Cheil Worldwide, the country’s largest advertising agency, announced Wednesday its advancement into animation character merchandise business.
Teaming up with the market leader Vooz Club, the Samsung Group affiliate will target the 180 trillion won ($167 billion) global market, Cheil said at its investors meeting.
The first character to be introduced is Adoonga, a gorilla who leaves the African jungle to become a hip-hop artist in Seoul. “Hip-hop,” “bad boy” and “sexy” will be Adoonga’s key concepts, with African music playing a big part in his adventure, said Vooz club, the creator of Adoonga.
Vooz Club, which saw global success with its animation character, Pucca, an Asian girl with a naughty smile, is in charge of the production and design of Adoonga while Cheil takes over the marketing and licensing.
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| Cheil Worldwide and Vooz Club’s Adoonga (Cheil Worldwide) |
Cheil said it would conduct product placement as well as on- and offline promotions to woo teenagers and 20-somethings. In April, Adoonga will be adapted to fashion items, accessories for IT devices and online games, and will later go global.
“With our 40 years in the business, our marketing know-how, customer analysis and media solutions will help us conduct storytelling campaigns and strategize product lines,” a Cheil spokesman said.
“We will set an example as a successful animation character business by marrying high-quality characters with specialized marketing strategies. We will continue to work with animators who are in need of good marketing solutions,” said Cho Gyeong-shik, media executive of the company.
Cheil is the latest advertising agency to foray into the animation character business. The company explained that the global business potential is huge, because it has no language, ethnic or cultural barriers. Japanese advertising and PR company Dentsu has seen similar success with its bean-themed merchandise, Mameshiba.
But the main reason for Cheil’s adventurous step could be the company’s apparent business downturn.
In 2014, the company posted 2.6 trillion won in sales with 126.7 billion won in operating profit. A reduction of 1.5 percent and 2.47 percent, respectively.
“Cheil is an agency with great power. I am sure that when it puts a lot of energy into one thing, the outcome will be good,” an industry insider said on condition of anonymity.
“But the merchandise business needs a lot of different qualities than what Cheil has done. Let’s wait and see,” she said.
By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)
