Hallyu K-star Road
At first I thought this would be like the hollywood stars on the ground that you pass with the name of an idol or group but it was much different than what I anticipated. Instead of stars, these influential bands get GangnamDols; individualized statues in the shape of bears. It's a much cuter and personal alternative considering thought is put into each design of the bears. Because of how much success Psy had on getting Korean media to a Western audience, they dedicated these statues to many of the groups that worked before him and BTS, on getting the content to more audiences. Thus initiating the Korean Wave when it came to music. In addition to the Gangnam dolls, Psy also has a huge statue dedicated to him in the form of two large golden hands. These hands form the Gangnam style dance pose and they even have the song playing on a display. Although it seems silly, marketing to Americans or anywhere other than Korea was a big achievement at the time especially with how viral it became.
Starfield COEX Mall
After that quick visit, we were introduced to the largest underground shopping mall in Asia; the Starfield COEX mall. In the mall there is the Ktown4U store; a kpop store that I indulged in a bit too hard. Though originally this store was the old SM Entertainment headquarters where BTS and many other older groups originated. In addition to this, the mall has huge attractions like the Starfield library, a SeaLife aquarium, and a Kimchi museum? Although other than the kpop store, Allison and I just browsed the stores. Agreeing that we'd spent enough money in one place.
Business Visit to a Communication Agency
Our last stop of the day for the program was the communication agency Cheil. Although I am not a communications, business, or graphic design major, I could still see the value in the experience here. They gave us a small tour of their history and explained how they intend to connect people through technology and promotion. To do this they work with brands and small businesses to promote their products or support their ideas through campaigns. One example was the Samsung flip and how they made a way to advertise it to Apple users, thus increasing interest even in iPhone users. Their ways of promotion target a specific audience in order to increase openness to a product. So in order to make ones ideas palatable to all, you should put extra focus on how to make the idea palatable to someone opposed to it.
AK Plaza
By the night, we spent a night out exploring the AK Plaza mall and found lots of cool spots like the Sanrio Cinnamoroll cafe, Animate KOREA, and an entire store dedicated to One Piece. Most notably however was the entire floor dedicated to anime and manga. They had an entire maid cafe and manga store, the Animate store being especially packed. It truly surprised me to see how crowded it was after Titi and Professor Hammick told us that Koreans were not big on anime or anything from Japan. Maybe those who do enjoy it choose to not be vocal about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment