Today's Success Case of character business is
Newtro trend and the expansion of Digging character culture
and the expansion of character and meme
Newtro Trend
Starting with Newtro
Newtro coins new and retro
It is not restoration, it reinterprets in a modern take
to add a contemporary value to the culture
It is the nostalgia of analog in the era of digital media
Since analog contains the fundamental emotion and behavior patterns of a human
Its value lies in how it is hard to copy quickly
As those born in the 80s and 90s become the 30s and 40s now
They are the ones with the biggest buying power
And the young generation such as teens, without experience of analog media
They approach this with curiosity and interest
This fusion is the achievement of Newtro, a retro plus new
And Newtro is different from retro in that the younger generation
who hasn't experienced the era themselves can experience that 'new'ness
and that they are the active participants
So for an old-fashioned restaurant
or their retro vibe in interior design
Young generation feels 'this is new'
Gen X is the core of the consumption nowadays
Perhaps because they are the center of the Newtro trend
The main quality of gen X as analyzed by the National statistical Office at the end of 2023
is that they are as big as 8.28 million, born in the 70s
Which is the biggest following the Baby Boomers, born in the 60's
Meaning, gen X is now the center
And compared to the 60s who are now retiring
Gen X is still very active in their consumption
According to the Statistics Korea 2023 Household Trends Survey
Households headed by individuals in their 40s had the highest average monthly household expenditure of 5.08 million won
Followed by households headed by individuals in their 50s with 4.93 million won
Meaning, previously between Baby Boomers and gen MZ
Gen X who never received much attention for over 20 years
is revealed to be the generation forming the largest consumer base in our economy
The director of Samsung Fashion Research Institute stated that it is necessary to wrap up the gloomy situation in 2024
Like a pitcher’s preparatory motion for the final hope to end the game
It's a big movement of the arms, the wind-up
Wind-up has been selected as the fashion keyword for 2024
Samsung Fashion Research Institute evaluated that the wealthiest Generation X will be born in 2024
As in how Gen X is now present
Because the fashion style of the 90's, the peak era of gen X, minimalism
is what is rising nowadays
Gen X was the first to be called a 'new generation' in Korea
They were a generation as sensitive to trends and rich in sensibility as the MZ
“Despite showing higher brand loyalty than MZ consumers,
Gen X has been neglected in brand strategy and advertising
Therefore the fashion industry needs to understand them with a broad perspective
The keyword for 2024 fashion market, wind-up
The X generation is leading another phase of the fashion industry
as they dominate in areas such as
business, branding, consumerism, style, and much more
Expansion of Newtro is activated with the advent of various items
December 2022, idol girl group NewJeans used in their Ditto Music VIdeo
digital camcorders, which made the trend explode
Online market still shows the popularity of digital cameras
Bunjang, the largest online platform for secondhand goods trading in South Korea
has 1685 posts regarding vintage digital camera to be sold
For October, 2023
In fact, smartphones are more than enough to take photos
But the act to require digital camcorder and digital camera
to take photos separately
This action is called 'hip' or trendy
to the new generation
The 'hip' consumption and action, that is the newness of
the very old yet new second-hand product used by the previous generation
That's the analysis of the ternd
Seotaeji's song 'Regret of the Times' in 2024
It's a song from 1996
And aespa remade this Regret of the Times
And NCT remade Candy by H.O.T
This aims both gen MZ and gen X
This 'well-made Newtro music' is a big trend
It's a warm nostalgia for gen X who lived through it
And a new product for the current gen MZ
'Wearing this makes me feel good'
A 90's kid, a gen X of Seoul said this in a news interview
And gen MZ is now mimicking that tone
And this gen MZ, mesmerized in the tone of Seoul gen X in the 90's
are also experiencing trend in shopping for both gen X and gen MZ
And remake of classic animation of 80's and 90's
They are coming back as spin-offs, which allow for
gen X and gen MZ to enjoy
And this is a big trend for gen MZ
The classic merch sold in the past are now in transaction for more than 100,000 won
With this return of retro content
Rather than producing, funding and creating new work with the new demand
Remaking the original is much more cost efficient
This value in investment also strengthens the retro trend
In my opinion
The original animation Slam Dunk in 1993
was back on January 2023 as The First Slam Dunk
The First Slam Dunk brought about the 'Nongnol' trend
Which referred to re-watching or re-reading Slam Dunk, a big trend in Korea
As it hit 4.77 million audience
It placed 6th for the entire box office in Korea in 2023
to prove the Slam Dunk fever
With its undying popularity
It was re-released on CGV IMAX on December, 2023
And January 2024, hitting the first anniversary
