By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
A 20-second commercial clip of Asian heartthrob Bae Yong-joon unwinding from a hectic day in a posh Honorsville living room boosted Keangnam Enterprises' formerly little-known name. But despite a need for promotion, the builder recently decided to get rid of him.
The hefty price tag that came with the star was considered high amid a struggling construction industry facing forced restructuring due to severe financial problems.
The medium-sized builder said it would replace Bae, who has reportedly been paid up to 1 billion won per commercial, with a less expensive model or even less expensive image cuts.
``We have to work around our shortcomings, but once conditions improve, we'll probably seek celebrity models again,'' said a company official who asked not to be named.
Not only Keangnam has had to change its advertising, as other top-tier firms such as Hyundai Engineering & Construction were forced to give up celebrity models as well.
Hyundai E&C recently opted not to extend its contract with star actress Ko So-young, who has been representing the builder's luxury apartment brand Hillstate for the past two years. It decided to substitute Ko's extravagant outing in a European city with images of famous musicians like Tchaikovsky.
The latest move, according to Choi Yoon-ho of the Korea Construction Association, should have come sooner.
``All the money builders that pay top models are eventually a burden to homebuyers,'' he said, ``so it's obvious why companies are changing their practice now.''
South Korean builders were battered with a huge number of unsold apartments last year, as homebuyers couldn't afford homes amid the slowing economy and high interest rates.
Star-studded advertising grew popular in the construction industry during the 2005-2006 housing boom, as builders were engaged in cutthroat competition to promote their apartment brands.
However, seeing that plowing hundreds of millions of won into a few clips of television ads was wasteful, builders like Samsung E&C, Daelim Industrial and Hanwha E&C were some of the first to let go of costly stars and go creative and efficient.
``Lacking famous celebrities means companies now have to be more creative to attract the public's attention,'' says Eun Hyo-jin, a marketing expert at Brand Major, a local PR agency that mainly offers consultation to builders.