GS Retail, the operator of convenience store GS25, said on the 25th that it will unveil three follow-up collaboration products with the virtual idol "PLAVE" on the 29th. As the products collaborating with PLAVE are sustaining a bigger boom than the recent hit dessert "Dubai jjondeuk cookie," the company decided to roll out follow-up items.
PLAVE is a virtual idol that debuted in March 2023 and has signed an intellectual property (IP) partnership with GS25 to release items including snacks, transit cards and merchandise starting with collaboration bread on the 15th of this month. The first to launch, "PLAVE bread, five varieties," surpassed a cumulative 550,000 units sold in 10 days.
On the company's app "Uri-dongne GS," regarded as a leading barometer of the latest trends, PLAVE-related search terms rose to No. 1 starting on the 15th. They overtook "Dubai jjondeuk chocolate balls," which had held the top spot for two straight months. Looking at sales data from the 16th to the 24th, when the PLAVE collaboration bread began full-scale arrivals, sales of the five PLAVE collaboration breads exceeded those of Dubai jjondeuk chocolate balls by more than three times.
Riding this momentum, GS25 plans to release follow-up PLAVE collaboration products in sequence: "PLAVE baked sweet potato chew" on the 28th of this month, and "PLAVE Kkokkalcorn roasted corn" and a PLAVE ID photo set on the 29th. The PLAVE baked sweet potato chew includes one of 60 random PLAVE seals. PLAVE Kkokkalcorn roasted corn comes in a hexagonal paper case package featuring PLAVE images and includes a photo \\\ card, enhancing its collectible value.
Cho Seong-su, manager of GS Retail's trend product differentiation team, said, "Starting with the PLAVE collaboration bread, GS25 is strengthening content collaborations by launching various co-branded products such as snacks, transit cards and merchandise," and added, "We will continue to raise customer satisfaction with differentiated products through IP collaborations."