POSCO is connecting with younger audiences by creating unique content, “Fantasteel – The Beginning of the New Iron Age,” in partnership with Nexon’s online game “Wars of Pracia”.
SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – Businesses in the so-called ‘junghujangdae’ industries, unfamiliar to the general public, are striving to craft a friendly image by creating compelling online content to connect with younger generations, including those in the job market.
The term “junghujangdae” means “heavy, thick, long, or large,” referring to businesses in manufacturing sectors such as steel, chemicals, automobiles, and shipbuilding.
For example, POSCO, a well-known company in the steel industry, is connecting with younger audiences by creating unique content. This comes after its subsidiary companies changed their names to demonstrate their commitment to environmental friendliness and future materials.
Their ad campaign, “Fantasteel – The Beginning of the New Iron Age,” in partnership with Nexon’s online game “Pracia Electric,” has garnered over 27 million views since it was launched in mid-August.
HD Hyundai, formerly known as Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, changed its name at the end of last year. They’ve been creating various videos to cater to younger audiences, especially shorter ones that are popular with this demographic.
Recently, an employee from the sales department at HD Hyundai participated in the ‘GASTEK 2023′ gas energy industry exhibition and shared their on-site sales activities through a vlog. Within a week, it received more than 10,000 views. Additionally, a recruitment video lasting just 31 seconds and featuring cute characters was released early last month, garnering 4.73 million views.
In another case, SK Trading International, a subsidiary of SK Innovation specializing in the trading of petrochemical products, released a YouTube video titled ‘Curious about SK Trading International?’ targeting job seekers on September 19. Within a mere two weeks of its release, the video had already garnered over 10,000 views.
In the video, online mentors and trading specialists who actually work at SK Trading International engage in a Q&A format with young employees, providing a comprehensive range of information needed for job applicants.
This includes details about domestic and international organizations, main tasks, business areas, sales figures, characteristics of the trading industry, risk management, and the ideal candidate profiles sought by the company.
SK Trading International, established in 2013 through the spin-off of SK Energy’s trading business, is the nation’s only specialized trading company for petrochemical products.
Despite its dominance in crude oil and petrochemical product trading in Asia, it has struggled to garner high attention from job seekers, partly due to its lengthy English name.
Considering these aspects, the company created the video to facilitate a better understanding of the industry’s characteristics for younger generations. The video aims to shed light on the company’s position and prospects within the industry and is designed to attract more attention from the younger generation.
In the past, ‘junghujangdae’ businesses typically used intuitive company names reflecting their main business areas in Korean. In recent days, however, an increasing number of ‘junghujangdae’ businesses are adopting comprehensive company names containing English words.
This change is driven by a broader diversity in their business operations and the desire to emphasize their management orientation.
However, as most of these businesses operate in a business-to-business (B2B) context and have limited interactions with the general public, online platforms such as YouTube have become indispensable PR tools for them to attract young prospective employees.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
