Life's 'Great Comeback' in Short Form... From Backstage Dancer to Main Character [Content Commerce]

Interview with dancer-turned-creator Miu
Consistent video uploads... Surpasses 1.7 million subscribers
Expanding brand collaborations through 'YouTube Shopping'

"When working as a dancer, I realized that the waiting time between shoots is much longer than the actual filming time. Not wanting to waste that free time, I started creating dance short-form content, which received a great response. As I gained many fans, I began my life as a creator."

Creator 'Miu' (real name Jeong Sumin) started with dance and now covers various content including fitness, vlogs, and entertainment. Her profession was a dancer, but five years ago, the short-form content she first encountered completely changed her life. Currently, the total number of subscribers across Jeong’s YouTube channel and social media platforms exceeds 1.7 million, reflecting her popularity.

Miu Jeong Su-min conducting an interview.
[Photo by Cafe24]

Since starting her activities as a creator, Jeong has become the 'main character.' She said, "Dancers usually play a role behind singers, so it’s common not to focus on the camera. But as a creator, I get to be the main character and show everything I want to the camera, which is very satisfying." She added, "At first, fellow dancers found creator activities unfamiliar, but recently many have jumped in, even asking me for know-how and tips."

The secret to her rapid subscriber growth is consistency and communication. She personally films, edits, and uploads at least one video daily while consistently interacting with her subscribers. Additionally, incorporating subtle differentiators such as unique shooting angles helped boost her popularity. Content featuring fellow dancers dancing together, filmed from a distinctive angle showing only their backs, attracted attention and achieved 14.52 million views on YouTube alone.

As the videos received positive responses, opportunities to naturally expand her business arose. Jeong said, "As the videos gained popularity, unexpectedly, the CEO of the company that made the boots I was wearing contacted me to thank me. I was just wearing the shoes because I liked them, but I thought that combining content with the brand could help the company’s operations, so I took the first step into brand collaborations."

Since then, she has expanded into the commerce market through partnerships with various brands. Among these, the most effective is the integration service with YouTube Shopping. Using the Cafe24 platform, products from partnered brands are directly exposed in the content. Viewers who click can immediately move to the purchase page. Thanks to this service, her agency 'Soon ENT' achieved the highest sales among brand collaboration cases.

One key to the success of collaboration content is 'authenticity.' Jeong only proceeds with partnerships when she has personally used the product and is confident in recommending it to viewers. Planning entertaining content first and then naturally exposing the product also received a good response.

Jeong emphasized, "Even creators who make content themselves tend to avoid content that is purely for advertising. Even if the content is ad-based, it must be enjoyable and relatable to anyone watching." She explained, "Content where I personally measure my body composition and exercise while encouraging viewers to work out together, or fun content showing me hanging out with friends, received good reactions when products were exposed."

One of the successful contents was a collaboration video with diet products like chicken breast. The video featured workouts at the gym with the product naturally integrated, and despite collaboration content generally receiving fewer views, it recorded 290,000 views. Jeong said, "Since I often film wearing workout clothes like leggings, weight management is essential. At that time, I needed to diet, so I chose chicken breast items. The main audience is people in their 20s and 30s, and since it was summer, it caught the attention of those interested in dieting, resulting in good performance."

She plans to continue showing her natural self as a creator. She said, "At first, I thought I had to show only pretty and cool sides in my content, but everyone has different charms. Reading comments where viewers said they overcame their sadness by watching me dance excitedly gave me a great impression. I will continue to do my best to establish myself as a creator who can have a positive impact on everyone."