It expanded its cinemas nation-wide
It was the longest on cinema, for 410 days
And on February 2024, it began the IPTV and VOD service
to induce re-watching by the 20's and 30's in their bedrooms
Since there are many main characters
For basketball is a five-man game
Every time they watch it, they identify with a different character
So this will require watching it five times
That's what 'Nth time watching' means
Same audience watches the same IP movie or animation multiple times
That's the 'Nth time watching'
So for basketball, a five-man game, they watch it five times
So that they can follow the story anew as a different character each time
This is how the Nth time watching is being implemented not only in cinema but also in bedrooms
through OTT, IPTV and VOD services
That's the analysis
CGV has opened 'Fandom Contest' in 2023
in 11 stores nation-wide
to run a cheering screening for The First Slam Dunk
And on January 2023, The Hyundai Seoul at Yeouido
had a Slam Dunk pop up store
which had a revenue of 500 million won for 5 days
with the waiting list hitting 1,000
full of people who visited to get the limited edition merch
Meaning, Slam Dunk is no more the culture exclusive to those who actually watched the original
Even for the new generation who first experience Slam Dunk
It has become such an important product, as seen in this example
Another retro content is the original IP in Disney+
X-Men in 1992, its sequel X-Men '97
was released on Disney+, March 2024
X-Men '97 is not a remake
It is a new story starting with 1997, when the series ended
X-Men '97 shows how Disney
did not overdo with character revision for political correctness
It represented it as it was in the original
It used the same original song
And aside from the voice actors who passed away
All the voice actors from 30 years ago participated again
to redo the original
People say your voices never get old
That's how the old voice actors could come back
to dub the old works
as well as the remade new works
This is a nice extension to the original storyline
May 2023, Dooly The Little Dinosaur: The Adventure Of Ice Planet was re-released in 27 years
And the villain character from the past, Go Gil-Dong is now put to the front
to induce sympathy and touching sentiment from the now-adults gen X and gen Z
For gen X who watched Dooly as children, Go Gil-Dong was a big adult
But they are now as old as Go Gil-Dong
And what is Dooly like to these adults?
This is core to the consumption trend of a restored content
They opened a pop up store themed as a video store in the 90's
And this sold out the pre-order
Through retro Gacha event photo booths
This also induced participation from gen MZ
Now let's look at Digging and character culture expansion
Physical and digital character consumption by adults is now a settled culture
Physical and digital character consumption is a normal culture now
But investing in it and buying these products
means that the adult culture is now shifting
It is not just about buying character merch
But also about bringing it to the daily life, by such as buying emoji to use that character
In perspective of expanding preference and consumption
This needs a close analysis
For actual character consumption, children still rank first
But the ratio of purchasing character-related products between 20s to 60s
is becoming bigger than in the past
They say character industry is not too active nowadays
Because the market for children is decreasing
who are the ones buying and collecting characters
Because less children are born, the character products targeting them
would sell less, they thought
But in this corner of the shrinking market
Adults started to come in
These adults can buy much more of the
expensive products
And all the merch with the right fashion
began to be selected by more consumers
That's the gist of this trend
In 2023, 76% of the people have experienced buying a character product
75.8% have experience buying product using character IP
More people are buying physical products with characters
For 20s, 30s and 40s
Comparing through 2013 to 2023
We can see an increase of that character product purchase
The term is 'Digging Momentum'
Digging momentum, it's the keyword
Digging, the best, and momentum, a trend
Or a changing point of a trend
That's a digging momentum
People who immerse themselves in a field
Are now over simple hobby or interest; they are the ones consuming and producing content
The word for this is digging momentum
Escaping the anxious reality, they dig into their favorite field
And this process of digging as a game culture in gen MZ
Combine to create a new consumption culture
For example, gen MZ collecting certain brand or limited edition shoes
Purchasing all merch of a character
Or collecting expensive professional tools for their certain hobby are some cases
Some representative cases for gen MZ is
Working part time for three full months
And lining up, standing through the night for 3 days, to get the limited edition basketball shoes
And after buying that expensive pair of shoes, they feel so great
that they upload the photo on Instagram to be lauded by more people
And that's the biggest happiness for this generation
This is an example of digging momentum
And how would their parent's generation understand it?
