Ultilization of the Hallyu Phenomenon as Global Advertisements

Hallyu or the Korean Wave is the term given to the global spread of Korean popular culture in various countries of the world. Generally, Hallyu triggers many people to learn Korean language and culture. The craze for popular culture began in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Southeast Asia in the late 1990s. 

The term Hallyu was adopted by Chinese media after the popular Korean music album, HOT, was released in China, Korean TV drama series started playing in China and spread to other countries such as: Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Japan, United States, Latin America , Middle East and also Indonesia. 

At this time, Hallyu was followed by a lot of attention for South Korean products such as: food, electronics, music, make-up, accessories and Korean films. This phenomenon also promotes the Korean language and Korean culture to various countries around the world.

The globalization of Korean popular culture, or better known as the Korean Wave (Hallyu), has succeeded in influencing people's lives, especially among teenagers and students. In the 21st century, it can be said that Korea can compete with Hollywood and Bollywood in order to spread its cultural wings internationally. 

Various kinds of Korean cultural products ranging from films, dramas, songs, fashion, make-up adorn people's lives. This is what triggers the emergence of popular culture or pop culture. Pop culture is a culture formed by society that is unconsciously accepted and widely adopted in society. 

Society forms a new culture from the cultures they absorb through the information they get from the presence of global media. The Korean Wave has become an interesting phenomenon in today's entertainment industry. 

History

Hallyu or the Korean Wave has become an interesting phenomenon in the world of entertainment. When traced from history, before 1993 the people of South Korea lived in an authoritarian regime. As a result, the South Korean government really protects their culture and limits the entry of foreign cultures. In 1993, the new President of South Korea, Kim Young Sam, ended the authoritarian regime. 

In November 1994, Kim created the globalization project named Segyehwa. This project aims to prepare South Korean society to accept outside influences. 

South Korean people are required to be creative in making works so they can compete in the market. As a result, in the 1990s, several Korean bands managed to enter the Chinese market. Korean dramas also hit several countries, especially Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.

In late 1999, the phrase Hallyu was coined by a Chinese newspaper, the Beijing Youth Daily, due to the increasing popularity of South Korean pop culture. The term Hallyu is used to describe the spread of South Korean culture and lifestyle to other countries.

In general, Hallyu lures people to learn South Korean language and culture. In addition, he also refers to South Korean products such as culinary, electronic devices, music, skin care and make-up, fashion, as well as Korean films and dramas.

Development of Hallyu in Indonesia

In Indonesia itself, the spread of pop culture from Korea began in 2002 after the World Cup in South Korea and Japan. This moment, which was held on Indonesian television stations, was then used to introduce the South Korean drama series or K-Drama. Trans TV became the first television station to broadcast a K-Drama titled Mother's Sea on March 26, 2002. 

Then followed Indosiar with Endless Love on July 1, 2002. It was recorded that there were around 50 Korean drama titles that aired on Indonesian private TV stations in 2011 and continued to increase. Based on AGB Nielsen Indonesia's survey on Kompas Online July 14 2003, the drama Endless Love which was broadcast on Indosiar television in 2002 managed to get a rating of 10. 

This rating means that around 2.8 million people watched the drama in five major cities in Indonesia. This drama is clear evidence that this drama series from the country of ginseng is getting enough attention in Indonesia.

Since then, the Korean wave began to spread in Indonesia through K-Drama. More than 50 South Korean drama series were broadcast on television stations in Indonesia, and of the many K-Dramas that were broadcast on Indosiar, the one that received a high rating was the drama series Full House which reached a rating close to 40 percent when it aired in 2005. 

The South Korean drama series provided major developments in Indonesia, as reported in an article in The Jakarta Post in July 2011 entitled Korean Wave Casts a Spell in Indonesia. Since Winter Sonata has captured the attention of audiences in Indonesia, since then other South Korean drama series have appeared on Indonesian television.

Since the emergence of the Korean wave in Indonesia, this has had an impact on the emergence of the Korean community in Indonesia with nearly 50,000 members joining.

The music from Korean culture that is most widely known is the pop music genre, which is commonly referred to as Korean pop or K-Pop. K-Pop itself is synonymous with the existence of girl bands and boy bands which are a group of women and men who are under a management or agency. 

Some examples of Korean girl groups and boy bands include Super Junior, Blackpink, EXO, TWICE, ITZY, NCT, TXT, and Bangtan Boys (BTS), which have been popular lately. Reporting from matamatamusik.com, BTS occupies the top position for the most popular K-Pop boy band for the April 2021 issue and has held this position for 35 months. 

This boy band also has a very large fan association, even reaching an international level, which is called ARMY (Adorable Representative MC for Youth). Reporting from kompas.com, the term ARMY was inaugurated on July 9, 2013 ago as the name of the BTS fandom.

