South Korea PR eyes global brand expansions for growth

South Korea has an online penetration of more than 84 per cent, with internet usage high across all age groups. It also has one of the world's biggest blogging communities, and it boasts the highest penetration in Asia-Pacific of mobile phone social networkers as a percentage of the total population, according to an eMarketer forecast of mobile social usage around the world released last May. Findings related to usage last year showed that just shy of half the country’s population would use their mobile phones to access social networks on a monthly basis.

With this mind, it's not surprising that a high number of South Koreans watch television via mobile devices, and the country also has a strong m-commerce industry. GlobalWebIndex reports that 43 per cent of the country’s residents bought something online via their mobile phone in January. While traditional media such as newspapers remain popular, with more than 100 national and local dailies, subscriptions continue to suffer due to the growth and influence of online media sources.

Tyler Kim (pictured below) is managing director, Korea, head of corporate, Asia Pacific, and head of crisis communications and issues management at Weber Shandwick. He says companies in Korea are catching on to the importance of digital marketing, with the Korean PR industry working full throttle to provide these services.

“With people spending more time on the internet than ever before, our clients are scrambling to engage with these online audiences,” he says. “With more clients asking for not just media PR but also marketing through digital channels and social media, PR agencies are not doing just PR anymore—they are competing with marketing and advertising agencies to provide integrated communications services.”

This progression from traditional to digital, and now to social-media marketing, is forcing agencies in Korea to become experts in online communication channels.

“Clients in Korea are now being trained to become media outlets themselves, telling stories of their brand,” he adds. “Agencies are helping them with editorial strategy and content creation, and along with this comes the need to provide content in various formats—not just text but visual and moving images, too.”

Kim’s biggest challenge is finding the right people to address this digital and content gap. “Before, PR agencies hired former journalists and reporters,” he says. “Now to work in PR, you need to have a much more comprehensive skill set that includes expertise in digital. Agencies now need to attract people who have experience in areas like marketing/advertising, digital channel operation, analytics and mobile optimization.”

Kim believes opportunities in the country lie in global PR, with many Korean companies now looking to extend their PR to the global market through a combination of traditional and digital media channels.

“The major areas for growth are corporate social responsibility, financial transactions such as mergers and acquisitions and crisis management services,” he says.

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For Herold Moon, vice president at PR One, which has worked on campaigns for brands including Lego, Bosch and Nespresso, the PR industry in Korea is growing at an alarming rate, in both the private and public sectors. In the past, he says, the idea of PR was previously used as a marketing tool. "If advertisements were only useful for spreading the word about a business' product or its service, PR was regarded as a marketing tool which additionally provided credibility and reputation," he says.

Recently, however, he adds, PR in the country has expanded its boundaries from the private to the public sector and is being actively used to increase understanding of public policies from central and local governments, public institutions, citizens, and taxpayers.

"The efforts of public institutions to announce policies to taxpayers can be seen through their social networking channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube," says Moon. "They are also investing time and effort in interviews and contributions to newspapers, using traditional offline media as a way of announcing the intention and direction of policies. If PR was previously an important marketing tool for businesses, its importance is now growing in the public sector in Korea.”

The biggest challenge for the agency is developing creative PR content, with PR One investing in training for its employees.

Moon believes that one area that is ripe for development in Korea is public sector crisis management, working with central and local governments and public institutions. "Communication capabilities, preparation and the ability to respond, such as building a crisis management manual and media training, are key factors that will affect the growth of the [Korean] PR industry in the future," he says.