I.SEOUL.U global marketing that promotes Seoul

Seoul, I.SEOUL.U
Global Influencer Marketing

In 2020, the Seoul launched I.SEOUL.U to promote Seoul to people around the world in order to strengthen its image as a global mega city.

For this purpose, numerous marketing agencies participated in Seoul City’s open bidding. Based on their expertise and diverse experience in Southeast Asian influencer marketing and Wang Hong marketing, AvocadoGiant, a digital integrated marketing agency, was finally selected.

However, due to COVID-19, travel was blocked and it was not possible to invite global influencers to Seoul like before. How did Avocado Giant overcome this difficulty?

Seoul City Global Branding Strategy

Seoul's city brand slogan I.SEOUL.U
(Source: VISLA Magazine)

city of Seoul wanted to highlight your and my Seoul to the world through the city brand slogan I.SEOUL.U. However, they, as well as overseas influencers, could not come to Seoul right away.

AvocadoGiant solved this problem by recruiting a global influencer who lives in korea and is popular locally. They have the advantage of having a high level of understanding of Korean culture, high-level Korean language skills, and high trust from local people.

This was a possible solution for AvocadoGiant, which has Chinese and Japanese employees and global experts from the United States who have been collaborating with global influencers for a long time. The next question was what kind of content to create as a foreign influencer living in the country. In a time when travel is difficult, we needed a unique topic that would appeal to the various charms of Seoul while also attracting the interest of foreigners from a long-term perspective.

Influencer Niniko's K-Beauty Wedding Makeup Experience
(Source: Niniko YouTube)

After revising the campaign direction several times, we chose K-wedding, which is popular in Southeast Asia, as the main concept. The modern wedding industry is not just about weddings. Weddings are a complex cultural industry that can show off Seoul’s diverse and trendy side, including fashion, beauty, and visiting famous places for wedding photos.

Avocado Giant wanted to show the exciting present of Seoul through wedding content.

Influencer Marketing Foreign Residents in Korea

As this was a large-scale project to promote Seoul to the world, we had to consider various situations. Which countries to target, what are the popular social media platforms in those countries, who are the influencers in each country who can satisfy both of these conditions, and what kind of content each influencer will contain, etc.

Amelicano, an Indonesian influencer living in Korea
(Source: Amelicano YouTube)

Finally, we recruited 51 global influencers residing in Korea from various countries including China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and Denmark, selected the major SNS platforms of the target countries such as YouTube, Instagram, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu, and produced video and image content that took into account the characteristics of each platform.

The topics were largely divided into four categories. It was Avocado Giant’s job to match the appropriate topics to each influencer.

Global Influencer Jang Yeok-moon's Wedding Video
(Source: Jang Yeok-moon YouTube)

Influencer Nana's Real Couple Video
(Source: Nana YouTube)

Chinese influencer ‘Jang Yeok-moon’ and Korean influencer ‘Hankook Ttungttung’, who introduces Korean culture to the Chinese, created a video with a wedding video concept.

Influencer Nana did an outdoor wedding photoshoot with a real couple as the theme, Indonesian influencer Amelicano did a wedding dress photoshoot, and Chinese Wang Hong Niniko went on a Studio, Dress, Make up experience, showing off different charms of each influencer.

AvocadoGiant's unique differentiating point as an influencer marketing expert

Working with multinational influencers, Avocado Giant’s capabilities as a global digital integrated marketing agency shine. Unlike typical influencer marketing companies, Avocado Giant provides on-site accompaniment, foreign language interpretation, and even auxiliary video shooting, clearly demonstrating why you need a professional agency.

Introduction to Seoul City's official website and Facebook
(Source: Seoul City's official website, Facebook)

Introduction to Seoul City's official website and Facebook
(Source: Seoul City's official website, Facebook)

Another thing, AvocadoGiant had its own upload strategy. We divided the content of 51 influencers into countries, platforms, and topics and uploaded them at different times to encourage continuous issue raising

It was also notable that a separate event page related to this campaign was created on the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s official website and SNS channels to serve as a hub.

Influencer Cherry Hye-ri's impressions of the photoshoot
(Source: Cherry Hye-ri YouTube)

Comments from around the world on Seoul’s branding campaign

The I.SEOUL.U global branding campaign was notable for the fact that it was not the everyday content they usually filmed, but content that most of them were experiencing for the first time, and as a result, the fans’ response was enthusiastic.

Avocado Giant achieved results far exceeding its target KPI, receiving over 15.8 million views, 150,000 likes, and 17,000 comments through a total of 51 influencers. The rise in favorability and positive reactions toward Seoul followed naturally.