Popup with 50,000 Pre-registrations... The Top Contributor to Success is 'This Company' [Content Commerce]

Pepper & Salt, a Content Commerce Specialist
Supporting Creator MD Product Planning, Production, and Sales
Utilization of YouTube-Linked Shopping Service

In June, a pop-up store held at The Hyundai Seoul in Yeouido attracted a massive crowd. Only those with prior reservations, totaling 50,000 people, were admitted, and the merchandising (MD) products quickly sold out. The star of the pop-up store was the game creator 'Jamddul TV,' who has 2.25 million subscribers. The pop-up store, held to celebrate the channel's 10th anniversary, concluded successfully, and later, an online pop-up was held using the 'YouTube Shopping' service to showcase products to even more fans.

Behind this success was the content commerce specialist company 'Pepper & Salt.' This company assists throughout the entire process from planning to production and sales of MD products by leveraging the unique characteristics of the intellectual property (IP) owned by creators. For Jamddul TV's 10th anniversary pop-up, designers and planners from Jamddul TV and Pepper & Salt collaborated for six months from the initial planning stage to develop and present 68 products, including cushions, pouches, keychains, towels, and candies.

Yoon Su-rim, Head of MD Team at Pepper & Salt. [Photo by Cafe24]

Pepper & Salt was founded in 2022 by CEO Jiho Choi and executives who previously handled brand buying and platform planning at Hyundai Department Store and saw potential in the popularity of K-content. Initially, the company mainly dealt with webtoon IPs but later expanded its business into the creator market. The company name, Pepper & Salt, means 'salt and pepper' in Korean, symbolizing their goal to enhance creators like seasonings that make dishes delicious, even if they are not the main ingredients.

CEO Choi said, "The creator market has been steadily growing at an annual rate of over 20%, and institutions like Goldman Sachs also analyze that this growth trend will continue. Currently, 80% of our sales come from the creator sector, and this year, we expect sales to increase sixfold from the previous year, reaching 10 billion KRW."

Pepper & Salt's strategy is to actively utilize creators' IP in product manufacturing. Yoon Surim, head of the MD team at Pepper & Salt, said, "Instead of simply changing the artwork on products that can be found anywhere, reflecting the creator’s established worldview and content details in the product specifics strengthens the creator’s IP and differentiates the products from others. Especially, by collaborating with well-known companies handling each product category, we create products that harmonize with the creator’s IP and have intrinsic value on their own."

Pepper & Salt actively uses the YouTube Shopping service provided by Cafe24 to increase purchase conversion rates. Yoon explained, "YouTube is the most important channel for creators, and it is highly effective because it allows viewers to smoothly encounter and order products they like through the content. The easy user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design also make it simple to build shopping malls, integrate payment systems, and handle actual sales."

Creators who have collaborated and experienced Pepper & Salt’s technology and know-how also express high satisfaction. 'Draw Andrew,' a self-development creator with 700,000 subscribers, released a 2024 self-development kit in cooperation with Pepper & Salt last January and received a positive response. They have continued collaborating since early this year to develop the 2025 kit with Pepper & Salt.

As a company engaged in content-based MD business, Pepper & Salt aspires to contribute to the growth of K-content. CEO Choi said, "Only when creators’ sales and satisfaction increase will demand for our services grow. Our goal is to contribute to the development of K-content and grow based on that. In the future, we also want to play a role in promoting K-content and MD products based on it overseas."