Gumi City's Brand Webtoon "Rockju's Street"
A Narrative Blending Traditional Korean Music and K-POP Elevates Content Quality
Seamless Inclusion of Tourist Attractions Demonstrates Regional Promotional Impact
25,000 Emoticon Sets Distributed Rapid
The third brand webtoon from Gumi City, North Gyeongsang Province, "Rockju's Street," has surpassed 1.15 million views, continuing the success of Gumi's brand webtoons with three consecutive hits.
This figure surpasses the records of previous works, once again demonstrating the competitiveness of Gumi City's cultural content.
"Rockju's Street" tells the story of a rookie girl group leader who time-slips to 1948, the founding year of the Women's Guguk Theater Company, where she meets the renowned singer Park Rockju and grows through the experience.
The webtoon skillfully weaves together the contrasting elements of Korean traditional music and K-POP, narratively depicting the protagonist's leadership, teamwork, and growth. In the latter part of the webtoon, Gumi's tourist attractions and local information are introduced, achieving both content success and regional promotion.
In particular, the modern reinterpretation of Park Rockju's life and artistic spirit, combined with the girl group's growth narrative, has been praised for increasing reader immersion.
The way Gumi's tourism resources are seamlessly integrated into the story, creating a structure where "the city is remembered as you follow the story," is also noteworthy.
Reader responses have also been positive. Comments such as "The theme of combining Korean traditional music and K-POP was refreshing," "The modern take on Park Rockju's story was impressive," and "I want to visit Gumi after seeing the tourist attractions featured in the webtoon" have drawn attention to both the quality of the work and the region's content.
Previously, Gumi City demonstrated the potential of brand webtoons with "Oh! Rockju" in 2023 (850,000 views, 9.8 rating) and "Gumushi Lamer: Youngae Just Boiled Ramen!" in 2024, which was based on the Gumi Ramen Festival (940,000 views, 9.9 rating).
This time, "Rockju's Street" reached 1.15 million views, showcasing both the continuity and scalability of Gumi City's cultural content.
The set of 16 emoticons, "Excitement of Tradition, Master Rockju-con," created to promote the webtoon, also received an enthusiastic response.
All 25,000 sets were distributed within just one hour of release, and more than 10,000 new users added Gumi City's KakaoTalk channel to receive the emoticons, demonstrating the success of the online promotional efforts.
Gumi Mayor Kim Jangho stated, "The fact that a brand webtoon utilizing local cultural resources has attracted so much attention from readers is a case that confirms the potential of cultural content. We hope that regionally specialized cultural content will continue to contribute to local promotion and cultural dissemination in the future."
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