They can't; spending three month's worth of money buying a pair of shoes
And to do so, standing in line for three days, and after the purchase
just displaying it in a glass box, what's the use of it?
But gen MZ will reply
This can be resold in a much higher price
And this will be an investment into the product
That's their logic
So digging momentum, in the end, has an economical value as well
There are various digging consumption trends
One of them is 'concept'
Concept diggers love any content with a clear concept
And take the image that they are into as their own concept
One example is pop up store
Pop up store isn't just a space for transaction or promotion
It is a multicultural space, where experienced content is highlighted centered around platforms
Through the COVID, the consumption is now more online than offline
and more mobile, to add more
We check the product on our smartphone and order mobile
And it arrives home
However, this physical offline space of products
This pop up store is physically visited
Not to buy the product, but to experience the product
And pop up stores created a multicultural space around Seongsu-dong
And this is how that 'hip' space is being evaluated for
The information and related content for pop up store
will increase exposure on social media, which is an effective marketing strategy
For department stores and shopping malls, character fandom visits result in more sales
And a positive cycle is activated where they now collect the reactions and comments from them
Bellygom, a character at Lotte Home Shopping
operated a pop-up store at Shibuya 109, a large shopping mall
in Tokyo, Japan, in December 2023
Now working as a global character IP
Lotte Home Shopping isn't an offline space to sell products
It's an online space
And it's not a shopping character by Lotte
It's a home shopping character by Lotte, Bellygom
And this bear is huge
It's as big as a four- or five-story building
And this big bear is exhibited offline
Lotte Home Shopping is a mobile and online shopping place
So it's an online space
But by creating a virtual character in an offline space
It attracts people, it is like an event
Such things increase the potentials of the platform
The official YouTube channel of Bellygom recorded 40% of its viewership from overseas
With such a big international popularity
In tourist sites such as in New York or Tokyo
The Bellygom content filmed there
has around 5 million views, proving its popularity
Even in Myeongdong, where demand for Hallyu cultural products is high
Bellygom opened a pop up store, themed a circus, on April 2024
So it's not just a character
While conducting global marketing efforts, they are also building a unique virtual world
This strengthens the brand identity
and forms a fandom, centered around gen MZ
And from that, a character called Saerogumi (saero9mi) is born
It's a Soju character
Soju brand Saero's Gumiho character
Saerogumi, this advertisement on YouTube
has 11.32 million views
And in a year of release, this Soju marked
a sales revenue of 100 billion won, which is a mega hit
proving its success in winning over gen MZ
Lotte Chilsung has started by opening a pop-up store in Seongsu-dong
to celebrate the 1st anniversary of its new release in September 2023,
and is now proceeding with a global pop-up store world tour
This may have surprised you
As Saero, a very low-alcohol Soju was released
It used a music video animation featuring a Gumiho as its advertisement
And that Gumiho was named Saerogumi
And this new type of content and the new trend
drew attention
And this marketing concept of the virtual world
induced curiosity towards the product
And this product now had a trend concept of character licensing
leading to repeated purchase, focused purchase
as well as fandom purchase
That's the important trend of digging consumption content
in the 'concept' type
In Naver Webtoon, serialized starting in 2022
Maru Is A Puppy as a famous scene
in episode one, became a meme
and boosted its IP usage
Maru Is A Puppy has run
three pop up stores in Seoul and Busan
Around 170K people visited, which proved the success
Through limited edition products only available on site
this induced more interest
July 2023, at Starfield Coex, the pop up store for Webtoons
Maru Is A Puppy and Meow Man
resulted in 55,700 visitors
which was the biggest among all Webtoon pop up stores in history
As visitors stay
in order to deliver strong and positive experience of the character
It is less a mere character product sales store
It's where people are able to directly
communicate with the characters
The online and mobile character
met in an offline space
It's not a live action character
It's a Webtoon character, a designed character
But just having that character in an offline space
by having it next to me
and taking a photo of it
allows people to think
that they are having a shared experience
As random product led to expansion of collection desires
