As the recent global craze for the Netflix animated film "K-pop Demon Hunters" (Kedeheon) continues to spread, attention is turning to the background as GS25 became the first in the convenience store industry to roll out collaboration products with Kedeheon. Kedeheon became the first Netflix content to surpass a cumulative 300 million views and continues its worldwide box-office success, ranking No. 1 in the movie institutional sector.
GS25 has also moved fastest in official collaborations with popular Netflix K-content such as Squid Game and Culinary Class Wars. This is thanks to GS25 securing the rights, through a contract with Netflix, to use intellectual property (IP) from Netflix original content in product development. Boosted by a range of content collaborations, GS25's sales to foreign tourists this year are hitting all-time highs.
According to the retail industry on the 22nd, GS25 has released various Kedeheon collaboration products since 17th. Among domestic convenience stores, GS25 is the only one to officially collaborate with Kedeheon.
The collaboration products are composed of foods representative of Korean convenience stores, such as half-and-half gimbap with tuna mayo & Jeonju bibim, a couple rice ball set with Jeonju bibim & spicy pork, and assorted snack sets. The "Ice Brûlée," cited as a strong seller at GS25 this year, was also paired with Kedeheon and refreshed as "Ice Brûlée Golden Mango" and "Ice Brûlée Soda Pop."
Starting on 24th, GS25 will also operate "Kedeheon-specialized stores" in areas with many foreign visitors, including Gangnam, Insadong, and Incheon International Airport. The plan is to provide visual fun and unique experiences by installing interior and exterior wrapping promotions, posters, life-size cutouts, and specialized display stands.
GS25's swift move into the Kedeheon boom stems from its long-standing collaboration with Netflix. GS25 has signed an IP usage agreement with Netflix, giving it the rights to use various Netflix original content in its products.
The two companies began collaborating in June 2023. At the time, GS25 launched collaboration products focused more on Netflix IP itself than on K-content, such as "Netflix Combo Popcorn," "Netflix Hot Dog," and "Netflix Jeju Lager." Since last year, however, it has directly targeted original content at the center of Netflix trends, such as Squid Game Season 2 and Culinary Class Wars, and has been releasing a variety of products.
In December last year, in step with the airing of "Squid Game Season 2," GS25 introduced five types of traditional game products, including ttakji flipping, and in January this year it launched ready-to-eat meals that leveraged content tie-ins such as the lunchbox and gimbap featured in Squid Game. In October last year, it unveiled the "Pyeonsujeo Series," which commercialized signature dishes in collaboration with the chefs appearing on the Netflix original series "Culinary Class Wars: Cooking Class War."
A GS Retail official said, "Typically, when a retailer produces products in collaboration with specific Netflix content, it must go through separate negotiations over contract terms. In this process, product launch timing can be delayed. But because GS25 can use Netflix's IP, it can collaborate easily and quickly with trending content at any time."
GS25's Netflix marketing is translating into sales performance. From June 2023, when the two companies began collaborating, through August this year, GS25's Netflix collaboration products surpassed a cumulative 35 million units sold, with cumulative sales of 87 billion won.
Foreign visitors to Korea are stopping by GS25 more frequently. Based on sales generated through foreigner-friendly payment services such as Alipay, WeChat Pay, and UnionPay, GS25 tallied that sales for January–August this year rose 66.5% from the same period a year earlier. Compared with January–August 2023, sales increased 312.9%.
A GS Retail official said, "We have released a variety of program IP collaboration products with Netflix and continued to deliver successful marketing results," adding, "We will continue to diversify customer choices by launching a wide range of content commerce products through ongoing partnerships."