Character Resembling Vice Chairman Jeong Yong-jin
First Appearance at SSG Landers Home Opening Game
Bakery Opened Featuring Its Birth Story
Diverse Collaborations in Fashion, Cars, and Games
'IP King' Theme Park Also Progressing Smoothly
Customers visiting the bakery 'Universe by J.Lilla' located on the 1st floor of SSG Food Market in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, are exploring the store.
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] Shinsegae Group is officially launching its intellectual property (IP) business. They have turned Vice Chairman Jeong Yong-jin, who has a strong fandom, into an IP and are commercializing it.
‘Jayrilla’ Expands Beyond Bakery into Character Commercialization
The first business is a bakery using the character ‘Jayrilla,’ who resembles Vice Chairman Jeong. Shinsegae Food opened ‘Universe by Jayrilla’ on the first floor of the SSG Food Market in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Jayrilla has a backstory of being a gorilla born on Mars who came to Earth and a worldview that he likes unique experiences.
The store’s interior concept is a spaceship. Jayrilla in a spacesuit is positioned at the front. Through collaboration with LG Electronics, the ‘OLED Wall’ shows a video of Jayrilla playing on Mars, eating bread, and then coming to Earth. Next to the ‘OLED Wall’ is an installation by artist Ivan Navarro called the ‘Infinity Mirror Object.’ The mirror creates an infinite expansion effect, emphasizing that the store is a space that crosses between the real world and the universe. On one wall, various goods such as the spacesuit and helmet Jayrilla wore when coming to Earth are displayed.
The 60 or so types of bread that Jayrilla made on Mars using cosmic recipes are made with premium ingredients. A notice in the store states, "All products use ‘Alpensalz’ Krista salt, which is pure 99.9% rock salt collected from the clean Alpine region of Berchtesgaden on planet Earth."
Jayrilla first appeared at the home opening game of Shinsegae Group’s baseball team, Incheon SSG Landers, in April and began full-scale activities. In just over three months, the official Instagram account surpassed 10,000 followers. Shinsegae Food, which owns the Jayrilla trademark, has received collaboration and sponsorship inquiries from global famous brands. In August, luxury brand Gucci sponsored a pair of sneakers priced at 1.39 million KRW, and Jayrilla also appeared as a photo model for the eco-friendly brand ‘Love by Curtsy Coolic’ from the fashion brand ‘Tomboy.’ Jayrilla was also selected as a model for a collaboration collection with fashion brand ‘Coach’ and ‘BAPE,’ famous for its primate logo, alongside well-known Korean celebrities such as Rain and Loco.
The second business following the bakery is expected to be fashion. A Shinsegae Food official explained, "Jayrilla will expand its scope of use through collaborations in various business areas that break boundaries, including fashion, automobiles, and games, beyond food."
Growing Characters Resembling Jeong Yong-jin
Shinsegae Group is cultivating various characters besides Jayrilla. Most of these characters are related to Vice Chairman Jeong. Shinsegae Group has consecutively filed trademark applications for Electros, Yongjineous, and the team mascot ‘Randy.’ Yongjineous can be interpreted as a compound word of ‘Yongjin’ and ‘genius.’ Electros evokes the home appliance specialty store brand ‘Emart Electromart.’ Recently, Vice Chairman Jeong’s social media features the word ‘Siseon Gyoran’ (meaning ‘distraction’) along with frequent appearances of golf wear. Vice Chairman Jeong’s Instagram has 708,000 followers.
Shinsegae Group’s moves are expected to lead to a ‘theme park’ business. At a proclamation ceremony held last year at the Mars theme park site, Vice Chairman Jeong emphasized, "We will introduce the world’s best IP consulting to create a theme park that has never existed before."
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