April 28, 2025
📄 Source :M-Force (The power that brought 500,000 people to Lotte Tower in Jamsil, character marketing!)
Recently, there is a marketing trend that is loved across all sectors of industry, including not only the retail sector but also finance, fashion, pharmaceuticals, and even public institutions.
It's exactly 'character marketing'!
In general, advertising marketing often uses famous celebrities as models; however, the advertising costs for these models are substantial, and since the model's image is directly linked to the brand image, the risks associated with social issues and scandals cannot be ignored.
However, character marketing is a marketing strategy that minimizes such risks while offering diverse applications.
Today, we will take a look at what character marketing is used in various fields and some notable examples of it.
Simply put, character marketing refers to a marketing method that utilizes characters to promote a company's image and advertise products.
By effectively utilizing character marketing, you can replace existing brand perceptions with cute and friendly characters, making it easier for the brand to reach consumers of all ages and genders.
In addition to the direct increase in sales that can be expected from advertising marketing using characters, you can also expect additional marketing effects such as merchandise and pop-up stores.
There has been a lot of character marketing in the past as well.
Representative examples of successful marketing characters include S-Oil's Gudoi, Rush & Cash's Manager Mu, and Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance's Worry Doll!
In particular, as an abstract service that consumers cannot see in physical form, it was widely utilized primarily by financial companies.
By establishing a good character profile and conducting consistent marketing, you can offset the negative image of the brand while simultaneously increasing awareness.
Many of the character marketing initiatives recently attempted by companies are being carried out through collaborations with existing characters.
Collaborating with an existing character can first draw attention to marketing through the character's buzzworthiness, and additionally, it can be considered a relatively safe marketing strategy as it allows you to incorporate the character's already positive image into the brand.
Kolon FnC's golf wear brand 'WAAC' has collaborated with My Melody, a popular character among the MZ generation, incorporating the character into a total of 13 products, including gloves, hats, and tote bags.
The golf population is gradually getting younger these days.
I think this collaboration will be an opportunity to approach the younger generation who enjoy golf in a more friendly way and firmly establish the WACC brand in their minds.
Kyungnam Pharmaceutical has previously introduced 'Lemona Powder' and 'Lemona Tok Tok' in collaboration with Kakao Friends.
Recently, through a collaboration with Pokémon Korea, we released a 'Pokémon Lemona' edition featuring popular Pokémon characters, Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle.
This edition features characters from each version on the package, and reportedly includes a total of 50 types of Pokémon stickers randomly.
✔️ Woori Card X Manggeureojin Gom
Since Kakao Bank gained immense popularity by utilizing characters in its check card designs, many card companies are making similar attempts.
Nowadays, with the widespread adoption of convenient payment methods and the resulting decrease in the need for physical cards, characters are being cited as a reason for card issuance in themselves.
Recently, Woori Card unveiled a card design for its newly released 'Card of the Standard EVERY 1' featuring the character 'Manggeureojin Bear,' which gained popularity as a KakaoTalk emoticon.
Released in a total of two designs, this design is a limited edition available only until next August, so it doesn't miss out on rarity.
In addition, Woori Card is also holding a merchandise event featuring the 'Broken Bear' to commemorate the launch of the limited edition card.
✔️ McDonald's X Kungya
Following the retro trend, there have also been cases where character marketing has collaborated with characters that evoke memories.
Last July, McDonald's launched the 'Jindo Green Onion Cream Croquette Burger,' the third menu item of the 'Taste of Korea' project, and collaborated with 'Yangpa Kungya,' a character from 'Kungya' that was popular in the early 2000s.
Actually, Yangpa Kungya recently'Clear-eyed Madman' memeIt is a character that is gaining popularity once again along with...
By changing the green ear or horn part that originally represents the sprout into the shape of a green onion, they effectively promoted the point that it is a product made using 'Jindo green onions'.
Thanks to this marketing, it is said that over 500,000 Jindo Green Onion Cream Croquette Burgers were sold within a week of their launch.
In addition, thanks to its popularity, a re-release has recently been decided!
There are also many companies that create entirely new characters and use them for marketing.
Direct production requires a process of building initial awareness, but it has the advantage of allowing you to properly express the aspects the brand wants to showcase.
It is also possible to expand the worldview by utilizing it in relatively more areas compared to collaborations.
A prime example of imprinting a brand image and expanding its worldview with a new character is Binggrae’s ‘Binggrae Maker’.
Binggrae started character marketing in 2020 by posting a photo of ‘Binggraeus the Masis’ on its official Instagram.
The so-called ‘Binggrae Universe,’ which started with Binggraeus’s selfie, attracted people’s interest with its unique worldview armed with B-grade humor.
The character 'Binggraeus the Masis' is based on the concept of being the heir to the Binggrae Kingdom, and has the backstory of being in charge of operating the Binggrae Instagram channel as a mission given by his father.
The character's outfit and accessories were styled with Binggrae products, such as Binggrae logo earrings, a banana milk crown, a Bibibig belt, and Ppangttoa pants!
Through Binggraeus, consumers learned about Binggrae products they were previously unaware of, naturally raising brand awareness and achieving successful promotional effects.
With the appearance of Binggraeus, Binggrae's official Instagram surpassed 40,000 followers in four months without any special promotion, and encouraged by this, new characters also appeared.
These characters were also based on Binggrae's products, which not only helped promote the products but also allowed us to secure fans unique to Binggrae Makers through evolving storytelling that included relationships between characters and even took over the supermarket.
Recently, they have moved beyond 2D characters and are being utilized as metaverse characters and virtual YouTubers.
Recently, many department stores have been developing their own characters and utilizing them in sculptures, pop-ups, promotional materials, and more!
At the starting point is Lotte Group's 'Belligom'.
Belly Bear has the concept that it was born from bubblegum dropped by a child visiting the 'haunted house' at an amusement park.
Based on the character's background as someone born in a haunted house, they were given the setting that, contrary to their cute appearance, they enjoy scaring people.
Belligom has gathered nearly 1.5 million social media followers based on its cute appearance and solid character, and is also being utilized on its own YouTube channel, 'Belligom TV'.
In addition, it was installed as a large sculpture at Lotte World Tower, Lotte Department Store, and other locations, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors who wanted to take a commemorative photo with Belly Bear.
There are cases where nostalgic characters have become a hot topic again, even if it isn't a collaboration.
In 2019, Hite Jinro revived the 'toad' that comes to mind when you think of 'Jinro Soju' as a cute character, along with a new Jinro that restored the Jinro Soju design from the 1970s.
In addition, it showed various appearances of the toad character along with the phrase 'Jinro Is Back'.
It is said that Jinro Is Back, created with the toad character, was a huge success, selling 10 million bottles in just two months and over 400 million bottles cumulatively, and even achieved a 10.9% increase in sales revenue.
Riding the perfectly timed Newtro craze, it became even more popular among the MZ generation and enjoyed a second golden age.
So far, we have looked into character marketing.
Additionally, a good point to keep in mind when starting character marketing is 'storytelling'.
In the case of the 'Binggraeus' worldview introduced above, or the Giant Peng TV character 'Pengsoo' who rang the New Year's Eve bell due to his sensational popularity, they captured people's attention by depicting the journey of Pengsoo from being a trainee to succeeding as a famous creator.
Before engaging in character marketing, please remember that while creating a unique and differentiated character for your company is important, you can achieve even greater marketing effectiveness by incorporating storytelling!
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