recently continual bitter disputes with China. The Japanese disputes are related to history and territory. Korea had been occupied as part of the Imperial Japanese empire. Independence came with the end of the second world war.

The Chinese disputes are more complex. Chinese investors are buying up Korean property particularly in Seoul, Busan and Jeju island, while many Koreans can no longer get on the property ladder. Chinese tourists blitz Korean shops in a similar way to what they’ve previously done in Hong Kong.

Chinese nationalism has seen claims made on Korean cultural assets from the national dress to kimchi. Finally China has interfered in Korea’s efforts to defend itself from the threat in the north.

Often posts that appear in this category will appear in other categories as well. So if Samsung launched a new smartphone that I thought was particularly notable that might appear in wireless as well as Korea. If there is Korean subjects that you think would fit with this blog, feel free to let me know by leaving a comment in the ‘Get in touch’ section of this blog here.

  • The spirit of halloween & things that made last week

    New York public transport gets into the spirit of Halloween. Halloween in the US is based on the Irish traditions, but the US spirit of Halloween that have been expanded and adapted to the new world over time. More here – MTA Making Subway Scarier Than Usual This Month – Gothamist – to be fair you don’t need to get on the MTA during Halloween to see strange and sometimes scary things. You all New York life there.

    Great profile on the director of The Host and Parasite: Bong Joon-ho profile: How the Parasite director is weaponizing the blockbuster. Mr Bong’s work is inherently political in nature, which is at odds with the international popularity that he has received. Parasite is about class and inequality. The Host was a commentary on the US military presence, large Korean corporates and the opaque nature of Korean government.

    Interesting public safety campaign – How the patron saint of chimney sweeps is saving lives in Poland | Creative Moment – Poland is still a very Catholic country so this was an interesting adaptation.

    Taylor Herring tried to use Airdrop at the recent PR Week Awards to try and solicit job applications. Its a variation on a theme of Bluetooth spam the was popular in shopping malls 15 years ago or so. I suspect that main effect will have been to build a mild degree of buzz around the Taylor Herring employer brand rather than active solicitation of candidates there and then.

    taylor herring

    Sanrio have had a cash machine in terms of Hello Kitty for decades. It was only a matter of time before she became a YouTube blogger. This allows Sanrio to continue supporting the franchise whilst reducing the cost of media production. Its a major win for YouTube that desperately needs brand-friendly, child friendly content. Though I think that it will attract viewers of all ages.

    https://youtu.be/bLb_-LJeGTU

  • Choi Hyun woo & things that made last week

    Choi Hyun woo

    TV shopping channels are huge in Korea. Asian Boss did this great interview with Choi Hyun woo, one of the most successful shopping TV pitchmen (pitchwoman) in Korea.

    Looking at data from home shopping company CJ ENM Commerce division, sales are starting to focus more on premium and luxury products from international brands like Karl Lagerfeld and Vera Wang. Overall TV viewship has been declining; but TV home shopping has been steadily growing.

    Good document on how consumer behaviour and technology will affect the future of retailing and e-commerce by Sparks & Honey. Its a book rather than a presentation.

    Amazing bit of creative work by Alzheimer’s Research UK.

    We’re in a golden age of TV drama and it looks like thins are only going to get more interesting with this trailer from HBO’s adaptation of The Watchmen universe. This seems to go in a very different direction to the original Watchman series. It is picks up from the end of the original book when a ‘trans-dimensional’ invasion fails. It doesn’t have the cold war orientation of the original series and is instead a show for our times. The HBO series focuses on issues of race and class. It looks as if it could be more entertaining than the original film adaptation that felt a bit flat.

    https://youtu.be/-33JCGEGzwU

    McDonalds have pushed these ads about trust and they play on human truths like the discomfort of formal restaurants or the tyranny of choice in grocery stores. A classic example of this tension is that many people I know refuse to eat on their own in a restaurant. I don’t have that hang up at all. McDonalds deserves credit for really listening to consumer insights and playing them back tot the audience for added brand resonance.

  • Glade e-tailing + more stuff

    Glade fills packaging pillows with its scent in creative product sampling campaign with Walmart | Contagious – Glade fills packing pillows in Walmart e-commerce orders to provide scent samples and drives a double digit uptake in online sales (which is huge in CPG). It also provides Walmart with a uniquely pleasant e-commerce experience. More retail related content here.

    Canadian charity SickKids put together this amazing ad. The production is beautiful. The ad plays with idea of super powers. It focuses on the self esteem and resilience of the children.

