BTS: A Paradigm Changer in Martech &/or Innovation
This is an archive of an event co-hosted by AMJ and R3, here is a selection of 20 presentations delivered during the special BTS-dedicated section at the 2020 ICAMA-KAS International Conference. This online conference’s theme was Marketing and Advertising in an Age of Radical Change and conducted on October 31st 2020 via Zoom. It was an immense pleasure to co-host this event and witness the abundance of enthusiasm and passion for BTS in connection with marketing, technology, and innovation. The Korean Marketing Association’s President Han was impressed by our audience and presenters as well. Read a more detailed recap of the event on The R3 Journal website. This archive page was originally posted briefly on the R3 website but has been moved here to the Rhizome Connect page to emphasize that this was a live event and none of the following are peer-reviewed or ‘published’ by the journal though proposals for talks were reviewed by both AMJ and R3 they were inclusive of professional and amateur researchers.
We believe that sharing this collection of presentations in a single place will help to archive and continue spreading awareness about how vast the interests and passions of ARMY are. Additionally, we expect that more and more people are realizing that there are many experts in a variety of fields that have a strong interest in researching and sharing their perspectives on the impact of BTS in those areas. Please be sure to properly cite and credit the source material if you use these resources in your own work.
The included presentations are NOT peer-reviewed and were presented in a live virtual setting. As these presentations are part of ongoing research and studies, please understand that the included information may be out of date at the time of your viewing. Additionally, any opinions expressed during the video presentations by the speakers may not reflect the opinions of AMJ and R3 or especially ARMY as a whole.
We take pride in being a safe and constructive space for inspiring discussions and study of the various ways that BTS and/or ARMY impact the world around us. With that in mind, we hope these presentations are able to illuminate and foster new perspectives on familiar or unfamiliar fields of study.
Session 1 | The Business of BTS: Branding and Product Development
BRANDING AS A TOOL FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION THROUGH LAW ENFORCEMENT, CONSUMERS, AND FANS: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS WITH BTS AS A CASE STUDY
by Ana C. Ribeiro & Jo Eram
The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of brand equity and branding strategies in the protection of Intellectual Property (IP) rights, with the Korean music group 방탄소년단 (BTS) as a case study for comparative analysis. Video | PDF
“BANGBANGCON: THE LIVE” – A CASE STUDY ON LIVE PERFORMANCES AND MARKETING STRATEGIES WITH THE KOREAN-POP GROUP BTS DURING THE PANDEMIC SCENARIO IN 2020
by Cristina Freitas de Jesus
The purpose of this article is to understand how artists can create marketing strategies with new contents during the pandemic scenario, using as a case study the event “Bang Bang Con: The Live,” a paid live-streaming concert held by the Korean-Pop group BTS in June, 2020. PDF
The final paper published in Asia Marketing Journal Special Issue
MARKETING BORDERLESS PRECARITY AND THE AFFECTIVE AFTERLIVES OF BTS’S WINGS ERA
by Tannishtha Bhattacharjee
This presentation studies how a shared consciousness of borderless precarity appears in products supplementary to BTS’s music from the Wings era onwards. This shared consciousness markets BTS beyond their musicality, to include motifs of care-giving labor which cements a lasting and transcendental affective intimacy with the audience. Video | PDF
“DO THE BTS GALAXY BUDS+ WORK WITH MY IPHONE?” – BTS AND BRAND DESIRE
by Lalitha Kakulapati
This presentation explores how BTS employs all six drivers of brand desire to build and sustain the loyal ARMY fan base and how ARMY’s desire for the BTS brand overcomes lock-in effects of other powerful brands through examples, such as iPhone owners purchasing the BTS Edition Samsung Galaxy Buds+. Video | PDF
How Much is Too Much? The Impact Of Big Hit Entertainment’s Indirect Intellectual Property Strategy on Fans’ Consumption Behavior
by Emily Wang & Fatima Ahmad
This presentation intends to explore the relationship between Big Hit Entertainment’s intellectual property strategy and their indirect artist projects and how this ultimately affects fans’ reception of content and the artist’s brand. PDF | Transcript
Session 2 | Bring the Stories: Narrative Building and Participatory Culture
ARMYS: A MARKETING FORCE BEHIND BTS
by Monika Kostanyova
This paper analyzes the relationship between Big Hit Entertainment, a South Korean entertainment company, and their customers. An insightful look into BTS, a boy group signed under Big Hit, and their dedicated fans uncovers the power of customers regarding marketing and promotional activities. Video | PPT
WASTE IT ON ME AND #THEGREATBTSBILLBOARDHUNT: A CASE STUDY OF SOCIAL MEDIA-POWERED PROMOTIONS THAT MOBILIZED LOCALLY AND ENGAGED GLOBALLY
by Sydney Rubin
A case study of promotions for 2018’s “Waste it On Me” by Steve Aoki featuring BTS, a social media-enabled campaign that allowed fans to create and own a story (#TheGreatBTSBillboardHunt) and which achieved global reach while focusing on highly-localized, US-centric engagement on- and offline. Video
