"Lotte Duty Free Sees 900,000 New Members Increase with 'Here to See BTS'"

40th Anniversary Online Family Concert Effect
Recorded 550,000 Concurrent Viewers

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Lotte Duty Free announced on the 28th that it successfully concluded the 30th Lotte Duty Free Online Family Concert in celebration of its 40th anniversary.

The concert held on the 27th was conducted for about 90 minutes from 5 p.m. under the theme "Hi World! Duty-Free Life Again," expressing hopes to overcome the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). BTS, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, Hwang Chi-yeul, GFRIEND, and Lee Hyun performed, with a peak concurrent viewership of 550,000 and a total of 2.2 million views recorded.

Since its inception in 2006, the Lotte Duty Free Family Concert has established itself as a representative Hallyu cultural content. Until last year, it was held offline, but this time, for the first time, the format changed to pre-recorded and untact (contactless). The stage utilized four large LED screens and was equipped with 12 cameras. The concert was translated into six languages including Korean, English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Vietnamese, making it a festival that people worldwide could enjoy together.

As a result of the Family Concert, the number of Lotte Duty Free members surged. During the application period from August 31 to September 25, about one month, the average daily new sign-ups on Lotte Internet Duty Free reached approximately 35,000, attracting a total of 900,000 new customers. This represents an increase of over 590% compared to the same period last year. Among the new members, 44% were from Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, making up the largest portion, while other nationalities including those from the Americas and Europe, which previously had a smaller share, accounted for 38%. Domestic members made up 12%. By age group, teenagers and people in their twenties, who are highly interested in Hallyu culture and duty-free shopping, accounted for 37% and 43%, respectively. Among domestic customers, a retention effect was also observed, with 20,000 members reactivated from dormant status to active members through the Family Concert.

Meanwhile, Lotte Duty Free also unveiled a new campaign video and making film featuring its model BTS through the Family Concert. The campaign titled "We Want a Duty-Free Life" creatively expressed the everyday concerns of the millennial generation and their unique ways of resolving them through duty-free shopping. Individual videos of BTS members will be released next month on Lotte Duty Free’s official YouTube channel, LDF TV.

Lee Gap, CEO of Lotte Duty Free, said, "I hope this Family Concert has contributed, even in a small way, to overcoming COVID-19 worldwide," adding, "Going forward, Lotte Duty Free will continue to provide differentiated services to customers through cultural marketing and actively attract foreign tourists, striving for the development of Korea’s distribution and tourism industry."