Furthermore, this is evidenced by the popularity of K-Pop in Indonesia, which continues to show its existence until now. Not only in the offline and online world with its various cultural diversity. However, the popularity of the Korean Wave in Indonesia has also reached the scope of Indonesian television media. Currently, various media in Indonesia regularly highlight K-Pop or K-Drama idols. 

One of them was the "2019 Red Velvet Korean Wave Concert" in Indonesia which was broadcast on the Trans Corp television station and live streaming on the official Transmedia website. 

Other K-pop concerts also took place throughout early 2019 with the presence of the band Blackpink at the Lazada event, Choi Siwon in one of Indonesian television broadcasts. This causes the influx of understanding of Korean culture in Indonesia to increase. Even Korean language, food, clothing styles and culture are now things that connoisseurs follow or look for (the Korean Wave). 

The development of Korean pop culture (Korean Wave) in Indonesia is a manifestation of globalization in communication and culture. Referring to this Holliday, Hyde and Kullman (2004) stated that popular culture (pop culture) is often interpreted as a culture that is known and followed by many people, whose formation is based on the will of the community itself, usually temporary.

The spread of K-Pop music throughout the world proves that Korean pop music, by bringing Korean cultural values and characteristics, has been accepted by the international community. In the context of human history, the rise in popularity of K-Pop around the world is part of a cultural exchange. K-pop can now be said to belong to the whole world because it is a medium of exchange between the West and the East. 

Rather than exporting merchandise, the spread of K-Pop worldwide proved to be more effective in enhancing the nation's image and promoting Korean brands.

Three aspects make K-Pop part of Korea's soft diplomacy, namely first, K-Pop is a business with a tangible form that is supported by strong export potential. Second, the role of social media such as Facebook and Twitter is quite significant in achieving K-Pop success and promoting Korean culture as a whole. 

Third, an interesting mix of audio and visuals. The artist's attractive visual appearance is accompanied by good vocal skills and supported by energetic choreography. K-Pop music became the beginning of the international community getting to know Korea more deeply, both in terms of the nation's personality, traditions, tourism, and culinary delights.

Phenomenon Hallyu as Global Advertisements

Hallyu Wave made its way into Indonesia, and lasted for quite a long time. Apart from the music or the bands, the hallyu wave also comes with its Korean dramas which everyone is sure to have watched at least once, or even become addicted to. The persistence of the hallyu wave or the Korean wave is the reason why many K-pop artists or influencers are made brand ambassadors for Indonesian companies. 

So it's not impossible, in the future, advertisements from Indonesia will be decorated with celebrities from the country of South Korea. This relates to global advertising, global advertising is cross-cultural marketing communications that are planned and involve people in advertising. This requires spreading the message to audiences of more than one country.

Martin Roll, a brand strategy expert for the Asian region, calls this phenomenon soft power. Hallyu for South Korea is a weapon whose strength is even considered to be equivalent to military endurance. There is a fantastic money cycle behind Korean drama stories or K-Pop songs. This phenomenon has also made the perpetrators become superstars: starring in advertisements for various luxury brands, working with the United Nations, including becoming brand ambassadors (BA) for local products from countries like Indonesia.

An example of the case occurred at Shopee. In terms of increasing the number of Instagram followers, for example, the difference is clear. According to an iPrice report, in 2018, the number of Shopee followers on Instagram was under 2.5 million. Then, Shopee invites several Korean artists in its various campaigns. 

Starting from Itzy, Red Velvet, Stray Kids, to Blackpink. The number of Shopee followers immediately jumped to 8.6 million as of May 2022. According to iPrice's records, visits to the Shopee platform are the highest in Southeast Asia. During 2020, visits per month are always over 90 million. 

Shopback's research results mention the five most chosen e-commerce sites for 2021. Shopee is in first place, followed by Tokopedia, Lazada, Bukalapak, and Blibli. There are various considerations in choosing e-commerce. Starting from the ease of using the application, (48 percent), free shipping (51 percent), to being trusted (53 percent).

But what are the factors that consumers choose the most? Promotion. Even so, making Korean artists as BA or advertising stars does not always smooth the way for sales. This is because, amidst the massive growth of Hallyu, market characteristics in Indonesia have also changed. Behind the growth of K-Pop fans in Indonesia, voices of protest are not absent.

The efforts of local brands, especially skincare, to bring in Korean artists to become BAs have drawn protests. 

The root of the problem: the skin of Korean celebrities is considered not representative of the brown skin of most Indonesians. The wave of protests was faintly heard on social media, be it via Twitter, Instagram, to YouTube. However, as if closing their eyes, many local brands still don't want to give up. Korean artists are still diligently decorating their smartphone screens, selling one brand to another. 

