Public Officials Visit Local Stores to Promote Commercial Districts
Over 122,553 Views Across 13 Videos
The tourism information YouTube channel "Visit Gangnam," operated by Seoul's Gangnam-gu (District Mayor Cho Sungmyung), will receive the Grand Prize in the Public Service category at the "Social i-Awards 2025," hosted by the Korea Internet Professionals Association (KIPFA) on July 24, 2025. This recognition highlights Gangnam-gu's tourism promotion strategy, which focuses on vivid and creative short-form content.
The Social i-Awards, now in its seventh year, is the largest social internet service awards ceremony in Korea. The i-Awards evaluation committee, composed of over 4,000 internet professionals, selects the winners through online evaluations, expert reviews, and presentation assessments, choosing the most innovative and outstanding cases in terms of service, design, brand, marketing, and content.
The Visit Gangnam YouTube channel serves as a leading platform to deliver trendy tourism information about Gangnam to both domestic and international travelers in an easy and enjoyable way. In particular, this year, the channel focused on introducing Gangnam's diverse tourism resources and commercial districts in a friendly and accessible manner, keeping pace with the trend of short-form content consumption. Key series included "Local Restaurants! The Officer Goes!", the latest meme series, the Gangnam Photo Hotspot series, and the "Mallratji? COEX Mall" series. This strategy proved highly effective, with 13 videos uploaded in the first half of the year accumulating a total of 122,553 views.
In particular, the "Local Restaurants! The Officer Goes!" series spotlighted small business stores selected in collaboration with the Gangnam branch of the Korea Foodservice Industry Association. Going beyond simple food introductions, the content featured district officials visiting the stores in person, experiencing the sites, and conveying the value of the local commercial districts, which drew significant attention.
The channel's cheerful composition and the format of featuring public officials directly in the videos were evaluated as a bold departure from the conventional style of public institution content. The judging panel commented, "It is a case that stands out in both interest and quality by breaking away from standardized promotional formats," and added, "The power of content that both residents and tourists can relate to truly shone."
Cho Sungmyung, Mayor of Gangnam-gu, stated, "I am delighted that our sincere efforts to directly showcase Gangnam's charm have led to such a positive result," and added, "We will continue to strive to vitalize tourism and the local economy through content that residents and tourists can relate to and that captures the appeal of Gangnam in an entertaining way."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
