[2021 National Audit] "Korea Tourism Organization, Excessive Budget Allocation for 'Feel the Rhythm of Korea' Advertisement"

A scene from 2021's 'Feel the Rhythm of Korea'.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] It has been revealed that excessive advertising expenses were spent on the Korea Tourism Organization's hit project 'Feel the rhythm of Korea.'

On the 19th, Jeong Cheong-rae, a member of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, announced that after receiving the production and promotion costs of 'Feel the rhythm of Korea' from the Korea Tourism Organization, the organization produced 14 videos over two years with a total production cost of 2.264 billion KRW and spent 10.14 billion KRW on advertising to promote these videos on platforms such as YouTube.

'Feel the rhythm of Korea' is a video series that gained significant attention by featuring comedic dances set to lively traditional Korean music rhythms against the backdrop of Korea's tourist attractions.

In particular, last year's Seoul episode featuring the song 'Beom Naeryeonda' performed by the band 'Innalchi Band' earned the nickname 'Idols of Joseon' and received widespread public affection. Various parody videos also garnered great responses. The total views of '2020 Feel the rhythm of Korea' reached 288 million, with 262 million views from overseas and 26.69 million views domestically.

Assemblyman Jeong pointed out, "The Korea Tourism Organization self-assessed that the overseas views, which are about ten times the domestic views, indicate great popularity abroad and helped promote Korea," but he criticized, "However, it is impossible to verify whether these views represent actual YouTube users watching the videos or just the advertisements." He highlighted a problem with YouTube where ads shown before the selected video count as views even if users skip them after a certain time.

The Korea Tourism Organization also produced Season 2 this year. As of the 10th of last month, overseas views recorded 399,000. However, by the 11th, just one month after spending 5.76 billion KRW on advertising, the views surged to 20.8 million, an increase of more than 50 times. Assemblyman Jeong criticized, "They inflated the performance by spending excessive advertising costs and increasing views through ads."

Jeong stated, "Feel the rhythm of Korea by the Tourism Organization is undoubtedly good content loved by many for showing new perspectives of tourist spots in various Korean cities," but he criticized, "However, the advertising expenses spent over two years amounting to about 10 billion KRW, nearly five times the production cost, is like the tail wagging the dog." He added, "It is practically impossible to distinguish whether the Feel the rhythm of Korea content syndrome is due to promotional effects or advertising effects," and emphasized, "We should not exaggerate advertising effects as promotional effects through indiscriminate advertising spending but focus on planning and developing content that newly introduces Korea."