About 2.02 million people attended the BTS tour “Love Yourself” during 2018 and 2019, breaking the record of being the biggest global tour in K-pop.

This is an example of one of the global impacts K-pop created.

K-pop is a genre of music that originates from South Korea. It has increased its demand drastically over the years.

It used to be a genre which was mostly listened to in East Asia, however, we can now find people listening to this music in many other countries. 

This phenomenon is also known as “hallyu” or the “Korean Wave” which is the rising popularity of Korean culture since the 1990’s.

This includes Korean dramas/tv, film, Korean skincare, Korean food, K-pop, fashion, etc. 

K-pop is one of the reasons the korean wave has become a large phenomenon, some of the most popular K-pop artists are BTS, Twice, Blackpink, NCT, Straykids, among many others. 

The US is one of the countries that is a large consumer of the K-pop genre. This demand has many causes, and one of these is the genius marketing ideas they have implemented over the years. 

Genius marketing ideas are successful tactics that K-pop companies utilize to enhance the popularity of their artists. Five of the most popular tactics that we can analyze are:

Concepts 

K-pop artists or K-pop groups are known for being very extra when it comes to releasing music. When artists are about to debut for the first time or when they have new music coming up (also known as a “comeback”) they usually have a “concept” that goes along with the music.

A concept can be described as a theme that the artist follows. These Concepts are reflected in their music, clothes, dancing, and other promotional material. 

Some examples of popular K-pop concepts are high school, dark, fairytale, cute concept, girl/boy crush, etc. 

Having a concept is part of genius marketing ideas because it helps the artists define their a​​rtist identity. As a result of this, people remember them more for their unique concepts, merchandise is more attractive to fans and they also gain popularity. 

Concepts are something that keep appearing in K-pop culture since it's a tactic that they know will have positive impacts. 

When artists implement concepts into their music and content, fans resonate with them by being able to purchase things that make them similar to their favorite artists. For example, buying clothes that follow their artists concept like girl crush and attending their concert with this attire. 

Light Sticks 

Light sticks are part of the promotional merchandise for the artists and one of the most important. These devices are light sticks that are created with characteristics unique to the artist and fandom. 

These are specifically made for concerts. Fans buy the prop, download an app and do the pairing with the concert. After this, all of the light sticks together light up synchronously with the artist's music at the time of the concert.  

There is no K-pop concert without light sticks. This is part of the K-pop concert experience that appeals to a lot of people and makes it one of their genius marketing ideas. 

Many fans share their concert experience over social media where people are able to see the light stick show. Making K-pop concerts more popular.

Collaborations 

K-pop artists are known for being very versatile. They do not just sing and dance, a lot of them have multiple abilities like acting, doing a sport, speak multiple languages, or another unique skill. 

Examples of an artist showcasing their abilities is when they act on a tv show or when they appear on a morning show. They collaborate on different spaces to expose themselves to new audiences.

Collaboration between different K-pop artists has also become very popular over the years. 

One example of artists collaborating is when they make a song together. When two artists know each other they either feature on each other's song or work together to produce a new song.

Another example of artists collaborating together is a recent activity that has become popular among K-pop artists. This is creating tik toks together. When artists release new music, they create videos with other artists doing their choreography, like a challenge so their fans can do it as well. 

When artists collaborate, fans from different fandoms show enthusiasm and artists get to attract more people. 

By collaborating on different spaces with different audiences it allows them to show more people who they are and thus making them more known world wide. 

Fandom Names 

Fandom names are a popular characteristic of K-pop. Every artist has a fandom name which is unique to them. Having a fandom name is one of their genius marketing ideas because fans have a greater sense of community. 

Some of the most popular fandom names are Armys (for the group BTS), Blinks (for the group Blackpink) and Onces (for the group Twice). 

When fans get to use their fandom name, it increases their artists trendiness by using hashtags and mentions with their fandom name. 

K-pop fandom names are constantly trending on social media because fans will use them to talk about their artists' activities and news about them. 

Fan Recognition 

The last item from this list and one of their most important genius marketing ideas is fan recognition. 

In K-pop, artists are known for making a lot of content for their fans. This includes doing live streams, releasing many albums, having reality shows, having a youtube channel, doing soundtracks for tv shows, posting on social media, interacting with their fans on fan made apps like the Weverse app, Bubble JYP, etc.

When fans see a large amount of content of their artists, they learn a lot of information about the artists and feel like they know them. This results in fans and artists having a strong connection and level of closeness. 

Fans become more loyal because of the constant attention to them and this becomes the artists most strong weapon. 

When K-pop fans are loyal, they give their full support.

This includes selling out their merchandise, attending their concerts, posting constantly on social media, celebrating their artists success, doing fan events, creating youtube channels and social media dedicated to their artists, and speaking up about them when there is controversy. 

A lot of people are familiar with k-pop fans because of their extreme support of their artist. This is shown in mass amounts and people often get impressed by their impact.

Because of the hard work of the artists and support from fans, K-pop has more demand and we can appreciate it in more places. 

There are many more genius marketing ideas that are implemented in this music genre, however these are some of the most popular and the ones we can learn from the most.

We believe it is important to learn about different marketing tactics that are different and successful. K-pop companies are experts when it comes to reaching their target audience and that is why we should pay attention to their tactics. 

 ✍️ Written by Elisa Rodriguez