More character random products are consumed
in daily places such as convenience store or supermarkets
This is digging consumption trend in type 'collection'
For collection digging
It is beyond mere collection
They do unboxing of their collection online
and exhibit it on their social media
Thus, this expands to a production and consumption of that content
Unboxing, meaning you buy something new and open it
Collaboration between Lotte Confectionery and Sanrio introduced
Sanrio Watta Bubble Gum
had a cute random sticker in it
And in a week after the release
It hit 300% of sales compared to other gums
And sales at GS25 convenience stores
also increased by 63% compared to the last month
proving the popularity
This trend is something amazing
It's just a bubble gum
But it has a random sticker in it
And for collectors who have to buy gum to get the stickers
This is a very important marketing point
This is consumption trend, digging consumption trend, type 'collection'
Next is digging consumption trend 'relationship'
In the past, digging was being part of a fan cafe of a celebrity
or having some regular meetups there
Nowadays, it doesn't limit to celebrities
The groups are for a character, an influencer, a certain product
Where people produce and consume their own contents
In 2022, Pengsu, an EBS character
had a first fan meetup event
where 20,000 people signed up for 2,000 seat
and sold out all seats in 5 minutes
There were cheering sticks and even fan rice, proving for the big popularity
In 2023, there was a second fan meetup event
And this shows how strong Pengsu's character IP is
Much more than the first event, 3,000 seats, were also sold out
And to differentiate with the previous fan meetup
It included a trending Y2K vibe with '20th Century Pengsu'
So it was relationship as well as retro
After it discontinued in 2006
In 2022, Pokemon Bread was re-released
And there was scarcity
It is the reproduction and expansion of culture
By reproducing the nostalgic flavor from the 90's
as well as having the 'Tibu Seal' sticker with Pokemon
It induces nostalgia and collection desire from gen MZ
And that was a trend born out of it
'Tibu Seal', it's not Chinese
It literally means 'stickers to stick and take off'
So the full name would be 'Stick and take off stickers'
But that's a bit weird
So it is called 'Tibu Seal'
Having collected all 159 kinds of Tibu Seal
is said to be sold online
at a very high price point
After the trend of Pokemon Bread, other character IP's such as Shinchan,
Yurang's Gom, Cookie Run
were also sold in products
with such Tibu Seals
Detective Conan collaborated with CU in 2023
and sold products with 80 kinds of Tibu Seals
It even made Tibu Seals out of
Non-characters, just the props in the original work
The sticker you stick on and take off
When you buy a product, there are one or two of it
And if you buy many
You can get various kinds of Tibu Seals
and ultimately collect the whole thing
This collection is what makes you buy the product
Voting certification by the 20s and 30s
started with the 21st general election in 2020
Due to COVID19 at the time
Since it was not allowed to stamp the voting stamp on the back of the hand
They prepared for a separate piece of paper to verify for one's voting
And that vote-verifying paper for the 20s and 30s
became a meme
and became a merch
As soon as the 22nd National Assembly election ended
Social media was full of such various
photos that verify their votings
A unique character vote-verifying paper
was shared on social media
And as gen MZ enjoys showing off stuffs
This became a way to verify one's voting
And as a trend of cultural reproduction and expansion
In 2023, Kakao Bank
aimed at the gen MZ fandom
in their 'bias savings plan'
And 400K people joined the plan in 10 days after pre-register period began
It was focused less on the amount and more on the entertainment
to help people enjoy the act of saving money
Providing a service to record savings and meaningful moments
with loved ones through ‘collecting rules’
And the cover of the account could be customized with one's own bias
so it was very popular among fans
And there was a fun 'share' template
so that one's current status could be
shared with others in a fun way
This enabled all actions such as purchasing items, showcasing products,
and opening savings accounts to be integrated with social media
which was the secret behind their success
And the culture of photo card
Where images of idol members or characters are printed in a card sized paper
And there are both official merch and unofficial photo cards
produced by fans for the latter
The popularity of a fandom culture
Where your bias joins your daily life became a trend
And decorating a photo card is called 'topkku'
A short form of top loader decoration
Acrylic sleeve, acrylic top loader
and surface protector sticker were trending
Third one is the creation of characters and memes
