• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.48
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• pp.217-247
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• 2017

A brand webtoon is the webtoon to be planned for advertising. It can be appealed like a webtoon, so recently it becomes popular as one of brand storytelling contents. This study looked at the fact that the webcomic artists have released webtoons having apparent style as a series for many years in the online portal site have published multiple brand webtoons. And it analyzed the expression, narrative structure, and character being shared between their webtoon and brand webtoons. Through this analysis, we can look a spin-off phenomenon between their webtoon and brand webtoons. The spin-off phenomenon means a making the other stories basis on character or situation of drama, movie, novel and etc that have already published, like a supplementary story. And we can recognize a spin-off phenomenon in these cases that have the same story style what make an emotion like the genre, concept, world concept, expression style, narrative structure or use the same characters. For this study, It analyzed Kwak baek soo's and 5 brand webtoons including on Naver, Kim yang soo's and 3 brand webtoons on Naver, Kim Jin's and 2 brand webtoons on Naver, and Petermon's and 1 brand webtoon on Daum. And It analyzed how the readers have accepted it through making a comparison between number of recommendations and reply of brand webtoon and the original webtoon in the same esason. This research will be helpful for study about brand webtoon storytelling and also webtoon storytelling through analyzing how the expression and narrative structure of webtoon are adapted to brand webtoon and get likability.

• (The) Korean Journal of Advertising
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.51-80
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• 2018

This study aims to investigate how the storytelling elements of brand webtoon has influence on developing brand webtoon users' parasocial interaction relationship and their attitude towards brand webtoon contents and word of mouth intention. The results of this study shows that parasocial interaction is strongly influenced by the sub-dimensions of digital storytelling components of brand webtoon (i.e., relevance, trustworthiness, clarity). More specifically, respondents who perceive that the given message of digital storytelling in brand webtoons is relevant to the brand, is trustworthy, and is clear to understand show a higher degree of parasocial interaction with the webtoon content and in turn, it has a strong positive influence on the attitude towards the brand webtoon. In sum, this study not only provides a theoretical foundation to understand how consumers develop parasocial interaction with brand webtoons in terms of the brand webtoon's digital storytelling, but this study has implications for practitioners who are interested in using a brand webtoon for marketing.

• Journal of Korean Society of Archives and Records Management
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.245-273
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• 2017

To complement the limitations of the public relations method performed currently in archives and serve various users, a new approach to public relations are needed. Recently, as the size of the webtoon market has expanded, public relations using webtoons continues to heighten in enterprises and public institutions. Therefore, this study proposed a method for public relations using brand webtoon as a means of promoting the archives. This study was focused on the National Archives of Korea. Thus, based on the analysis of roles, service, contents, and users of the National Archives of Korea, this study suggested production plans to increase the promotional effect in brand webtoons and strategies such as viral marketing, the brand story strategy, and the one-source, multi-use (OSMU) strategy.

• (The) Korean Journal of Advertising
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.111-132
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• 2017

This study investigates how consumers' need for uniqueness and for self-expression have influence on their attitude towards brand webtoon contents and word of mouth intention. The results of this study shows that among the sub-dimensions of brand webtoon users' need for uniqueness, unpopular choices has a significantly positive influence on their need for self-expression, and in turn it has a strong positive impact on both attitude towards the webtoon content and intention of word of mouth. In particular, the data show that respondents' perceived perception of the persuasive intent of the brand webtoon moderates the effect of need for self-expression on the attitude towards the content. More specifically, respondents who perceive the persuasive intent in brand webtoon show a lesser degree of favourable attitude towards the content than do respondents who do report a low level of perception of persuasive intent of the brand webtoon. In sum, this study not only provides a theoretical foundation to understand how consumers perceive brand webtoons in terms of their need for uniqueness and for self-expression, but the study has implications for practitioners who are interested in using a brand webtoon for marketing.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.37-46
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• 2018

This study investigated the differences of message effect by product types and placement types of webtoon PPL(Product Placement). The study have tried to find effective webtoon PPL type and product type to minimized consumers' advertising avoidance. For analysis, two-way between subject design was produced by product types(utilitarian and hedonic product) and webtoon PPL placdement types(image, insert, and combination type). In results, there was a difference by PPL placement types for brand attitude. In special, the insert type had highly positive brad attitude. For webtoon contents, highly positive attitude was discovered in the cases of the hedonic product and the insert type of webtoon PPL.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.19
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• pp.145-159
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• 2010

Similar to the other cultural contents, the character industry is based on the media which acts as the technological background. In fact, the character industry is the process of that a created character accesses to the consumers via media, builds its value and becomes licensed as a brand in the market. Therefore, it is crucial to select the most effective media for the consistence of a character in the market, as well as for construction of a higher brand quality of the character. Today, "Webtoon" might be considered as one of the marketing means which utilizes the Internet media for raising the character as a brand. Webtoon has apparent strength because it can be produced in shorter period and with less expense than through other media. Furthermore, Webtoon can be simply featured by the easiness of two-way communication and transference to another media through it. For these reasons, and according to the result of analyzing some Korean Webtoons, it seems obvious that the most effective media in character marketing is the Internet. In addition to the Internet, the strategic development in the media-mix is also important for establishing a brand of a character. However, the effective media-mix is available only when the character's external identity meets with the trait of its media. For the purpose of learning how the media-mix works when a character reaches for the consumers, a character "Hamataeng" was born and used in the experiment. This study will explain the marketing process through the use of own-created Webtoon and other contents, and suggest the ways to build a brand of a character. In addition, it is also indicated that a media-mixing strategy for transformation and expansion of the character to other media.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.293-301
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• 2017