Makes us return to the question at the beginning: why do many local brands still insist on using BAs for Korean artists? The answer: of course because of the promised accumulation of capital in the future. As long as the Hallyu fever is still high, as long as the talk about Korean culture is still going strong, during that time we will often see the faces of Korean celebrities "selling" in this country. 

Next is Scarlett, the skincare brand that she raised, announced a collaboration with Song Joong-ki. The actor who is also the main character in the series Descendant of The Sun was lined up to become BA Scarlett. Song Joong-ki is neither the first nor the only one.

Rows of Korean artists have been BAs or stars in advertisements for local products, ranging from food products, marketplaces, to beauty products. 

To cite examples: Kim Seon-ho is BA Everwhite, Choi Siwon is a Mie Sedap ad star, Blackpink is BA Shopee, Han So-hee is BA Somethinc, to the latest: Lee Min-ho is BA Azarine. Of course there are big costs to be incurred by these brands. It takes billions of funds to make these Korean artists as BA or advertising talent. 

As an illustration, according to Tatler Asia, Song Joong Ki's fees reach 200 million won per episode of Vincenzo, or around IDR 2.2 billion. Meanwhile, BTS, who had become the BA of Tokopedia in 2019, was also paid handsomely. In 2017, the costs required to cooperate with BTS as BA reached 1.5 billion won, or the equivalent of Rp. 17.8 billion. 

The persistence of local brands in working with Korean celebrities raises the question: are the costs and effort spent to bring these Korean celebrities worth the results? To find out the answer, maybe it's a good idea to know about brand equity, aka brand equity. In simple terms, brand equity can be interpreted as a set of assets that can increase or decrease the value of a brand. If a brand has strong equity, it means that it has a greater chance of being selected in market competition. 

David Aaker, a brand strategy expert from the United States emphasizes the importance of a business having brand equity. According to Aaker, brand equity also plays a role in helping customers interpret and process information, increase trust in purchasing decisions, and influence the customer experience when in contact with the brand. Simply put: brand equity plays a role in shaping market perceptions of a brand. So the existence of this Hallyu phenomenon is very much utilized and maximized for global advertising.

The Impact of the Hallyu Phenomenon

The influence brought by the Korean Wave, in this case, is the spread of young people using Korean style. And it is very unfortunate that the culture of Indonesia itself has become buried. It can be seen from the number of children. young people who choose to use Korean styles compared to Indonesian styles such as Batik. 

Batik itself is now rarely used by young people. In addition, Make Up Nusantara itself is usually only used on traditional occasions and does not become a daily lifestyle. It can even be said that the economic sector that sells or offers Korean products has higher sales than the economic sector that sells or offers local specialties such as batik, songket, weaving, and so on. Even many local products carry Korean themes to attract more buyers due to the high trend of the Korean Wave. 

Apart from being addicted to Korean dramas and fashion films, the Korean Wave phenomenon has also spread to the lifestyle of teenagers in Indonesia. The lifestyle of Indonesian teenagers who are fanatical about Korean culture is starting to experience changes such as following the haircuts of their idol artists, starting to give Korean-style accessories and knick-knacks to show an identity that they are someone who really idolizes and is fanatical about Korean culture. 

Now this culture from Korea has become a lifestyle for Indonesian teenagers. It didn't stop there, the Korean Wave phenomenon also penetrated food consumption in Indonesia. Many Indonesian people have made Korean foods their daily intake, call it Tteokbokki. 

Who doesn't know this food made from rice flour, a food that we can find easily because the sellers have mushroomed everywhere. Besides Tteokbokki, there are also Korean foods and drinks that are popular in Indonesia, such as Dalgona coffee, Kimbab, Kimchi, Hotang, and so on.

In the world of advertising, Indonesia is also not spared from the excitement of this Korean wave. The evidence or fact is the use of an Indonesian product advertisement star with a Korean artist named Siwon by one of the largest food companies in Indonesia, namely Wings Food, in a Mie Sedap advertisement. 

In addition, advertisements using Korean talent boy bands and girl bands, namely BTS, were carried out by one of the largest marketplace companies in Indonesia, namely Tokopedia. The factor of using actors or actresses, boy bands or girl bands is motivated by their popularity. Apart from that, the physical factors of Koreans, especially the artists, who are beautiful and handsome will certainly provide their own value and attractiveness for advertisers to hire them to attract consumers from the advertisement itself. 

The beautiful and handsome physical condition of Korean artists and boy bands or girl bands as advertisement stars for an Indonesian company's product can lead to the view that only beautiful and handsome people can become famous and have the potential to be hired as advertisement stars. So that in the end a beauty standard for the Indonesian people was formed which was inspired or can be said to follow the beauty and handsome standards of the Korean people. 

This has caused Indonesian artists to be displaced by artists from Korea, even though Indonesia also has many beautiful and talented artists.