Advertising in South Korea

South Korea's advertising industry is a growing multibillion-dollar industry with aims to increase consumer spending. The method of advertising most companies primarily used based on the amount spent is television, followed by newspaper ads. With the rapidly increasing number of internet users across generations, companies are also branching out and spending more for internet ads. In fact, internet advertising revenue generated 12.2% of the gross revenue from the Korean advertising industry, which is 6 times the amount from 2001. Although growth seems to be continuous, significant decreases or low levels of spending on advertisement is seen during the recovery and development stages after the Korean War, and the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997.

Similarities and differences

Some western influence can be found in Korean advertising through the usage of the English language, whether it is written or spoken English, or a product represented by an American celebrity. One prime example of this is a commercial Jessica Alba did with Lee Hyori for the product Ǐsa Knox. Despite some Western integration within Korean advertising, Korean ads are also distinctively different from Western cultures. Like a number of other Asian countries, Korea is a collectivist society while Western nations such as the U.S. are an individualist society. This disparity makes the usage of competitive comparative advertising more prevalent in countries such as the U.S. while Korea does not actively engage in such methods.