Why Develop Super IP? – Task for Virtuous Cycle
An Jin-yong
Reporter
Munhwa Ilbo
The battle to take over K-pop powerhouse SM Entertainment has ended with Kakao’s victory over Hybe. In a Kwanhun Club Forum held in mid-March, shortly after Hybe announced that it would drop out of the bid for SM, Hybe Chairman Bang Si-hyuk, dubbed the “father of BTS,” remarked that he had hoped to acquire SM for the “post-BTS” years. “We have to look beyond the well, not inside it. As a renowned national company, we need to exercise influence on the global market and systemize the production of super intellectual property (IP) there in the long term,” he said, citing BTS and BLACKPINK as good examples of “super IP.”
The “super IP” he mentions is, in a nutshell, core content that can be expanded infinitely. “Single IP,” on the other hand, is not expandable and only worth the consumption of its original value. However, using the initial single IP as its launching point, super IP may extend beyond its original value. Hollywood’s Marvel Studios has demonstrated an outstanding example of super IP by producing the “Avengers” series which combines Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, and other superheroes in addition to the respective films in which they star. Marvel has also made inroads into character and exhibition businesses.
BTS is a K-pop group that sings and dances. If the group stopped at selling albums and putting on performances, it would not be called a super IP. However, Hybe has produced games featuring its members as characters and has also made films and documentaries based on their concerts. In cities and countries where the group performs live, Hybe has opened “BTS Pop-up: House of BTS,” a comprehensive experience zone providing diverse goods inspired by BTS’s hit songs. In April last year in Las Vegas, BTS-themed hotel rooms made their debut just in time for BTS’s concert, along with pop-up stores selling BTS’s favorite Korean food. Hybe has also released books illustrating the group’s lyrics and is considering producing a TV show based on the story of BTS. These efforts follow Learn Korean with BTS, the Korean language books for K-pop fans.
Another example of super IP is ENHYPEN, the boy band that has recently announced their plan to enter the US animation film market. The members will take part as K-pop band characters in Baby Shark’s Big Movie! which is co-produced by Pinkfong. The members’ appearance in the film may introduce ENHYPEN to movie fans relatively less interested in K-pop.
These are attempts to create virtuous cycles of turning bands enjoying tremendous global recognition into sustainable, marketable content, while at the same time, endeavoring to maximize the band members’ value by changing the market structure from “person-centered” to “IP-centered.” Many popular K-pop bands have lost value one after another after their contracts were not renewed upon expiration.
Critic Cha Woo-jin, when comparing BTS to another world star, Taylor Swift, said “Swift is an artist; BTS is an artist and a business model at the same time. BTS has greater value as IP. The absence of BTS is the absence of IP that uses its members in multiple ways. The issue of BTS’s absence should not be resolved by an alternative as simple as developing artists who may succeed them but from the perspective of exploring IP of higher value.”
Making use of super IP to expand the media market will undoubtedly prolong the vitality of well-established K-pop groups and invigorate interests in up-and-coming groups in the long run. It will also result in the platform expansion jointly called for by Bang Si-hyuk and SM, who launched “SM 3.0” together with Kakao in an attempt to prepare a sort of “fans’ playground.” Weverse is another super IP that contains multiple powerful IPs, embracing BTS and other Hybe groups like NewJeans and LE SSERAFIM as well as YG groups such as BLACKPINK and WINNER. The platform enables fans to follow their favorite artists while simultaneously having access to and newly discovering other artists, thus establishing themselves as “heavy users” in the K-pop market.
While each individual K-pop group is considered single IP, operating and strengthening groups with substantial fandoms in various ways and connecting them by building a “value chain” will contribute to the emergence of stronger platforms; such a process may signify the super IP-centered transformation of the K-pop market. As stated by Bang Si-hyuk, “We have global K-pop artists, but we don’t have a prominent global entertainment company. Such reality inevitably leads to concerns about the industry’s power to cope with the uncertainties of the future. Like Samsung in the global semiconductor market and Hyundai in the global auto market, a global entertainment company should appear now and take on the role of breaking through the current K-pop situation.”
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