    Guinness and Japanese women’s rugby. Not a combination that I would have normally thought of. But this ia lovely advert that pays tribute to Japan’s first women’s rugby team. Again its another ad that focuses on resilience and dignity. Guinness has had a long history with promotion round rugby as sport.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE_mVvJyWQY
    AMV BBDO & Grey London

    Luxury brands have done a good job of tapping into modern culture from streetwear to gaming and everything in between. Frieze and Gucci partner on a mini-documentary looking at the history and origins of techno. Part of Kim Jones’ success at Dior has been his ability to draw on culture like this. This is the reason why he draws from 90s street wear and even got Shawn Stüssy to collaborate with Dior.

    This history of techno is an attempt by Gucci to do a similar meld with culture. It pulls on Detroit’s manufacturing history, pre-dominantly based around the US automotive industry. Detroit always had a distinct culture. Black people in Detroit were known to spend more money on their outfits in the 1960s and 70s. It was a birthplace for the Motown sound.

    A six year old Korean YouTuber buys a house. Korean public reactions are interesting. The Korean influence sector is large. What is particularly interesting is how profitable mainstream content is. The UK influencer scene is much more skewed towards beauty, fashion and hospitality.

    Child influencers will hopefully have a happier ending than many child actors.

  • To lose a child & things from last week

    Amazing Singaporean content on what its like to lose a child. The pain and anguish of the parents talking about what its like to lose a child comes through. Time doesn’t seem to be the healer when it comes to The questions were a very powerful device to get across this story.

    Hong Kong bakery’s ‘anti-extradition bill’ mooncakes and cookies leave customers hungry for more | South China Morning Post – given that grandparents often hold more pro-establishment views than their children and grand children I can imagine that this likely to make for very tense mid-Autumn festival celebrations

    Nor “Pheonix” Diana is the first hijab wearing Malay women’s wrestler. Japan’s heritage in wrestling has encouraged interest in the sport throughout Asia. The exception to the rule would be China, where despite the efforts of WWE and domestic entrepreneurs, they haven’t managed to make wrestling work in the marketplace. The other protagonist in this video Zeda Zhang (real name Julie Ho) is an MMA artist and pro-wrestler. She was taken on by WWE when they were looking to crack the China market and let go when those plans fell apart for various reasons.

    Yunying Huang challenges the Eurocentric perception of techno-culture in China | It’s Nice That – think Chinese meme culture and cyberpunk dropped in a Blendmatic 5000. China has its own fascinating takes on sci-fi so Yunying Huang’s work makes complete sense. With the exception of Cixin Liu, little has been done to bring Chinese science fiction to a wider audience, in the same way that happened with Japanese cyber punk in the 1980s.

    Amazing video from SamBakZa – Korean ska. You can see There She Is here. Besides the carefully manufactured K-pop acts Korea also has a thriving music scene from dance music to indie-rock. But SamBakZa is the first ska artist that I know out of Korea. Its understandable given the cross pollination that happens between Japanese and Korean music trends.

    https://youtu.be/-uqnKQwwcJo

  • Gundam into Space + more stuff

    Japan Wants to Launch Gundam Into Space for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – I am looking forward to the next Tokyo Olympics. Not for the athletics but everything else that the Japanese organising committee wraps around it. I mean if a Gundam goes into space, what’s next? Godzilla takes part in the olympic torch relay and hands off to Shotaro Kenada on his iconic bike?

    Challenging stereotypes has become a key trend in advertising recently. Part of it is down to the movements supporting diversity and LGBTQ communities. GS Caltex have chosen to challenge the stereotypes surrounding stepmothers in Korean society with this advert. These  were run on YouTube and distributed via online fairy tale platform “Iwing” and on Naver, a leading portal in Korea. You don’t need to speak Korean to understand the gist of where campaign was going.

    A bit of oil history for you. GS Caltex is a joint venture business between what was then GoldStar (now LG) and Caltex. Caltex was an joint international joint venture between Chevron (Standard Oil of California or SOCal) and Texaco. Both of which were part of the Seven Sisters of western oil companies who dominated exploration, production and refining until the 1970s.

    We’re starting to see an increased focus on craft in advertising after a decade of obsession with performance marketing to the detriment of brand. So now is as good time as any to revisit London agency CDP (Collett Dickenson Pearce) work on Hamlet cigars during the 1970s.

    I love this cheeky send-off and backhanded tribute that BMW gave Dieter Zetsche when he retired as CEO of Mercedes-Benz. In reality Mercedes-Benz and BMW have different brand attributes and strengths.

    IDEO has commissioned an oral history of itself as a corporate video. It covers their move from industrial design to the design of ideas.