Over $100M in advertising value for the CNMI

The CNMI expects to obtain over $100 million in advertising value in 2019 from its top tourism market, South Korea, with the Marianas Visitors Authority inviting more Korean celebrities, sports stars, and even a leading fashion magazine for a pictorial here.

MVA Korea general manager Irene Lee said the Marianas Friendship Gold Tournament is happening this February and top Korean celebrities and sports stars have been invited to participate.

The event was originally scheduled for last November, but MVA rescheduled it for February because of Super Typhoon Yutu, said Lee in her presentation about the Korean market during MVA’s general membership meeting at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan’s Hibiscus Hall last Friday.

Lee said the event will promote the Marianas as a paradise for golfers through top-class golf resorts.

She said the tournament will also benefit the community as a fundraiser.

There will be a photo/video shoot with golfers who will sponsor a certain amount of donation for those in need, she said. Lee said the event’s expected advertising value is over $500,000.

In January, the company will invite the leading fashion magazine, GRAZIA.

She said they will secure a six-page pictorial set in the Marianas, advertising the sunglasses brand Supper Light with Korean celebrity Han Yeseul as the brand model.

She said images and video clips taken on Saipan will additionally be exposed on TV home-shopping programs and social channels.

Lee said the expected advertising value with Yeseul’s photo shot is over $3 million.

Lee said they also want to leverage the K-Pop wave and its powerful contents to maximize media exposure of the Marianas.

MVA Korea, she said, will invite this January an online-content production Vivo TV to shoot a web entertainment show with comedian entertainment group “Celeb Five.”

Lee said there will be two episodes of 20 minutes each that will be uploaded to attract over 500,000 followers on YouTube, Naver TV Cast, V LIVE, Instagram, and Facebook.

She said the expected advertising value of the visit is over $500,000.

As for the other islands, Lee said they will introduce the natural and hidden attractions of Tinian and Rota through a major TV program. She said they coordinated with SBS Entertainment Show, The Law of the Jungle, by inviting 12 celebrities to the Marianas.

A total of nine episodes, each running 80 minutes, will be aired every Friday at 10pm from Dec. 21, 2018, to Feb. 22, 2019.

The result is over $109 million in advertising value, said Lee.

She said Korea has traditionally been a very conservative, male-dominated society.

“But now we are seeing the growing influence of women’s spending power in Korea. So, we have a new term called she-conomy, which means women are the new drivers of the economy,” she said.

The other trend, she said, is surging consumption of video. Lee said YouTube app use rate among Koreans tripled from 2016 to 2018.

“YouTube is emerging as the second largest social media channel for Koreans,” said Lee, adding that MVA will be using the platform to communicate with Korean audiences.

There were 26 million outbound trips in South Korea in 2017; this year, they are expecting 28 million outbound trips.

“This is very pretty amazing number considering a small country with only 50 million population,” Lee said.

She said 40 percent of Korean travelers are ages 30s to 40s—the biggest travel age group.

“And remember she-conomy? Women take 50.1 percent. This is a new statistic because this is for the first time in Korean history that the share of the female traveling is actually higher than men,” Lee said.

As for Korean visitors to the Marianas, Lee said they have seen about 300,000 Korean visitors coming to the CNMI in fiscal year 2018. In 2017, there were over 300,000 Korean visitors to the CNMI. Lee blames the decrease on an airline company’s suspension of flights.

“But despite the decrease, the airline load factor actually increased to 87 percent, which means that airlines are operating in a happy condition, that they are benefitting from this route,” she said.

This also means that airlines will be considering putting in additional seats in the coming year.