This study collects 112 webtoon advertisements by Google extended search to reveal the narratives of webtoon in persuasive communication context. The results of content analysis are as follows. First, product categories are found relatively more in number such as content and game, cosmetics, public service announcement than other products. Second, the number of webtoon advertisements has increased these seven years; rather drastic increase is found in 2013. Third, as for the origin, brand webtoon is the largest number of all types. Fourth, there is a significant difference between public interest products and commercial products in absurdity advertising number. Commercial products use a variety of genres such as romance, drama, everyday life, including absurdity, while public interest products focus mainly on everyday life.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.186-198
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• 2020

The current study examines how product type and attitudes toward the webtoon - a digital comic that originated in Korea - affect consumer responses to webtoon product placement (PPL). Specifically, it examines the following responses: the perception of PPL intrusiveness, attitudes toward the PPL, attitudes toward the brand, word-of-mouth intention, and purchase intention. It further investigates how PPL type interacts with product type and attitudes toward the webtoon on consumer responses to the PPL. The findings from a 2 (product type: functional vs. hedonic) × 2 (attitudes toward the webtoon: negative vs. positive) × 2 (PPL type: creative placement vs. on-set placement) between-subject experimental study suggest the following: consumer responses to PPL in webtoon is more positive when the product is hedonic (vs. functional) and when attitudes toward the webtoon are positive (vs. negative). This study further suggests when subjects felt favorably toward the webtoon, the creative placement produced weaker perceptions of PPL intrusiveness and more favorable attitudes toward the PPL than the on-set placement. On the other hand, when subjects felt negatively toward the webtoon, the on-set placement evoked weaker perceptions of intrusiveness and more favorable attitudes toward the PPL than did the creative placement.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.38
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• pp.177-194
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• 2015

This study that had been conducted two months by a research team of Pusan National University at the request of Korea Manwha Contents Agency in Dec. 2013 is about the statistical analysis on 'Korean Webtoon DB and its Flow Report' which resulted from the complete survey of Korean webtoons which had been published with payment in official media from early 2000 to 2013. Webtoon which means the cartoons published on web has become a typical type of Korean cartoons and has developed into a main industry since 2000s when traditional published cartoons had declined and social environments had changed. Today, it represents cultural contents in Korea. This study collected the webtoons officially published in media with payment, among Korean webtoons having been published from the early 2000s to Jan. Based on the collected data, it analyzed the general characteristics of webtoons, including cartoonists, the number of cartoons, distribution chart of each media, genre, and publication cycle. According to the data analysis and statistics, a great deal of Korean webtoons are still published in main portal websites, but their platform is being diversified and a webtoon's publication cycle tends to be shortened. In terms of genre, traditional popular genres, such as drama, comic, fantasy, and action, are still popular, and the genres of history, sports, and food are on the rise along with a social trend. Regarding webtoon application, such events as relay webtoon and brand webtoon, and a new type of webtoon featuring PPL commercialism appear. Such phenomena can realize the common profits of cartoonists, media, and ordering bodies, and are various trials to test the possibility of webtoons. In addition, what needs to pay attention on in the expansion of webtoons is increasing webtoons for adults. The study subjects are the webtoons published with payment, excluding free webtoons. However, this study failed to collect the webtoons published on the online websites already closed, and the lost information on cartoonists and their lost webtoons, and it is necessary to conduct a complete survey on all webtoons including free ones. Despite the limitations, this study is meaningful in the points that it categorized and analyzed Korean webtoons accoridng to official media, webtoons, cartoonists, and genres and that it provided a fundamental material to understand the current conditions of webtoons. It is expected that this study will be able to contribute to activating more research on webtoons and producing more supplementary data which will be used for the Korean cartoon industry and academia.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.351-361
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• 2019

The objective of this article is to identify an alternative strategy for brand marketing through a case study of the Korean boy band BTS, which has recently seen a huge success in the global music scene. BTS has actively used transmedia storytelling as a tool to survive in the competitive music market. Transmedia storytelling refers to stories that are expanded across different media platforms, engaging audiences to explore from one medium to another to undergo multiple experiences. It gives audiences various ways of enjoying cultural content and participating in cultural content production through numerous media outlets. BTS has established and spread its fictional universe through albums, music videos, short films and webtoons, and has launched diverse projects where fans actively share, create, and play with their content. By inviting fans to actively participate in and interact with the BTS universe spreading through multiple media platforms, BTS can keep its fans engaged and energized. These activities have generated an emotional bond between BTS and their fans, which further leads to a worldwide fandom, based not on a producer-customer relationship but on mutual trust. The BTS case demonstrates the potential of transmedia storytelling as a useful benchmark to provide a positive brand experience for customers, which eventually enhances brand attachment and brand loyalty.