Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) has enlisted the star power of K-pop girl band NewJeans to draw fans to its new store opening in Seoul, South Korea.
An exclusive ‘360-degree’ spatial recording of NewJeans’s international hit OMG will be blasted throughout the store during curated pop-up times in the coming weeks.
Embracing K-pop is not a new trend for global technology giants, especially not South Korean native Samsung, which has used global megastars BTS in smartphone launch campaigns.
Bloomberg called Apple’s NewJeans tie-up a “K-pop offensive in Samsung’s home turf”, but it is also representative of the increasingly heated corporate tech battleground that is South Korea’s most cherished pop culture export.
The corporate side of K-pop has been in a protracted tussle over SM Entertainment, a multibillion-dollar corporation largely credited with the creation of the modern K-pop scene.
BTS-owner Hype had been fighting with South Korean social media giant Kakao Corp. for a controlling stake acquisition in SM Entertainment until Kakao, which has a market value of around US$20bn, put Hybe out of the game just this week with a tender offer for a 35% stake at 150,000 won per share.
Outside of the tech sector, luxury brands including Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Prada, Burberry and Gucci have been aggressively pitching for the marketing clout of South Korea’s culture idols.
Ironically, the song that helped put K-pop on the global stage – Psy’s superhit Gangnam Style – was a satire on the trendy, snobbish lifestyle associated with the Gangnam region of the South Korean capital; the very region Apple is about to open its new store.