"The Lee Hyori Effect is Amazing"…Even Large Corporations That Said "No Celebrities" Are Captivated

Proving Power Even After More Than 10 Years

"Actually, the sales Lee Hyori made this year are probably similar to what we've made in the past 20 years."

This was a playful remark from singer Jung Jae-hyung, who is in the same agency as Lee Hyori, regarding her resumption of commercial advertising after 11 years. Although there might be some exaggeration, it is not an unfounded statement.

Photo by Lotte ON

Companies eagerly sent love calls to her, and those chosen by Lee Hyori without fail saw an increase in sales.

The first company Lee Hyori selected was Lotte ON. Just by Lee Hyori mentioning the name Lotte ON, the video surpassed 2.5 million views within 10 days of its release. The sales figures are even more astonishing. Both app visitors and buyers surged, resulting in sales increasing by more than 40% compared to the same period last year. Some brands even experienced a sixfold vertical rise compared to the same month last year.

Photo by Pulmuone

Pulmuone partnered with singer Lee Hyori and launched an advertisement featuring a celebrity for the first time since its founding in 1984. They judged that Lee Hyori’s influence was necessary to widely promote their sustainable food brand, ‘Jigu Sikdan’ (Earth Diet).

Regarding the first use of a celebrity advertising model, Pulmuone explained, "We usually did not employ a specific model because we valued our image as a ‘company for proper food.’ However, since Jigu Sikdan, launched under the slogan ‘For me, for the Earth,’ pursues a sustainable lifestyle, it aligns well with Lee Hyori’s values and image, so we believed it would maximize synergy."

Photo by Reebok

This winter, the padding jacket Lee Hyori chose for Reebok also confirmed her power. The ‘Pump Padding’ worn by Lee Hyori in the advertisement sold nearly as many units in three weeks after its release as the main product (Club C short padding) did over three months starting last October.

An LF official explained, "With the onset of the cold weather in November, cumulative weekly sales doubled each week last month," adding, "On the first morning of the Pump Padding release, 13,000 simultaneous users accessed the site, causing about 800 people to wait in a queue."

Lee Hyori recently attracted attention by stating on the music program 'The Seasons - AKMU’s Onal Mo Bam' that she had received "about 100 offers" for advertisements.

Previously, Lee Hyori officially declared in 2012 that she would refrain from commercial advertising. It is known that she rejected various commercial advertisement and PPL (product placement) offers worth up to 3 billion won after the JTBC show 'Hyori’s Homestay' aired from 2017 to 2018.