05.04.2017
The penetration of Korean culture into Russia is becoming more and more prominent. Hyundai Solaris was the top-selling car of 2016. While Kia became the first company in total car sales, Hyundai occupied the third place.
Just think: two of three most sold cars in Russia are Korean. The number of Korean restaurants in Moscow is growing. There were 65 restaurants in mid-2016, now there are 99 of them according to afisha.ru. Korean food, accessories, cosmetics have been placed on the shelves of the stores as basic assortment thanks to the sanctions that made wholesale and retail players searching for new partners.
A presentation entitled “Korean wave: business solutions” took place at the Licensing World Russia exhibition on March 1st - the Day of Korean Declaration of Independence. It was arranged by CLS Media company that in particular handles Korean content distribution in Russia and manages the licensing programs for the brands they represent. The aim of the presentation was to drawing the market’s participants’ attention to the growing Korean trend, getting to know the culture and laying the foundation for the interest that would lead to exploring of everything that Korea could offer.
Before the presentation there was a pause during which some k-pop music videos were played. The task of getting attention to Korean culture was completed to its fullest – the bright footage and music were so appealing. When PSY appeared on the screen, the most serious and rugged visitors were about to break into a dance.
The presentation started with the Korean business presence in Russia outline. The most unexpected facts were that Samsung was a sponsor of the literature award named after L. Tolstoy “Yasnaya Polyana”, and that another Korean conglomerate Lotte has recently announced its sponsorship for the literaturee award named after A. Pushkin “Lyceum”. We also noted that 2016 was named the year of Korean cinema and it was a French-Korean feature film “Mrs. B., a North Korean Woman” by Yun Jero that received “Silver George” for the best documentary at the Moscow International Film Festival. In 2017 this tendency continues in the program “The Year of Korean Cinema in Russia. Reload” under which Korean films are being screened all over Russia.
One more reason why parallels are drawn between the two countries is that the last Winter Olympic games took place in Sochi, and the next ones will take place in Korean county Pyeongchang. It is especially important for the licensing world: it is of great value what was done by the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games. Producers and sellers realized the power of the trademarks and copyrights, got to know about world business practices and managed to create profitable business.
But the most popular Korean thing in Russia is animation. Koreans have become absolute leaders in 3D computer effects and graphics. They do it so effectively, professionally and promptly that Korean studios handle the projects of Disney, DreamWorks, Pixar and even Russian “Soyuzmultfilm”. Compared to the niche Japanese animation and the specific Chinese animation, Koreans has firmly occupied the preschool and elementary schoolers’ segment.
We may say that everything has started with “Pororo the Little Penguin” that is so popular in Korea that it is called Pororo the President. The series was translated into 30 languages and is being broadcasted in 100 countries. Millions of products with the characters of the TV series are being manufactured all over the world.
Russian Korean trend was set by “Robocar Poli”: this brand created one of the most successful licensing programs. One more successful brand is “Vroomiz” the third season of which will be premiered very soon. “Vroomiz” hit Top-10 of the most popular toy brands for boys, keeping a company for Disney “Cars”, “Star Wars” and “Robocar Poli”. This means that two of ten brands in “Yandex. Market” rating are Korean. Talking about important premieres in the nearest future we should mention TV show “Powerbattle Watch car”. It was created by SAMG Animation in cooperation with Hyundai Motors: real Hyundai cars became prototypes for the characters of the animation show.
But in the first place Korean wave is about pop-music and series. Once in 90-s the whole Russia was crazy about Mexican and Brazil TV series, now the whole world is crazy about Korean ones. The case with Asia is quite understandable as the mentality is quite similar. Surprisingly last year a Korean 2015 TV series “Kill me, heal me” were broadcasted at one of the Belorussian terrestrial TV channel. US, Canada, UK, Australia, Latin America – no country can resist the charm of Korean stars. The same people who work with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera compose music and write lyrics for Korean pop-stars. A video by the Korean boy band “BTS” “Blood, Tears, Sweat” got TV exposure at MTV Russia in February 2017, and at the beginning of April rapper band 24K will visit Moscow.
If we turn to history, we get to know that the Korean wave started in 2002 with the success of the Korean series “Winter Sonata” produced by KBS in Japan. Though as early as at the end of 90-s journalists began to pay attention to popularity of Korean music, series, food and way of life in Asia.
Korean pop-music or K-pop, as they call it, is famous for its promotion in new media and social networks. The most popular video on YouTube is Korean. It is, of course, PSY and his song “Gangnam Style”. In September 2012 the video got into the Guinness book as the most “liked” video on the website (at that moment there were more than 2 millions likes). In May 2014 it crossed the mark of 2 billion of views. The success of the video was so great that it so to say broke the views counter of the service. “We could not even imagine that the video may be viewed so many times that could not be included in 32-bit data type (2 147 483 647) but it had been before we met PSY. Gangnam Style had been viewed so many times that we had to renew”, the representatives of the service stated. The mechanism of the counter was renewed and I had a look at the relevant statistics - 2 775 728 415 views!
In Korea and other Asian countries “Korean wave” or “Hallyu” stars can be used for the promotion of the products. Thus, during the broadcast of “You Who Came From the Stars” a growth in sales of “chimek” (favorite Korean food – chicken and beer) was recorded. It happened because “chimek” was also a favorite food of the main female character of the series when she was sad and unhappy. In China the passion to the series took on strange forms: a 7-month pregnant woman almost lost her child because of her addiction to chicken with beer. In 2010 Korean company “Daesan” used Korean band pop-stars for promotion of a healthy lifestyle drink and the annual sales increased by 35 times.
In Russia this will not work until Korean series and videos at least become part of mainstream. The first step has been already made – the mentioned above BTS got to MTV Russia. The next step may be made by the series: if they appear at basic channels, there will be consequent advertising possibilities.
What spheres are most open for Korean companies in Russia?
Korean trend is surprisingly strong in Russia. It becomes more impressive each day. We hope that all of us, the participants of the consumer market, can join our efforts and use it for the success of our business.
