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.

  • Chaebol + more news

    Chaebol

    Anger and Envy in the Chaebol Republic | Foreign Policy – there will come a point when it it will undermine the iron grip that chaebol groups have on Korean society. The irony was chaebol power was based on a compact between President Park and prominent business families as a way to jump start the economy. Somewhere along the way the power dynamic changed and the chaebols got into the driving seat rather than the other way around. The chaebol families haven’t lived up to the promise of their compact with President Park – yet the Korean government still gives them a free pass (paywall)

    Business

    Tumblr is getting sucked into the Yahoo mothership | Business Insider – likely to suffer similar kinds of challenges to flickr et al. More Yahoo! related content here.

    Korea

    LG Eyes New Approach With AKA Phones – Korea Real Time – WSJ – interesting approach to try and shake up the form factor and design as a differentiator in smartphones with its AKA phones. Anything that provides form factor like these; AKA phones is a good thing when one thinks about how it has now become a design monoculture. More gadget related content here.

    Media

    VivaKi integrates anonymised Tencent data into its DMP – Campaign Asia – focus on cross screen campaigns

    Baidu and Alibaba capture 70% of China online ad spending | Resonance China – which shows what a power house Baidu still is

    TV for Babies, Born of a Reality | WSJ – with a subsidiary plan of targeting EDM loving millennials?

    WPP’s Martin Sorrell reconsiders strength of newspapers – Media Week – newspapers starting to get some respect from Martin Sorrell

    Technology

    Intel in Talks to Buy Altera – WSJ – interesting move from a business perspective in terms of the expansion beyond micro processors and into FPGAs. Processors whose layout is ‘flashed’ on to them like software written into memory. They tend to be used in products that need a dedicated processor design, but aren’t made with the scale to justify one

  • Ogilvy social trends + other things

    Ogilvy social trends

    Marshall and James delivered their Ogilvy social trends presentation on a webinar. Included in the Ogilvy social trends presentation is

    • Disposable / transient content
    • Brand banter
    • Sub-dividing communities using greater ad targeting
    • Twitter zero as the organic reach on the platform plunges towards zero
    • Platforms battle for video dominance
    • Rise in privacy facilitating services
    • Digital and identity are blurring the lines between aspiration and self actualisation

    Here is this year’s Ogilvy social trends presentation:

    Vintage logo design

    Flickr user Eric Carl has put together an amazing album of vintage logo design from the 1970s and they are truly splendid in monochrome. They are like set of post modern mons – the iconic symbols that Japanese clans used to represent themselves. They also feel timeless rather than trend driven.

    Great to finally see something we’ve been working on for a good while break cover. I have been working on a global website redesign and digital strategy for the Family Brands unit at Unilever. This is their worldwide margarine (and related cooking ingredients including cream analogues) product portfolio of products. A second project that I have been involved in is a set of adverts that will be rolling out globally. This is debuting in Mexico. Unfortunately, I couldn’t enjoy it as the new, new thing beckons.