Recently Lotte Shinsegae... Fell in Love with the Fun of Raising 'Bear…
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Lotte, Belly Gom, visits 3.25 million people
Shinsegae, advances into NFT with Puuvilla
Hyundai Department Store, uncase Heendy in the shape of a puppy
E-mart 24, release monkey character
Instills a sense of intimacy
Profitable business using IP is also possible
There is a craze for developing thier own character in the distribution industry. This is because it is not only possible to increase the preference for companies and brands, but also to actively market and promote using social network services(SNS). As can be seen in the cases of Naver Brown and Kakao Ryan, various profitable businesses using intellectual property(IP) are possible, and it can be actively used in new virtual platform businesses such as non-fungible tokens(NFT) and metabus, so the distribution industry's own character development is more active is expected to break down
According to Lotte Shopping on the 23rd, the 15m high 'Belligom' exhibition, which has been in progress since the 1st at the 'Lotte Premium Outlet Time Villas' in Uiwang, Gyeonggi-do, ended on the 22nd. On the first day of the Bellygom exhibition, about 35,000 customers visited Time Villas, which is more than 30% higher than the average number of visitors on weekends from January to April.
The Belly Gom character was created in 2018 through Lotte Home Shopping's in-house venture program. Lotte Home Shopping opened its own shopping mall 'Bellygom.com' that sells Belly Gom products, and last month also launched NFT works using Belly Gom. It is in the process of entering China, Indonesia, and Taiwan this year, and will develop Belly Gom friends as characters and introduce them soon.
Shinsegae is targeting the NFT market with its own character 'Puuvilla', which was first introduced in 2017. Puuvilla is the first character in the department store industry, and Shinsegae Department Store directly carried out the entire process from planning to development and launch. Shinsegae, which has introduced various character products through Puuvilla, opened the 'Puuvilla Society' website for Puuvilla NFT on the 2nd. Shinsegae plans to mint (create and sell NFT) about 10,000 Puuvilla NFT over three sessions in the middle of next month.
In 2019, Hyundai Department Store introduced its own character 'Heendy'. Heendy, which was developed in collaboration with German illustrator Christoph Niemann, has a puppy as its motif. Hyundai Department Store, which opened the industry's largest pet park 'Heendy House' with the theme of Heendy at Hyundai Premium Outlet Space One, which opened in Dasan New Town, Namyangju in 2020, has been using Heendy in various themed events, promotions, and CSR campaigns. Along with this, it developed and released various related products such as mood lamps, hand fans, and eco bags designed with Heendy, which gained great popularity.
Not only the department store industry, but also convenience store companies are starting to develop their own characters. Convenience store CU, which introduced the brand character 'Heyroo Friends' in 2016, announced last month that it would reorganize the existing brand character into 'CU Friends' and expand its worldview to activate content. E-Mart 24 unveiled the monkey character 'Wondungi' from Mars, who has 'Jrilla' as a neighborhood brother, through its official Instagram account in April. E-Mart 24 plans to create a special world view and fandom unique to E-Mart 24 SNS by producing all Instagram content based on the cosmic world view centered on Wondungi and actively utilizing it for marketing.
An industry insider said, "With its own character, it can instill intimacy and favorability to the public."
[Reporter Kang Min Ho]
