The Campaign

Can’t we bring back the memories of the separated family 70 years ago? Our campaign is innovative in its use of smell and creation of perfume with the longing stories of separated families. From the novel of Marcel Proust <In Search of Lost Time>, the main character recalls childhood memories with the scent of Madeleine. We focused on ‘Proust Phenomenon’ that was proven to the strongest sense of remembrance. In addition, since ‘Scent’ is an objet for everyone to use commonly, it was the most suitable medium to convey the 'separated family issue' which is difficult and unfamiliar to the general public. Therefore, through the cultural platform of exhibition that enables to share and gather the public, [The Scent of NORTHtalgia] was successful to make people to experience and share it with the world.

Execution

We collaborated with 1,569 of separated family members and heard about their longing hometown scent in North. We created 5 kinds of perfumes based on their interviews, thus the perfumes contain families’ memories, representing five regions of North Korea. Story of their longing memories has become a key ingredient. We delivered perfume to elders, and they felt a warm consolation in their forgotten memories of home. Also, we held [The Scent of NORTHtalgia] Exhibition for 3 months and shared the story of separated families with people at International Unification Tourist Complex, Odusan Unification Observatory, and Nurispace which is the center of Seoul. People can naturally understand and sympathize with their longing by reading the label of the perfumes and trying the perfume as it contains separated elders’ tragic stories.

Recently, 2018 Inter-Korean Summit, the scent of NORTHtalgia exhibition was held at the Main Press Center. 3,051 journalists from 36 countries have covered it as a notable issue, sympathized with the story of the separated families. The authority of Unification said, “This exhibition is a good opportunity to share the need for peaceful reunification through ‘Scent’. Before the summit, already more than 86,419 people visited the exhibition which was held at 3 different spaces. The pictures of the perfume that were uploaded by visitors on SNS has become voluntary viral contents without using any paid media. Above all, the most meaningful part of the campaign was that it consoled the longings and bond global consensus on reunion of the separated families. Also, our campaign contributed to agreement on holding reunion programs on August 15.

The Situation

The most tragic history from Korean War still remains as the existence of “separated families”. But over the years, it has become unfamiliar since the public confront ‘North Korea issue’ through media only recognizing nuclear threat which is a very sensitive problem. We needed to publicize the pain of the separated families and let them know that unification is important in our lives. It was a meaningful campaign as we used ‘perfume’ which is an emotional attribute, to communicate politically sensitive issue, leading immediate reaction of the public as well as the separated families.

The Strategy

Firstly, separated elders whom are the campaign’s core target are vulnerable to technology that they even hardly use smartphones. Thus, we need a new but analog approach rather than via AR or VR. The ‘Scent’ can be felt by anyone, so it was much easier medium. Secondly, we used a program called ‘Social Metrics’ to gain data and insights. By analyzing ‘Separated Family’ through 19 Korean presses, twitter, Instagram and other SNS, the main Emotional Keyword was ‘Unfamiliar’. Since the public thinks division is a sensitive and serious issue, we chose the strategy to use the public’s ‘familiar objet’ , which is easy to get along with young people. The Korean word 'hyangsu' has dual meanings, 'Perfume' and 'Nostalgia'. By combining both meanings in a single word, we tried to grab public’s interest.