Government to help market small firms through hallyu
A scene from the tvN series, “Link: Eat, Love, Kill,” where plates and cups made by ceramic artist Cho Sin-hyun were featured as a part of government project to support marketing for small companies through Korean dramas and entertainment shows / Courtesy of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
By Kim Rahn
The government will support small- and mid-sized companies' marketing and exports of their products by taking advantage of “hallyu,” or the Korean wave, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said, Wednesday.
According to the ministry, it has launched the “K-brand hallyu marketing support project” together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
The project aims at providing government-level marketing by linking goods and cultural content created by small companies to overseas companies or agencies, with hallyu programs and content as the medium.
The culture ministry will help the companies have their products appear in Korean dramas, films or entertainment shows to be aired in the latter half of this year or early next year, in the form of product placement (PPL). Then, the three other ministries will support overseas sales of the products as well as online and offline promotions.
“Hallyu has a great economic ripple effect on consumer goods industries, but small companies have had difficulty taking advantage of hallyu in promoting their products and content due to a lack of necessary information and budget,” the culture ministry said in a press release.
The four ministries have selected 40 items for this year's project, 10 each for four categories, after evaluating their quality, distinctive features and potential for export.
The cultural content items include crafts, characters and picture books, such as Baek Hee-na's “Magic Candies” and Lee Suzy's “Summer,” while agrifood products include kimchi, “makgeolli” (rice wine), “jang” (fermented condiments), ginseng and Korean pear. “Gim” (dried seaweed), “eomuk” (fish cakes), and meal kits made with stir-fried small octopus were among those picked as seafood items. The remaining 10 items were selected among the products in various fields that had been given the “Brand K” title from the SMEs ministry, including a pressure cooker, eyeshadow and a robot vacuum cleaner.
The project began Tuesday along with the airing of the last episode of tvN drama “Link: Eat, Love, Kill,” which featured plates and cups from the “Line Flow” series by ceramic artist Cho Sin-hyun, which were named one of “excellent cultural products” by the government in 2021.
“The project is meaningful in that relevant ministries, which used to provide separate support only for relevant industries, have come up with integrated support for a synergy effect,” a culture ministry official said.