ASEAN Marketing Journal • Vol. XII • No. 1 • 1-8 SOSIAL MEDIA STRATEGY OF NEW KPOP ALBUM : A VISUAL ANALYSIS OF BLACKPINK’S PHOTO TEASER Yudhistya Ayu Kusumawati1 1Visual Communication Design, School of Design, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480 [email protected] Anindya Widita2 2Public Relations, Faculty of Economics & Communication, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480 [email protected] ABSTRACT Manuscript type: Research article. Research Aims: This paper examined visual concept in Blackpink photo teaser as the promo- tion strategy in social media. Design/methodology/approach: This research was carried with qualitative approach, using Roland Barthes semiotics analysis to identify sign and symbol to identify visual meaning of Blackpink photo teaser and how the group is being presented through social media. Research Findings: Blackpink photo teasers have visual appeals which is consistent with the brand of the group. The girl crush and duality concepts of black and pink characters representing beautiful and strong persona were the message intended to be delivered through social media to the audience. Theoretical Contribution/Originality: This research explored the message contained within the visual concept in promotional photo teasers of a K-Pop group, Blackpink, as a social me- dia strategy in promoting the new album. It is notable that the group wanted to project certain image through the photo teasers of the new album. Practitioner/Policy Implication: This research noted that the promotional strategy of a brand, in this case, the K-Pop group, in social media takes into consideration the brand iden- tity and message appeals other than the visual aspect. Research limitation/Implications: This research only focused on one K-Pop group and a new album. Further research can be done covering multiple groups or multiple new albums to identify variety of concepts and strategies in social media. Keywords: social media strategy, K-Pop, K-Pop album, photo teasers 1 2 Yudhistya Ayu Kusumawati et al. / ASEAN Marketing Journal © Juni (2020) Vol. XII No. 1 INTRODUCTION fastest K-Pop music video which gained 550 million viewers. The Korean wave, which primarily started with the popularity of Korean drama in East It is the norm of K-Pop when a group is re- Asia, and the local industry has advanced sev- leasing a new album, a set of teasers, usually eral cultural forms including Korean popular photo or video, will be posted to ‘tease’ the music, Korean drama, Korean cuisine, and audience of the new release. The same goes to Korean fashion which penetrated the glob- BLACKPINK, they released a set of visually al market (Dal & Tae, 2017). Korean Pop or appealing photo teasers on their social media K-Pop has become global cultural phenome- account, including Instagram. non for the last decade by the spreading of K-Pop music in various countries around the This paper explored visual concept in world. K-Pop is a part of the “Hallyu” or Ko- BLACKPINK photo teasers that were used rean wave. Korean wave is not a hegemonic as a promotional material in social media. cultural impression but a “world wave” which Through the analysis, the meaning of the vi- embraces all kinds of culture in a global vil- sual symbol and sign in the teaser were also lage (Rae, 2015). Currently K-Pop, main- identified. ly carried by idol groups is driven by dance music and groomed by conglomerate music LITERATURE REVIEW agency such as YG Entertainment, JYP and SM Entertainment. K-Pop began surfacing in the mid 1990s. K-Pop Industry is characterized by unique In 2012, when the Gangnam Style by PSY globalization strategy of outsourcing creativ- became viral in YouTube, many flashmob ity (G) à internalizing local manufacturing performances and dance covers were posted of creativity (L) à exporting K-Pop globally in social media, which also attracted interna- through YouTube (G) (Oh & Jung Lee, 2013). tional media. When the music video was up- YouTube allows the audience to be immersed loaded on September 28, the video was ac- in music through the consumer’s choice be- cessed by people in 222 countries and became cause of K-Pop’s dance music along with the first YouTube music video which reached extremely fancy, sexy and artificially sophis- one billion views. Gangnam Style’s popular- ticated music video. Therefore, social media ity abroad became an example of how global has contributed to music video global success culture and visual culture was facilitated by (Negus, 2015). social media and networking platform (Shin, 2016). Another example of the impact was K-Pop Idols were known not only from their when a K-Pop girl group who was famous singing quality and skillfull choreographies, internationally is SNSD with the single ‘The but also their manufactured attractiveness to Boys’, became the first time a Korean group commercialize, such as girly, fair and deli- appeared on an American talk show (Kim, cate skin, sexy face, tall, slim, and well-toned 2017). bodies. (Kim, 2017). A study with a title Sex- ual Objectification in Music Video: A Con- Nowadays there are many K-Pop groups tent Analysis Comparing Gender and Genre which gained popularity globally, one of found that music videos provide the most them is BLACKPINK. BLACKPINK, styl- sexual objectification. The analysis com- ized as BLΛƆKPIИK is one of the most fa- pared sexual objectification across gender and mous South Korea girl groups formed by YG genres (R&B, pop, and country). Sexual ob- Entertainment. This group which consists jectification is more prominent in pop music of four members, debuted in August 2016 and R&B rather than country music (Aubrey, with the single “Whistle”. BLACKPINK 2011). According to Jung (2014), the success has achieved record-breaking success. At of K-Pop songs derives from combination of the 2019, BLACKPINK is the highest chart- several factors, namely the use of the existing ing female K-Pop group, with the single hits K-Pop fan base, the buy-in major media out- “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” as the most viewed Kore- lets and celebrities, the active participations an music video on YouTube within 24 hours of global audiences, and the unique features since it was released (Herman, 2018). A few of the music video. months later, BLACKPINK reached another milestone when the same single became the A study about The Globalization Of K-Pop: Yudhistya Ayu Kusumawati et al. / ASEAN Marketing Journal © Juni (2020) Vol. XII No. 1 3 The Interplay Of External And Internal back to K-pop’s worldwide media presence Forces provided a comprehensive and sys- through a wide array of actions such as cast- tematic analysis about the increasing popular- ing a vote in international award and down- ity and global circulation of K-pop in recent loading music to push up the rank on music years. a systematic approach to identify and chart, which successfully create a trend and analyze key trends happening in the external capture the attention of highprofile media. environment that shape the industry in which K-pop operates, and consequently how the The research entitled The Brithney Spears entertainment companies can anticipate these Universe: Social Media and Viral Market- trends and changes in their internal strategies ing at its best discuss about the use of social to facilitate K-pop’s global expansion and media during the launch of Britheny Spears growth. This paper indicated that the global- single ‘Hold It Against Me’ and the associat- ization of K-pop is a process of the interplay ed album Femme Fatale in early 2011. The between external circumstances and internal interplay of postings on Twitter, YouTube, organizational factors. and Facebook combined with comments on Brithney Spears webpage, BritneySpears. Over the past decade, the world has become com can be seen as a prime example of social increasingly connected due to the advent of media usage to support new product introduc- social media and digital distribution which tions (Kaplan, 2012). From those previous re- have been made possible by technological ad- search, the author argued that photo teaser in vancement. Unlike conventional media such social media plays an important role to bring as TV, the emergence of global online vid- the song’s success. So the question is what is eo platforms such as YouTube allows trans- the strategy implemented in photo teaser and national flows of media content which has how it works to attract the audience. made possible for music to reach the widest possible audience ever. Social networking RESEARCH METHOD platforms coupled with transnational online communities become the first medium where This article examined the social media strate- people from every part of the world connect gy of BLACKPINK promotion represented in and interact, instantly share, discuss, or deliv- the photo teasers. This paper also utilized se- er music. YouTube provide the first mecha- miotic analysis, which is concerned with the nism for K-pop to reach the widest possible meaning in the board sense (language, image, audience ever with much lower barrier com- objects), generates meaning or the processes pared to conventional media. To capitalize on by comprehending or attributing meaning. YouTube to maximize potential global reach, Roland Barthes was the first to apply ideas of the formula of K-pop put the same emphasis semiotics developed from linguistics, to visu- on visual as on audio. al images, for example food advertisements, photography and motion pictures. According K-pop in general seems to be focused on to Barthes, it is divided into two meaning; de- catchy melodies, eye-popping choreography, noted meaning (first order or basic meaning) visually attractive group of boys and girls, col- and the cultural meaning or connoted mean- orful and vivid colors to achieve a positioning ing (second order meaning).