SUCCESS STORY: HOW STORYTELLING CONTRIBUTES TO BTS’S BRAND
by Courtney Lazore
BTS’s storytelling, deeply integrated into their brand through their music, concepts, and the Bangtan Universe, has revolutionized the pop music landscape, providing a new model for K-Pop idols that relies on open-structure narratives, affect, and audience engagement. Video | PDF
The final paper published in the Asia Marketing Journal Special Issue
BUILDING THE BTS AND ARMY BRAND THROUGH FAN CO-CREATION STORYTELLING AND NARRATIVE
by Cecilia Perez
This study explores BTS’s brand identity through fan co-creation storytelling and narrative. As an agent of BTS’s success, ARMY is crucial in driving a cohesive cross-platform brand narrative that has effectively helped build, foster, and strengthen both BTS’s and ARMY’s brands. Video | PDF
LABOUR OF LOVE: FAN LABOUR, BTS, AND SOUTH KOREAN SOFT POWER
by Jasmine Proctor
Through the conjunct engagement of a political economy framework and theories of participatory culture, this paper argues that the globalized free labor performed by ARMY, premised on affect, has constructed the fan community as active agents of South Korean soft power alongside BTS. Video | PPT
The final paper published in the Asia Marketing Journal Special Issue
Session 3: The Making of an ARMY: Online and Offline Engagement and Community
FROM N.O. TO ON AND BEYOND: BTS’S JOURNEY OF INNOVATION IN MENTAL HEALTH DISCOURSE AND MODALITY MODELING
by Sharon Blady (Speak Up: Mental Health Advocates)
BTS’s mental health messaging and organic modeling of mental health modalities represent innovation within mental health discourse. Most significant is building a peer support community within the group that extends to their fanbase ARMY, from which fan-created mental health programs have emerged. Video | PPT
The final paper published in the Asia Marketing Journal Special Issue
WHAT BRANDS CAN LEARN FROM BTS: BEST PRACTICES TO GENERATE AUTHENTIC FAN ENGAGEMENT
by Pamela Gutierrez Sanchez (De la Riva Group)
Mainstream branding has been stuck in its view of audiences as passive targets. This strategy in nine best practices sums up how BTS’s approach to branding has the potential to engage audiences organically as conscious fans not only buy their content but also break down barriers in the industry. Video | PDF
CONNECT, BTS: AN EXAMPLE OF INNOVATIVE TRANSMEDIA BRANDING TO RETHINK SPATIALITY AND MEANING-MAKING
by Stefania Piccialli
This piece of research analyzes the innovative techniques of meaning-making that BTS employ to build their brand identity. Principally, the analysis will examine how the strategies of media storytelling and transmedia branding in the project CONNECT, BTS are aimed at re-inventing the concept of spatiality. Video | PPT
BTS, BIG HIT, AND ARMY: THE INFINITE PLAYERS
by MacKenzie Rawcliffe
This study explores BTS’s brand identity through fan co-creation storytelling and narrative. As an agent of BTS’s success, ARMY is crucial in driving a cohesive cross-platform brand narrative that has effectively helped build, foster, and strengthen both BTS’s and ARMY’s brands. Video
Session 4 | Connecting BTS: The Role and Impact of Social Media
BEYOND THE SCREAMS: SOCIAL MEDIA PRACTICES OF BTS ARMY FANGIRLS IN INDONESIA
by Karlina Octoviany
Because BTS ARMY in Indonesia are the global leader of active social media users, this paper examines their social media practices on gender, knowledge exchange, visual images, and community building. Considering the local cultures, ARMY Indonesia contributes as the global power to break music records. Video | PDF
IS BTS DIFFERENT? SHARED EPISODES ON SNS AS A GOOD INDICATOR FOR CELEBRITY ENDORSED AD EFFECTS
by Kyunhee Bu
Using SNS response data on ads featuring BTS , this study tries to appraise the factors that have been missed in celebrity endorsement literature, such as the effect of shared experience. Video | PPT
COMPETITION AND COLLABORATION OF BTS ARMY ON TWITTER
by Nicole Santero
This paper examines the Twitter power and competitive nature of BTS ARMY. Through both quantitative and qualitative analysis, this study aims to provide deeper insight into the fandom’s social media habits, strategies, collaboration, and motivation to support and promote BTS. Video | PDF
EVERY STEP BTS HAS TAKEN TO SUCCESS
by Sujin Ko & Hyun Jung Chung
In this study, we attempt to explain how BTS have achieved continuous growth chronologically by analyzing the brand “BTS” based on the brand life cycle theory. The authors employ the case study method, collecting social data from various websites and applications. Video | PDF
ARMY on Twitter Flock Together: Transnational Homophily Network Structure of BTS ARMY on Twitter
by Kyungjin Nam, Heewon Kim, Soowon Kang & Hye-jin Kim
This study aims to understand the transnational communication structure of the world’s largest fandom, BTS’s ARMY, by analyzing the 2019 BBMAs voting network on Twitter. We expect that the clusters from various countries will show global solidarity by converging toward common goals, and consequently will provide a visual structure of pop cosmopolitanism. Video | PDF
Please share your thoughts and questions with us on social media or email us at contact@theR3journal.com.
The R3 Special Issue, which will include papers from this conference, arrives in the 2nd half of 2021! Asia Marketing Journal’s Special Issue, which includes papers from several of this BTS-focused track’s participants, was published January 2021.
