Entering the post-COVID era, we predicted that travel demand from global tourists, which had been suppressed for over two years, would rise exponentially. Our campaign started with the aim of making Korea the first post-COVID travel destination that came to the minds of potential tourists.

We created videos highlighting the charms of traveling to Korea that showed how the country's appeal is unlike that of China or Japan, expressing tourism elements that are unique to Korea such as cultural aspects, trends, and the everyday lives of the citizens that showcased the unique characteristics of each region to reach tourists in a more direct manner.

In other words, our goal was to produce a campaign that could actually contribute to encouraging more foreigners from around the world to visit Korea by increasing awareness of and interest in Korean tourism.

The Feel the Rhythm of Korea with BTS campaign begins with the legendary K-pop group BTS enjoying classic K-pop and is soon followed by videos featuring tourist attractions in four Korean regions that suit the music.

Each campaign video showed different regions combined with legendary Korean music that best embodied the region's cultural characteristics.

The portrayal of the port city "Busan," set in "Busan Port" with the sound of seagulls and the magnificent night view, was accompanied by blues, while "Daejeon," a city full of human feeling, was conveyed through exciting and rhythmical rock n’ roll. We chose hip-hop for "Pohang," a city with Korea’s best steel mill, and a peaceful jazz for "Jeju", a beautiful healing city.

The videos introduced music from different genres as well as tourist spots through BTS, inviting viewers to enjoy classic Korean music with the rhythm of Korea and discover the country's true charms.

Potential global tourists, the campaign's target, mostly knew Korea through Korean culture. This is because, with the worldwide popularity of Korean content such as K-pop, dramas, and films, Korean culture has been receiving more attention than ever.

Our main strategy was to use this interest in Korean culture that was already being felt by our target to get them excited about visiting the place where it all comes from: Korea.

With BTS, who represent the modern wave of Korean culture, and the legendary Korean music that built up Korean culture, we aimed to create content that would not only garner attention but also shine a spotlight on Korean cities.

To promote Korean tourism to as many potential global tourists as possible, YouTube was used as the key medium, and the campaign ran in the second half of 2022, which saw the easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions and an increase in the number of travelers.

First, on October 14, a teaser video featuring Suga and Jimin from BTS enjoying K-pop classics premiered to pique global tourists’ curiosity and get them excited.

This was followed by the sequential releases of four main videos on YouTube from October to November. Each of the main videos was set in one of Korea’s major cities—Busan, Daejeon, Pohang, and Jeju—to convey their different charms and to continue to pique the interest of the target demographic.

This campaign was covered in the news by major broadcasting stations and articles, and it even made the Trending page on YouTube as well.

On the key medium of YouTube, it recorded 490 million views in total, which was 56.4% higher than our original goal of 310 million views. The total number of comments for the campaign surpassed 17,000, demonstrating worldwide viewers’ great interest and expectations for Korean tourism.

Through this campaign, Korean tourism raised "awareness" by 63.2%, "preference" by 65.4%, and "recommendation intention" by 66.5%.

In addition, the videos were shown in the landmarks of six countries, including Times Square in New York, United States; Piccadilly, United Kingdom; Shinjuku, Japan; Thailand; and Singapore, which generated an explosive response worldwide.