Paradise City's new campaign seeks to redefine Korean hospitality advertising

Paradise City, an Art-Tainment Resort located in Incheon, South Korea, has launched a new advertising campaign for the Japan and Korea market. Created by Dentsu, the campaign shows the unique experiences offered by Paradise City that are distinctively different from other travel destinations in the region. Featuring Park Seo Jun, a famous Korean model, the TVC takes the viewers through the resort’s luxe venues in one flow, incorporating a hide-and-seek element for added fun. The idea was to convey the uniqueness and scale of Korea's hospitality experience that has not been experienced before.

Eunju Yeo, CMO of Paradise City, shares with Campaign Asia-Pacific, that this was their first project for the Japan and Korea market together. Achieving a localisation balance for both strategy and creative for the twin markets was key and a significant challenge. 

“Korea and Japan are different in language and culture. Therefore, it was integral for us to understand the target audience's preferences, attitudes, and behaviours and then adapt the message and creative to resonate with them.

For us, one of the challenges was understanding the differences in brand awareness between the two markets,” remarks Yeo.

In Korea, Paradise City was already known as a hotel, but not necessarily as an Integrated Resort, which was the positioning the campaign aimed to convey. On the other hand, the brand needed to raise its awareness as a new destination in Japan. To address these differences, the team created different slogans for each market that would appeal to their unique needs and preferences.

"Check-in to Paradise" is the slogan for Korea. It focuses on the experience of the resort as an integrated holiday venue. For the Japanese market, "Experience the side of Korea you don't know yet" was rolled out to introduce Paradise City as a new and unique destination. Yeo shares that learning about Japan's unique advertising grammar was interesting during the research process.

“There was a slight episode when deciding on the Japanese slogan. To our eyes, the slogan seemed more like an essay than an advertising copy, but after researching and studying various Japanese advertisements, we found it interesting that Japan has its own unique advertising grammar,” reveals Yeo.

Celebrity Park Seo Jun enjoying the various in-house attractions as a guest is a refreshing departure from the traditional hospitality ads that open and close with well-dressed staff greeting customers and showing hotel rooms and banquet halls.

Yeo tells us that juggling the shoot and production logistics was a challenge. The hotel operates 24*7, minimising contact with guests and avoiding any disruptions to their plans was a priority.