South Korean TV dramas exploit success to push products across Asia
Companies paying huge amounts for product placement on TV shows to boost sales in Asia
The export success of South Korea's television dramas has spawned a hard-selling world of branded entertainment that uses product placement to push everything from smartphones to lipsticks.
The so-called Hallyu (Korean Wave) of television shows and pop music has long conquered most of Asia and, in recent years, found fans in the Middle East, Latin America and North Africa.
The vast audiences opened stealth marketing opportunities that have become distinctly less stealthy as competition has intensified.
[TV product placement has] an immediate and widespread impact in Asia
South Korean firms now spend millions of dollars ensuring lovers in popular soap operas confess their feelings via Samsung smartphones, kiss in Hyundai cars and move into a house equipped with a giant LG TV.
The power of the most popular dramas to launch new trends and boost existing ones was displayed by the recent production My Love from the Star - an unlikely love story between a top female movie star and a 400-year-old alien disguised as a human.
The SBS television show was a huge hit, especially in China where it triggered a craze for Korean-style fried chicken and beer, the favoured comfort food of the show's heroine - played by Gianna Jun. The main characters talked and sent texts on Samsung's Galaxy Note smartphones, or chatted via the Line mobile app made by Naver, Seoul's top portal.
Jun's character used lotions and lipsticks made by Amorepacific, the South's largest cosmetics firm. Supporting characters had an insatiable taste for mini-desserts made by CJ - the country's top food company.
The exposure clearly pays off.