[소통] Currently, the only duty-free shop model left is New Jeansㅠㅠ

( It's a fair advertisement where all the members stand in the visual center position. Haha. All of the New Jeans members are attractive centers. )

It is said that major duty-free shops are minimizing star marketing these days to cut costs !!

It is said that the landscape is different from the past when they used famous celebrities as a base to target Chinese group tourists based on the Korean Wave ...

Lotte , Shilla , and Shinsegae Duty Free, currently ranked first to third in the industry, have terminated all existing promotional model and ambassador contracts .

The place that recently ended its contract with a celebrity is Lotte Duty Free, which was the most active in star marketing .

SM Entertainment's contract with boy idol group ' Rise ' ended on December 26th of last month ...

The duty-free industry sought to create a promotional effect by putting Korean Wave stars such as actors and idols at the forefront .

It was also common to hire celebrities with salaries in the hundreds of millions of won as models .

At a time when business was good , Lotte Duty Free had contracted with around 50 celebrity promotional models .

In particular, they went beyond just pictorials and advertisements and planned travel products linked to concerts and fan meetings to target group tourists .

However, the decline in Chinese group tourists has made star marketing a burden for duty-free shops .

The effect of Korean Wave marketing has also decreased noticeably .

The Lotte Duty Free Family Concert, a representative event featuring Hallyu stars last year, was not held .

Lotte Duty Free has been providing performance tickets to customers who purchase over a certain amount .

A Lotte Duty Free official said, “ Future plans for Hallyu marketing have not been decided yet ,” and “ We plan to review them while observing tourism trends and the trends of the duty free industry . ”

Among the major duty-free shops, Hyundai Duty Free is the only one that maintains a model contract .

The girl idol group ' New Jeans ' was selected as the model for Hyundai Duty Free in 2023 and was active for a year .

Afterwards, the contract period was extended and she is still working as a model .

The industry analyzes that Hyundai Duty Free is maintaining star marketing to secure brand awareness, considering its position as the 4th largest retailer .

An industry insider said, “ Advertising costs in China and Southeast Asia are very expensive .”

“ Because they are latecomers, there is a high possibility that they will put celebrities in front with a big promotional effect ,” he said ...

As an alternative to star marketing, some places are putting forward their own characters . Shilla Duty Free is carrying out various collaborative marketing activities using its representative character, ‘ Shilla Friends ’ . It is considered to have the advantage of being cheaper than the price of celebrities and not having negative issues . Shilla Duty Free plans to continue related marketing activities in various ways, such as producing Shilla Friends emoticons .

Another industry insider said , “It’s become a thing of the past that we could create travel products utilizing the Korean Wave, such as K- pop, to boost duty-free shop sales and develop the tourism industry ,” and predicted, “ Marketing activities will continue to shrink for the time being due to the deterioration of duty-free shop management caused by the decline in group tourists and the prolonged recession . ”

One-line summary:

Due to the decrease in Chinese tourists, our country's duty-free shops have stopped expensive star marketing.

Currently, only Hyundai Duty Free's 'New Jeans' is the only one that survived.