Following up on popular advertising techniques in the kpop industry I just couldn’t resist doing a post about the newly released high budget Lotte Duty Free commercial film which features high end celebrities and idols. With big name stars such as Secret Garden’s Hyun Biin, JYJ, Big Bang, Choi Ji Woo, My Princess’s Song Seung Hun, 2pm and Mary stayed out all night’s Jang Geuk Suek the company is seeing dollar signs ! 

Lotte is a successful Korean retail company who are now in the promotions for their duty free shop. Their target audience is evidently Korean citizens however seeing as it is duty free this is linked to airports and international audiences. The purpose of the high end celebrities is not only aesthetically pleasing but is appealing to international audiences who are part of the hallyu wave. What does their marketing team have to say? Director Kim Ju Nam of Lotte’s marketing team explained, “The reason we are signing on such mammoth stars is not simply for our sales. Lotte’s star marketing emphasizes the creation of new content. Our aim is to expand Korea’s tourism industry through enter’tour’ment marketing, a combination of the tourism industry and the entertainment industry.”  

Okay so now we know that basically it was a high budget CF because they wanted international consumers, sales to sky rocket and the image of a creative corporate identity. No one can deny their creativity, with their marketing team coming up with an appealing concept of fairytale visuals and characters. Before I blab on, you better watch it ! 

Watch it : 

Kpoprealitycheck: This is an advertisement. It looks like a beautiful fantasy world where all kpop idols unite, ride magic pirate ships and have fun. This is an advertisement for the retail company Lotte. 

If you plan on going to Korea and going to Lotte duty free then that’s an extreme case of knowing that their ad has worked, however as the marketing team stated above they wanted international audiences to be aware of their retail brand. BINGO! I mean heck, I’m not Korean, I don’t speak Korean, I’ve never even been to Korea however I know about a retail giant named Lotte through kpop, amaahhhzing.

Kpopselfrespect: I can appreciate the amount of creativity gone into their advertisement without feeling like purchasing or going to a duty free shop. I mean i feel a little ridiculous for stating the obvious but c’mon this advertisement was so magical!  

Other: Advertisement Analysis
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the retail nor production company in anyway. This is just my opinion and analysis, you may not agree with what I have to say. This is entirely my interpretation of the advertisement. 

Why is this advertisement generating so much interest? Well normally we check out an advertisement when it has our favourite kpop idol in it. This ad doesn’t have one but has 19 idols within it, it’s bound to be seen by numerous audiences from drama enthusiasts to vips. 

Music:  The song is fun catchy and reflects a classier and refined christmas carol. I wouldn’t say it was kpop but more like a kjingle, but i doubt that even exists anyways… A sample of the translated lyrics are “so i’m loving you, duty duty duty dut- so I’m loving you, it’s wonderful, too happy, at this place we will wait for you.” Okay so it makes sense and it’s a welcoming song towards the duty free shop, the only criticisms I have is the repitition of ‘duty duty duty..” it sounds catchy but doesn’t really make sense. The retail company’s name Lotte is mentioned numerous times throughout the ad. Throughout the ad the celebrities who are endorsing Lotte are singing it and it looks like a freaking magical musical.

Concept: The concept is so evidently a fairytale stories, stories such as Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin and well fairy tale characters such as a Snow Queen and pirates also appear aswell. This has got to be one of my favourite ad’s and is bumped Carribean Theme park’s CABI CF off my number 1. The graphics are stunning in contrast with kpop advertising techniques of massive bright fluro sets.

A visual analysis would be done in PART 2.