Tag Archives: marketing in Korea

Rubber Duck – Message For Peace & Happiness?

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The rubber duck project was first started 7 years ago in France with purpose of delivering message of peace and happiness. Dutch artist, Florentijn Hofman, tried to entertain the world by a tour named “spreading joy around the world”. Until now, it has been displayed in 14 different cities all over the world and is presented in Seoul, the capital city of South Korea.

 

Rubber Duck Project Seoul

Rubber Duck Project Seoul

The Lotte group of Korea asked for the giant rubber duck to celebrate their opening of the largest shopping mall in country. There were a number of political and social issues with regard to its construction, partially due to its safety issues, and by presenting the giant symbolic figure, the corporation has successfully attracted more people. I thought intention of delivering peaceful message to the public was great, but only at the beginning. Many companies and corporations started abusing it as a marketing tool.

Rubber Duck Drinking Local Hard Liquor, Soju

Rubber Duck Drinking Local Hard Liquor, Soju – Lotte Liquor, World’s Second Leading Producer of Soju.

Rubber Duck Made Of Steamed Bun

Rubber Duck Made Of Steamed Bun – Samlip General Foods Co., Large Manufacture of Instant Food

Rubber Duck Wearing A Outdoor Jacket

Rubber Duck Wearing A Outdoor Jacket – Kolon Sports., Large Manufacture of Outdoor Products

There are pictures of rubber duck drinking a Starbuck’s coffee, redbull, and even ones putting makeups on. Many of them certainly went viral through online communities and entertained people in many different forms.

In my opinion, many business have taken advantage of its presence by commercializing the symbolic figure for their profit. For example, the picture of rubber duck drinking hard liquor feels rather immoral and fades away from its original message. What are your thoughts?

Response to Tesco’s Virtual Store?

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A few days ago, I posted an interesting digital marketing campaign from Tesco Homeplus, the “Virtual Subway Store“. The campaign leaded to drastic increase in online sales as well as number of registered members. Although it was successful in temporally increasing awareness and getting attention, it wasn’t enough to change the market trend or boost long term growth.

Because the campaign was so interesting, I decided to surf on the web for another creative marketing campaign in Korea. Surprisingly, I found articles about a marketing campaign that was ran by Korea’s number 1 discount retail store E-mart. Click on this link to view the full version video: Emart Sunny Sale Campaign.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvIJfUySmY0

From research they found out that their sales severely decrease during the lunch time. Despite the fact that E-mart is Korea’s largest discount chain store, they needed to solve their weakness. They came up with a brilliant idea of installing a QR code that can only be activated from 12pm to 1pm by using the sunlight and shadow. Forecasting weather and placing the 3-dimensional QR codes may have been challenging but it was successful; over 12,000 coupons were issued, 58% increase in membership, and 25% increase in sales during lunch time.

Source: http://biz.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/04/08/2012040801667.html

Source: http://biz.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/04/08/2012040801667.html

Similar to Homeplus’ virtual store campaign, this one also had temporal impact to customers. However, what I found this one better is that it actually makes people to try using the QR code.  It turns people’s curiosity into potential purchase of products and increased sale.

Logo of Cheil Marketing Agency

Logo of Cheil Marketing Agency

What really interested me more was the fact that both the Virtual Subway Store campaign from Homeplus and the Shadow QR Code campaign from E-mart was designed by the same agency. Some experts criticize both campaigns as focusing more on getting awards from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. I still think it takes outstanding effort  and creativity to come up with these brilliant ideas and I appreciate their trial of new trend in marketing. At the end of the day, both campaigns achieved to engage people and provide them new experience.