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How to Maximize Brand Awareness in Korea with Online Campaigns in 2025

When it comes to increasing brand awareness, there are several ways we could consider.

It could be through social media, offline marketing like opening pop-up stores, influencer marketing, or display ads in very popular districts.

However, say — you are an international brand that already has a successful track record in your country or other markets, but you have zero presence in Korea…

What’s the #1 most efficient & effective marketing strategy you should consider first?

In this blog post, I’m going to talk about how to build brand awareness with solid trust and how to build loyal fans even from the beginning using online campaigns. Plus, I’ll share a new way you can connect with your ideal customers — hint: it’s an advanced form of influencer marketing 🙂

By the way — if this is your first time visiting our blog, I’m Hyein Yoon — the founder of HY MARKETING, helping international brands succeed in Korea, Japan, and beyond through social media & local insights. If you’d like to connect, feel free to check out our other socials 🙂

1. Why Building Brand Awareness & Trust Through Online Campaigns Matters for Your Brand

There are many ways to connect with customers. However, for international brands with little to no presence in Korea, it’s important to execute campaigns smartly and strongly, bringing measurable wins from the start.

Of course, combining both offline events and online campaigns is always the best strategy to attract customers.

But are we doing it the right way?

Think of online campaigns as a way to warm up & nurture your audience before they visit your pop-up store.

Think of online campaigns as a way to re-target and re-engage your audience after they’ve visited your pop-up store.

In 2024, over 1,713 pop-up stores opened in Korea.

As you can tell, there are lots of options — and to spend your budget wisely and make the most out of it in the long term, we need smart and sustainable campaigns.

2. How to Start Executing Online Campaigns in Korea

It’s important to understand that influencer marketing is one of the most powerful ways to connect with the right audience and get the best ROI possible.

However, when I looked at how international brands collaborate with influencers, most of the time it lacked a conversion-driven approach.

That means hiring well-known influencers — or influencers who are famous just for their looks — sometimes doesn’t lead to conversions like visits, sales, leads, or engagement…

Because there’s a huge possibility that their audience just isn’t the right fit for your brand.

3. So… What’s an Effective Way to Run Online Campaigns?

What we (HY MARKETING) usually suggest to our clients is targeting “communities” or influencers who only talk about “categories.”

If you’re familiar with Korean platforms, you might know we have Naver Cafe, Kakao Open Chat, and more — places where Korean consumers actively share what they’re buying and recommend to each other.

What we do is find the right influencers or communities inside those groups, and match them with your brand to make the most out of the partnership.

As you may know, partnering with the right influencer — not just random ones with inflated numbers — is worth so much more.

And honestly, even many Korean brands and agencies still don’t know how to detect fake influencers…

Of course, if you’re just planning to seed content for search or social, you can hire micro or nano influencers and don’t have to worry much about how genuine they are.

However, when it comes to working with big-name influencers, ROI depends heavily on choosing the RIGHT partners — those who align with your brand identity, unique selling points, and storytelling.

The wrong influencer can harm your brand’s image and result in poor outcomes… which is just disappointing.

If you’re planning to open a pop-up store or run offline events in Korea, but don’t know where to start with online campaigns that actually bring visitors, engagement, and sales — reach out to HY MARKETING and apply to work with us.

We’ve generated:

Let’s build something bold.

— Hyein

At HY MARKETING, we help international brands succeed in South Korea, Japan, and English-speaking markets by specializing in tailored social media strategies and local insights.

Feel free to follow us on other social platforms or connect with us for more tailored guidance.

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