Gyeongbuk Yeongyang-gun Climbs 154 Steps in Brand Reputation
SNS Conversation Volume Boosts 'Community Index'
Awareness Rises After Pisik University Regional Controversy
Awareness of Yeongyang-gun, Gyeongbuk, which was among the lowest nationwide, has significantly increased in just one year. According to Yeongyang-gun on the 8th, the brand reputation of Yeongyang-gun, which ranked 224th out of 226 local governments nationwide last year in the "Korea Basic Local Government Brand Reputation" survey conducted by the Korea Corporate Reputation Research Institute, rose 154 places to 70th in July this year.
Cast members Kim Min-su, Jung Jae-hyung, and Lee Yong-joo (from left) of the YouTube channel 'Psick Univ' [Image source: YouTube channel capture]
The "Basic Local Government Brand Reputation" ranks local governments by analyzing consumers' activity big data through four indicators: participation index, media index, communication index, and community index. In this evaluation, Yeongyang-gun's community index increased about sevenfold compared to before, indicating a significant rise in consumer participation, communication volume, and conversations on social networking services (SNS).
Regarding this, Yeongyang-gun self-assessed that actively utilizing its YouTube channel since the end of March was effective. The number of subscribers to Yeongyang-gun's official YouTube channel, "Yeongyang HB," increased from around 200 last year to 7,300 recently. After the controversy over Yeongyang-gun disparagement by the YouTube channel "Psick Univ," the number of subscribers to Yeongyang-gun's official YouTube channel actually increased. Various parody contents and self-produced videos have been uploaded there.
Earlier in May, Psick Univ visited Yeongyang-gun as part of its own content series "Made in Gyeongsang-do," but caused controversy due to disparaging remarks about the region. The cast visited a local hamburger shop and said, "Young people want to eat hamburgers, but there is nothing to eat, so they eat this instead," which sparked public outrage. They also described jelly containing red ginseng as "like chewing grandmother's flesh," causing further controversy. Viewers expressed discomfort with their words and actions in the video, and as the controversy grew, Psick Univ, which had remained silent, posted a lengthy apology on the 18th and deleted the problematic video.
At that time, Psick Univ apologized, saying, "Although there are many local attractions, we emphasized the concept of a quiet area during filming and used excessive expressions to bring entertainment to the content. We used careless expressions lacking consideration for residents and small business owners, delivering it in a way that was difficult to accept as comedy." After about two months of reflection, Psick Univ returned by uploading content on the 9th of last month.
Additionally, last month, when Yeongyang-gun suffered damage from heavy rains, Psick Univ reportedly donated goods worth about 50 million won. Psick Univ stated, "We wanted to offer some support to the citizens of Yeongyang who must have been discouraged by the sudden heavy rain, so we expressed our intentions through this donation."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
