Vita500 the vitamin drink that carries the Soshi Effect

The ‘Soshi Effect‘ is indeed spreading far and wide, beyond Korea and this can be witnessed through SNSD’s endorsement for Kwangdong Pharmaceuticals’ vitamin drink, Vita500.

According to Kwangdong Pharmaceuticals on March 2nd, last week a businessman in his 40s asked for a ‘Taeyeon Vita500′ and SNSD’s Vita500 advertisement poster for his son who is an avid fan of Taeyeon. Indeed, SNSD’s popularity is huge on international stage as well.

However, the key factor to Kwangdong Pharmaceutical’s marketing strategy’s success is not solely due to the fact that SNSD were featured as their TV advertisement models but also the packaging of Vita500. The photo of each member is printed on the label of the bottles, presenting 9 different descriptions of the 10th Anniversary Special Edition Vita500. They are called ‘Taeyeon Vita500′, Seohyun Vita500′, ‘YoonA Vita500′, ‘Sunny Vita500′ and so on.

According to a staff of Kwangdong Pharmaceuticals, “On the Internet, comments such as ‘I will collect the labels of all the members’ and many more. Through the company’s Twitter account, we received a lot of inquiries and feedback pertaining to SNSD’s Vita500 endorsement”.

SNSD’s International fansite, Soshified commented on their Twitter account, “The new Vita500 images with Girls’ Generation is great!”.

Meanwhile, Vita500 is Kwangdong Pharmaceutical’s main product where it contributes more than 30% of the total sales. Last year, Vita500 recorded sales of 83.5 billion Won.

9th Korean Music Festival: First batch of artists announced!

The KoreaTimes Korean Music Festival is no doubt one of the most highly-anticipated events for kpop music fans in North America – after bringing huge artists like TVXQ, the Wonder Girls, Big Bang,SNSD, Super Junior, 2PM, KARA, BEAST, SHINee and more in past years, the concert is back for its ninth year on April 30, 2011.

After much anticipation, the first batch of artists for the concert has been revealed:

Sul Woon Do

DJ D.O.C.

SISTAR.

The Korean Music Festival, which takes place in Los Angeles every late spring at Hollywood Bowl, tends to draw a crowd from across the continent with a few fans even traveling overseas to see their favorite kpop artists live.

It hasn’t been confirmed when the second batch of artists will be announced, so until then, reminisce and take a peek at allkpop’s extensive coverage of last year’s Korean Music Festival through our event recap, high-definition photo sets, videos and more. And of course, expect to see me & other allkpop staff at the concert again this year – we’ll have more surprises planned for both concert attendees and allkpop readers around the world!

For more information:
Official Website
Facebook page

Will the YongSeo couple have a kiss scene in their ‘Wedding Story’?

Last week, the YongSeo couple revealed a photo from their wedding photoshoot, capturing the avid attention of many fans. During this week’s broadcast, the story of their wedding shoot will be revealed through the reflection of their memories.

Seohyun will appear in her bridal gown, and Yonghwa will wear his groom tuxedo, and together they will tell a story using various props like a guitar, a ring, and books.

Meanwhile, Kim Na Young and Im Seulong visited the set and expressed interest for the YongSeo couple to do a kiss scene, causing the pair to become embarrassed. Looking back on ‘We Got Married‘, a lot of former couples did have kiss scenes during their wedding photoshoots.

Will the YongSeo couple follow the trend and have a kiss scene? Find out on March 5th!

SNSD to cheer for Oryx Buffaloes in Osaka on Korean Day

SNSD will be meeting Park Chan Ho and Lee Seungyeob soon.

SNSD who are not only popular in Korea but also in Japan will be traveling to Osaka to cheer for Japanese Baseball team, Oryx Buffaloes and also top Korean players, Park Chan Ho and Lee Seung Yeob at the ‘Korean Day’ event match.

To add more excitement to the game, Oryx decided to invite SNSD. A representative of Oryx said, “We have contacted the relevant department in charged of SNSD on this matter. Since SNSD will be visiting the stadium onSaturday, April 23rd, a huge turnout can be expected”. In the event, SNSD will be singing the national anthem as well as throwing and hitting the first ball of the game.

SNSD and Kara are both popular among Oryx Buffaloes players, especially among the younger players.

