The Campaign

What does “Seoul” mean to you? Until recently, the answer might have been, “not much”. Thanks to K-pop, the Korean capital recently saw a jump in tourism—but the city still lacked a unique identity. Media recognition was low, and tourist feedback lacked coherency. To find itself, Seoul’s government wanted to turn to those who knew Seoul best—its residents, visitors, and fans—and create a brand together. But how? Our creative solution was to produce Asia’s very first crowdsourced film. But to do so, we needed video clips from all around the world. Fulfilling this need for engagement would be the basis of our promotional push. First, we brought in Korea’s most famous directors to endorse and produce the film. Then, we launched a 360-degree campaign that combined digital and traditional media across global markets. We orchestrated media tie-ins with top Korean TV shows, opened a Facebook page with over 100,000 fans, a YouTube channel buttressed by advertising, and a global blog. We also brought in 11 celebrities to make their own Seoul clips, and executed strategic event sponsorships to encourage participation. The video clip submission period ran for just four months, but we received over 11,800 submissions by the end. The campaign itself received coverage in 1,123 media outlets around the world. Most importantly, through this momentum, perception and positioning of Seoul was transformed—through stories, video clips, and people, Seoul was finally recognized as the complex and beautiful city that it truly is.

The Brief

Our objective was to rebrand Seoul and raise its profile worldwide. Success would be measured by campaign engagement and media coverage. Our target audience was global, both within and beyond Korea’s borders. We aimed to communicate with anyone reading, watching, or otherwise engaging with anything about Seoul. To understand the issues we faced, we conducted research on public perception of Seoul compared to other metropolitan destinations. We also surveyed best practices for city branding. Based on our findings, we decided to shape messaging around the city itself—its history, people, and lifestyle—rather than tourist sites or “things to do”.

Results

We measured awareness through channel engagement. Over the course of 9 months, we received 11,852 video submissions, 107,234 Facebook fans, 4,843,762 channel views on YouTube, 24,668 unique views at the microsite, and 154,946 global blog page views. 65,645 viewed the film during its Google Hangouts premiere on February 11. Post-premiere YouTube views numbered 21,650 as of April 8. The media campaign yielded over 1,123 stories in global outlets, many of which were top tier media like AFP, CNN, Wall Street Journal, MBC, Chosun Ilbo, Reuts, Sina, Asahi and more. Equivalent ad value was roughly calculated as over 3.1 billion won. More important was the shift in positioning. For the first time on a large scale, stories began portraying Seoul as not just the capital of South Korea, but a vibrant city that is shaped by its people. In total, Seoul’s brand value increased 396.8 trillion won.

Execution

Our strategy was implemented as planned, in three phases. Launch: Aug 20, 2013 We kicked off the project by leveraging our directors through a press conference and media push. To engage abroad, we launched our online channels. Press conference feat. PARKing CHANce & release Facebook, YouTube, microsite, and global blog launch Submission: Aug 20 – Nov 25, 2013 Here, we focused on driving awareness and engagement. Eight “Seoul, Our Movie” celebrity video clips and releases Three PARKing CHANce interviews International student event sponsorships Guest houses & students engagement Promotional booth MNET Super Heat TV placement Digital channels Operation Wrap & Premiere: Jan – Feb 2014 Our final push leveraged the film itself as a tool to tell the story of our campaign. PARKing CHANce + Seoul mayor interviews Premiere press conference for media Global Premiere Global simulcast premiere through Google Hangouts SBS Running Man TV placement Leverage through digital channels

The Situation

Seoul was looking to refresh its brand marketing and overcome tourism clichés. But the city’s government didn’t want to simply choose and dictate another set of standard messages to a bored public. They had tried this before, with little impact. Plus, tourism momentum from the recent explosion of K-pop offered Seoul new branding tools that it had never had access to before, and the city’s government wanted to use them. Seoul decided to find a way to use the city’s existing fan base to create a brand message. Our creative solution was to produce Asia’s first crowdsourced film.

The Strategy

To produce the film, we decided to reach out globally, asking people all over the world to use video clips to share their perspectives on Seoul. Their engagement via video submissions would be the momentum we would use to push media coverage and public awareness. To motivate the public to contribute, we brought in Korea’s most famous directors—Old Boy director Park Chan-wook and his brother Park Chan-Kyoung—as the film’s curators and directors. We then created a 360-degree campaign strategy to leverage the project for promotional effect. The campaign plan combined digital, promotional, and event-based elements for maximum public exposure and media coverage. Activation pieces included celebrity-focused content to drive general public awareness during the submission period, four digital channels to showcase submissions and engage with the public overseas, and a simulcast global premiere to unveil the final product.