As prosumers participating in character content supply
Consumers now have more power
and influence in the character industry through character meme
Consumers participate in creating the character culture,
get involved in the process,
and identify with the character one has created
in order to increase love and preference towards a character
It is not a one-directional consumption of buying something
Activating a character meme,
strengthens an interaction between the character and the consumer
So this is not a mere consumer
They are producers and consumers simultaneously
By creating this line of sympathy
This is Zanmang Loopy
A middle schooler in 2019 used a photo editing application
to edit the character Loopy in Pororo
by distorting its face
And this funny and new face of Loopy became viral
And this meme became trending
This comic image of Loopy on social media
became a meme and produced a new IP
Pororo is a children's animation
And among gen MZ who grew up with that animation
This meme became very popular
And with this distorted, memified character
There were emojis, Instagram account, and YouTube presence
And other bi-directional communications
The clear-eyed maniac, Koongya Restaurant
Koongya Restaurants opened their
Official Instagram account on April 2022
And in 20 months it reached 160K followers, and it is still growing
The accumulated number of likes on Instagram is 6.8 million
The highest like in a post, 190K
It is recording a high engagement rate and response rate compared to the follower numbers
Yangpa Koongya, the first emoji at Koongya Restaurants made a debut
And became the most popular emoji
Ranking the first
The storytelling of each character,
When linked to social media, could exercise such a big influence
As seen in Koongya Restaurant
Maru Is A Puppy
It's a Naver Webtoon, still serialized
And Maru, a puppy who became a human, first talks to the main character
With the line, 'I'm a human now, how cool is that?'
'Look at this hand, amazing'
This scene became a meme
And was parodied by many
In 2023, The Hyundai Seoul opened
a 90-pyung big, the biggest ever pop up store
within total 507 products on sale
Its online pre-registration was sold out in two hours
And in less than an hour after the opening
The Favorite Toys collection, five pieces in total, was sold out
which proved for the big popularity of that Webtoon IP
And with this offline popularity of Maru Is A Puppy
Maru Is A Puppy also gained more profit on its Webtoon platform as well
So there is a linkage between the two
Between online and offline
Its second exclusive pop up store
was open now in the near Seoul area but in Busan
And adding 40 more products, it had 322 products on sale
Hemging
It's not a corporation character, it's a doodling
by a famous Webtoon artist when she was a student
This hamster Hemging became trendy in gen MZ
The biggest reason why Hemging became trending for gen MZ is
that it is a fun parody of other trending memes
Hemging is a comical representation of those
who hate to go to work or school
If you search for Hemging at Weibo, a popular Chinese social media,
You get a lot of Hemging images
And the account that translates Hemging content to Chinese
has 190K followers
And every day around 10,000 people visit the account
In making a character known to people
And making a fandom, the most important act
is the meme by its daily consumers
That's the gist of this
Neutro Trend 1. What is Neutro? Reinterpreting old things in a modern context and imbuing them with contemporary values Neutro is enjoyed actively by younger generations who appreciate its freshness
Newtro Trend Gen X Vintage digital recording device Well-made Newtro music
Return of retro content Remake or spinoff of classic animation works The First Slam Dunk, X-Men '97, Dooly The Little Dinosaur: The Adventure of Ice Planet
2. Digging and Expansion of Character Culture Digging Momentum A trend of those 'digging' into a field now producing and consuming their own content
An gen-MZ trait of enjoying a game culture creates a new consumption culture Repeated, focused, and fandom purchases
Trends of Digging Consumption Type Concept: These diggers love contents with solid concept
Type Collection: These diggers collect and expand contents through actions of production and consumption Type Relationship: These diggers produce and consume their own contents through various meetups
Reproduction and Expansion of Culture Using various character IP, inducing purchase through 'Tibu Seal' sales Character voting verification representing the 20s and 30s 'Bias savings plan' for gen MZ fandoms
Activation and interaction of character memes Consumers participate in creating character culture, immerse themselves in the process, and empathize with the characters they create, thereby increasing their affection and preference for the characters
Zanmang Loopy, Yangpa Koongya, Maru Is A Dog, Hemging