Actor Lee Bum Soo is touched by SNSD Jessica’s handshake request

Shots of actor Lee Bum Soo looking visibly touched by Jessica’s request for a handshake were caught on camera while on stage at the ‘2nd Seoul Cultural Arts Awards’ on February 28th.

Lee Bum Soo and SNSD were on stage together for a commemorative photo celebrating their Daesang awards. Because a variety of celebrities from different fields were gathered all on one stage, an awkward energy was briefly felt by everyone there. Yet it dissipated when Jessica greeted Lee Bum Soo and extended her hand for a handshake, surprising the actor with her gesture.

He shook her hand and then moved on to shaking Sooyoung’s, as well as greeting the other SNSDmembers. The heartwarming moment was quickly caught on camera by all the reporters there.

Actor Lee Soon Jae, however, briefly greeted the girls before turning to leave, demonstrating that the generation gap was a little too wide between them for familiarity.

SNSD's Jessica and Lee Bum Soo greet each other.

Lee Bum Soo looks surprised and touched by Jessica's handshake request. Jung Sung Hwa looks on with jealousy...

Shaking hands.

"Nice to meet you too, Sooyoung."

"Hello, everyone~"

On the other hand, Lee Soon Jae...

SNSD Yoona’s Bubbly Personality impresses Staff !

SNSD’s Yoona was recently in a shooting session for a new water purifier CF, in which she showed her pure charms.

On the 2nd of March, the internet’s celebrity news pages were filled with news of“SoShi Yoona in Woongjin CoWay CF”, showing a picture of Yoona smiling brightly. Yoona is shown wearing only a t-shirt with her hair loosely tied into a ponytail, showing a clean, girl-like image. The staff recording the CF are shown wearing impressed expressions at her bubbly personality, despite the cold [wearing a t-shirt in the winter].

Fans commented with, “Yoona unnie works so hard!”, “It must be so cold wearing a t-shirt, but she’s trying so hard to do her best. Fighting!” and more, all of them praising her on her determination to do her best in the CF shoot.

Yoona and SNSD were signed as CF models for Woongjin CoWay, and in mid-March the CF will begin broadcasting on TV officially.

"Girls' Generation Face" Vita500 set to Explode in Popularity

"Could I just purchase 200 bottles of Vita500 with Taeyeon's face only?" According to Kwangdong Pharmaceutical, a Taiwanese businessman in his 40s walked into the head office last weekend asking this question. The man who happened to be on business trip to Korea had been "under special orders" from his son, a fan especially of SNSD Taeyeon, to bring back "Taeyeon Vita500" and Vita500 promotional posters featuring SNSD.

Recently , Kwangdong Pharmaceutical (henceforth Kwangdong) put forward the big star girl group SNSD as their new endorsement models for Vita500 and have been reaping the rewards of the "Soshi Effect". The biggest selling point in Kwangdong's marketing strategy is not just the television advertisements but also the product packaging itself. With each of the nine members' photographs printed on the packaging, bottles have since been nicknamed "Taeyeon Vita500", "Yoona Vita500", "Seohyun Vita500", creating nine different Vita500 products.

The new packaging went into production in the middle of last week and are mostly awaiting distribution in warehouses, with extremely limited numbers currently on sale. However, a lucky few have already posted pictures of Vita500 on twitter and blogs, creating an incredible buzz even before the full launch of the product (expected end of this month).

A source at Kwangdong reported that some people online were hoping to collect all nine labels, while the corporate twitter account (@kwangdongpharm) was "being overloaded with dozens of questions & comments about SNSD Vita500 being sent daily"

There has been a huge response from America. The 120,000-member* American fanclub for SNSD, Soshified, announced through their official twitter that "The new Vita500 images with Girls' Generation is great!". They continued "Are the labels with the girls going to be used outside of Korea as well?" asking if it would be possible to purchase the products in America. Unfortunately for them, the endorsement contract that Kwangdong held was only applicable within Korea.

The mastermind of Kwang Dong's SNSD-package marketing idea was their chairman, Choi Soobu. A representative at Kwangdong stated that "[Chairman Choi] ordered that we shouldn't just stop at television advertisements, but use SNSD's image more aggressively through packaging". Vita500 currently makes up 30% of Kwangdong's sales. Last year, it recorded a revenue of 83.5bn KRW (US$74.1m)

*Note: This number is out-dated; Soshified currently has over 150,000 members
Strictly speaking, we are "international", and not exclusively "American"