Introduction

K-pop’s global explosion has ignited a growing interest in Korean hip-hop, also known as K-rap. France, with its vibrant urban music scene and budding Korean culture fandom, presents a potential opportunity for K-rap to flourish. But how can K-rap artists effectively reach and captivate French audiences in the digital age?

This article dives into a strategic digital marketing campaign designed to propel K-rap artists into the French music markets.

Establishing appropriate objectives

K-rap’s unique blend of catchy beats, storytelling lyrics, and energetic performances sets it apart from the rest of the rap scene. Thus, we need to set clear objectives to achieve satisfactory results. Here, our objectives act as our roadmap, helping us to allocate resources efficiently and make strategic decisions throughout the campaign. Moreover, objectives provide benchmarks to measure the progress and assess the effectiveness of the strategies with metrics aligned with the defined objectives.The “Seoul to Paris” campaign will last five months and will be divided into two stages. The first stage will last one month and will be focused on brand awareness. The second stage will last four months and will be focused on conversions.

Setting the budget

The budget will be divided in this way: 40k€ for the brand awareness phase and 80k€ for the conversion phase. As for the designs, during the branding phase, we will opt for a video on the record label with a multi-artist approach. Followed by creative variations with customization by artist.

Opting for videos to create a bigger impact

We chose video as a format because it is a visually engaging option that captures attention and holds it longer than text or images alone. Our brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than text, making video inherently more engaging. Indeed, videos can evoke emotions and tell stories in a way that text or static images simply cannot. Therefore, this emotional connection can create a deeper impact on viewers and make them more likely to remember your message. Addionationally, video is mobile-friendly, which allows access to a vast audience. With the language problem that can occur with Krap, videos can easily transcend language barriers, making them ideal for reaching a diverse audience within French music markets. Videos capture attention, resonate with viewers, and drive results. We will run ad campaigns on Youtube and social media. For the conversion phase, we will create IAB banners with call to action including on the online ticketing website depending on the audience.The IAB display ads help us reach a vast audience through a network of millions of websites and apps. This allows us to reach a wider demographic and target specific niche audiences, which is what we aim for this campaign.

Finding the right audience

The next step is understanding the French audience. Targeting the right audience helps to allocate the budget and time efficiently towards those most likely to convert. Thus, by precisely targeting interested individuals, we minimize ad spend on those who are unlikely to engage with K rap artists and conversely, increasing the likelihood of taking desired actions such as buying a concert ticket, subscribing, or downloading. Moreover, it enhances the campaign performance such as generating high quality data, a high CTR and low bounce rates on the landing page. Our persona research reveals a diverse demographic receptive to K-rap: Kpop listeners, Rap music fans, Asian culture enthusiasts:

• Kpop listeners : Drawn to Korean music, trends and aesthetics.
• Rap music fans: Appreciate diverse genres and respect lyrical prowess.
• Asian culture enthusiasts: Already engaged with Korean content and eager for deeper exploration.

For the audience’s selection, we can also use data from different platforms to retarget the right people. For example, we can retarget people who listen to playlists on Spotify or Deezer. Also using data from Amazon (purchases linked with asian/Korean culture), Youtube (playlists, views), Instagram/Meta (people who followed the artists) or Fnac (purchase of K rap / K pop concerts). All this data will allow us to retarget our audiences. The fees of these data will be added to the CPM.

Targeted digital strategies

The approach that we will use includes a mix of different advertising methods based on our specific campaign objectives, target audience, and budget to fit our overall strategy.

• Social ads offer us granular targeting and allow us to reach specific demographics, interests, behaviors, and even life events of our audience. This ensures that our ads reach the right people who will be the most receptive to our campaign. The cost-effectiveness of running a social ads campaign is also an attractive aspect. It offers a range of budget options allowing us to tailor our spending to our campaign objectives. Social media platforms provide detailed analytics to track ad performance, including impressions, clicks, engagement, conversions, and more. This data allows us to optimize our campaigns for maximum impact and ROI.We will run targeted ad campaigns based on demographics and interests that match our audiences on Instagram (Kpop listeners, Rap music fans, Asian culture enthusiasts) and Tiktok (Kpop listeners, Rap music fans). Our social ads will come in various formats including videos and images to engage with our audience in different ways. Another significant point is the possibility of retargeting users who have previously interacted with our artists or content, which increases in return the likelihood of conversion. 

• Digital audio can target specific demographics and interests with precision, reaching potential customers who are already engaged in the audio experience. The variety of formats – from short ads to sponsored podcasts – offers diverse formats to cater to different campaign goals and budgets. Compared to other digital channels like paid search, digital audio advertising often offers competitive pricing and cost-effective reach. Most digital audio platforms like Spotify or Deezer offer detailed analytics, allowing you to track impressions, clicks, and conversions, measuring the effectiveness of our campaign and optimizing our budget allocation. We will run targeted ad campaigns on digital audio platforms like Spotify and Deezer (Kpop listeners, Rap music fans, Asian culture enthusiasts).

• Programmatic display precisely targets our ads based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and even past purchase history, leading to higher engagement and conversions. The vast inventory offered by programmatic gives us access to a massive network of websites and apps, expanding our reach. It also automatically adjusts the ad creatives based on performance data for better results. We can track campaign performance in real-time, gaining insights into impressions, clicks, conversions, and more. Moreover, we can easily adjust the campaign budget, targeting, and creatives based on performance data; gain valuable insights into our audience and their behavior, informing future marketing strategies. Programmatic display is a cost-effectiveness option to reach a wider audience and achieve better results at a lower cost than traditional methods. We will run display campaigns per keywords and set whitelists to ensure that our ads appear on relevant websites that are frequented by our target audiences. This will improve the viewability of our campaign, boost our CTR and enhance conversions. 

Measuring success

Measuring the success of our digital marketing campaign using metrics is crucial to optimize the performance of the latter. Depending on how the metrics perform, we will be adjusting strategies for better results. By tracking key metrics like conversions and sales, we can calculate our campaign’s return on investment (ROI) and assess its financial effectiveness. Besides, the chosen metrics allow us to track our progress towards our predefined campaign objectives, ensuring we are on track to achieve desired outcomes. Thanks to digital, we will be able to optimize the performance of the campaign throughout the two stages. We won’t have to wait until the end to analyze whether or not the campaign is successful.,This is one of the biggest advantages of running a digital campaign.The campaign’s success will be measured through a combination of quantitative and qualitative metrics : 

• Brand awareness: CPCV, VTR, visibility.
• Conversion: ROAS, CPA, CTR;

Finally, metrics enable us to conduct A/B testing of different strategies and elements, allowing for continuous improvement and optimization of our digital campaign. We will run an AB test according to our different targets with different messages as well as another one per device to understand whether people buy more on mobile or desktop. The first AB test we will run on our three targets, will allow us to understand which target category responds better to our campaign. The second one, will allow us to understand which device performs the best. Moreover, we can also run other AB tests to find out which DPS performs better and which format was the most effective.

Conclusion

By understanding the French audience, establishing objectives, and implementing targeted digital strategies, this campaign can propel K-rap artists into the French music markets. By fostering cultural exchange, celebrating authenticity, and embracing diverse sounds, K-rap can conquer the French music scene and resonate with a new generation of fans.