The Hyundai I¡¯Park Mall shopping complex in Yongsan, Seoul last month held a competition asking customers to post notes, photos and video clips of the mall on their blogs. A woman won with pictures of various activities that can be done at the mall, from eating to shopping and watching a movie. An I¡¯Park Mall spokesperson said blogs have a great marketing effect since they have a familiar feel about them and spread throughout the world through portal searches.
Businesses are racing to harness ¡°user-created content¡± or UCC for their marketing strategies since it is gaining popularity among Internet users with its astonishing variety of themes and ideas. Sites like Cyworld, Naver blog and Tagstory have become explosively popular. Online shopping mall GSeshop overhauled its website to allot more space to the UCC section, where customers can post photos and video clips of goods they have bought and exchange product information. Customers also write a ¡°tag¡± or short comment below a product to help others make their choice.
The karaoke machine manufacturer TJ Media selects new singers by taking advantage of UCC. In cooperation with Cyworld and Doremi Records, the company hosts an event where ordinary people record songs in a karaoke room and immediately send the recording to the Cyworld website. Video clips of interviews and practice sessions of contestants who passed the preliminary round are made also posted. TJ Media says everyone can become a star by using the Internet.
User-created parodies of famous ads are also popular. In one parody of the ad for LG Electronics¡¯ hit Chocolate Phone, real chocolate replaces the cell phone. In a parody of the S-Oil ad, a man dressed in a ludicrous outfit sings the commercial song passing by in a toy car, instead of the handsome models the original employs.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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