Go Korean

GO KOREAN (Korean Air)

It’s hardly a secret that South Korea is a growing economic powerhouse. However, although the role of innovators such as Samsung and LG is well known, the development of South Korea’s soft power is a relatively recent phenomenon.

Over the past few years there has been a growing affinity worldwide for Korean culture, the most high profile example of which is K-Pop. At the same time, Korean cosmetics, fashion and food are also becoming much better known.

This increased popularity of all things Korean is especially prevalent in the Far East and Middle East. For example, the

recent Nielsen Japanese and Korean Trends report, found that the preference of Hong Kong consumers was shifting from Japanese to Korean brands.

Meanwhile an article earlier this year in The Diplomat talks about South Korea’s successful efforts to promote the so-called “Korean Wave” in the Middle East. This has increased affinity in the region with Korean popular culture, in turn leading to a desire among younger, higher income consumers to visit the country.

In the aviation sector, flag carrier Korean Air’s new “Go Korean” campaign seeks to firmly link the airline into this trend.

An ambassador of “modern, hip and bold ‘Koreanness’”

According to Korean Air, the aim of the campaign is to “introduce Korean Air as anambassador of modern, hip and bold “Koreanness” to all of our global audiences.”

Released in July, Go Korean takes the form of an online video ad, backed up by an extensive content micro-site. The video takes the form of an actor wheeling a suitcase along a corridor with flashing fluorescent lighting. We are then shown food being picked from a garden and being prepared by chefs as he walks past (the message being Korean Air has its own farms).

After this he turns into a cartoon figure who ascends a set of aircraft steps, before becominghimself again and taking part in a K-Pop style dance.

It then ends with him sitting in the Premium Cabin of a Korean Air aircraft.

“Strange and cheesy”? Depends on your perspective

Aviation blogger One Mile at a Time calls it “very strange and very cheesy.” Some Western European and North American viewers may well think so, but we’d point to the research we cited earlier in this article:

Which is that Brand Korea is most popular in other Asian countries. Indeed, the most recent monthly statistics from the Korea Tourism Organisation show 1.044 million visitors from East Asia and the Pacific compared to a much more modest 81,000 from Europe and 105,000 from the Americas.

And while Korean Air does serve a wide range of destinations in Europe and North America, its route network is of course primarily focused on Asia.

As a result, our hunch is that if you are into Korean culture and / or live in Asia, then the film would not seem in the least bit strange (even though the ad is narrated in English).

In fact, this writer neither lives in Asia or is a K-Pop fan but still found it both memorable and also a video that gets better the more you watch it.

Shot in Bangkok, the video itself is a collaboration between Canadian and Chinese talent. It was directed by Montreal based studio Vallée Duhamel, which among other things is responsible for the Air Transat safety video we covered in our July edition.

It was produced by another Canadian shop, Sailor Productions, while the ad agency behind the campaign and brand message is Ogilvy Shanghai.

Go Korean - Content hub

Behind the video sits a detailed content hub / micro-site which promotes boththe airline and destination.

The sections promoting Korean Air start with a series of quirky gifs. For example,the page on first class has animations showing passengers doing everything fromworking to eating to (in one case) singing and dancing in their “Kosmo Suite.”

Meanwhile the page on Korean Air inflight food includes a gif of a hand picking a tomato.

There’s also a lot of content about Korea itself, which is really varied in scope and more often than not includes little video features.

This includes a look at Korea’s “B Boys” (a breakdance crew), a studio that is training the K-Pop stars of tomorrow as well as “Korea’s hottest sauna craze.”

The videos themselves were produced last year in collaboration with Korean Air by micro-documentary company ‘Great Big Story.’

The whole site reminds us very much of the kind of campaigns ANA has produced in the past to promote Japan, which we’ve covered in previous issues.

This includes “Is Japan Cool”, which has been running for 5+ years (and was our cover story in September 2017) as well as the Steve Aoki fronted “Experience Class” campaign (which we covered in March).

Like the ANA campaigns, the content is of a very high quality and genuinely interesting.

However, one final observation we would make is that the site navigation ends up hiding a lot of good content, unless you click through to the different subsections it is not immediately obvious that some of it is there.

Use video and photo galleries to promote a destination

One key reason why Go Korean, as well as the ANA content sites we mentioned previouslywork, is because of the use of video and imagery.

In fact, there’s a huge difference on the Go Korean site between these top five lists ofthings to see and do in Seoul and Busan from Monocle, and (for example) this minidocumentary on “making South Korea’s secret sauce” (gochujang).

Even though Monocle is a well known publisher, those pages seem threadbare. It’sjust a list, with just a few pictures. You don’t get the feeling you are learning somethingnew or an insight into the country.

The little video features however really bring South Korea to life. They are engagingstories, that are just the right length (2-3 minutes) that draw you in and make youwant to find out more.

Allow people to tell their story, as opposed to using a voice-over

In fact a follow-on observation we would make is to use local voices where possible.

For us the most impactful videos are the ones where South Koreans did most ofthe talking and told the story, as opposed to ones where there was a North Americanvoice-over.

A particular good example of this “music and vinegar”, where brewer Ok-Ran Jung tells the story of how she is carrying on the family tradition of brewing Hanega Vinegar, which has been valued for its health benefits in Korea for over 3000 years.

ANA does a good job of covering off these points. If you look at the Experience Class micro-site, there is no US or UK voice over. Instead the personalities they use for this campaign, Steve Aoki, Zoe Saldana and Scott Eastwood use photos and videos direct, with no narration.

See as well our article on Seoul Incheon Airport’s K-Pop themed campaign in the airports section.