NC

Our team carries out re-interpretation of NC’s character IPs so that they could be presented to the customers in a more friendly way. In this process, I develop strategies on how to communicate our characters to customers and oversee the overall marketing process, including product planning, production, distribution, logistics, and operation.

'Doguri' is one of our flagship characters. Doguri is a monster from Lineage 2M, but it does not seem similar to other monsters that usually appear in games. The most important part in communication of our characters is storytelling. In Lineage 2M, Doguri is a character that has nothing to offer, does not have any distinctive features, and always doles out useless items. We have given her the image of a new college graduate and a new persona as a character that would never give up and would cheer herself up. The character depicted the ordinary lives that corporate workers could easily relate to and took an emotional approach based on pink color, and it successfully resonated with our new target customers in their 20s and 30s. We hope to deliver our stories to an even larger group of people, including customers that used not to be approached by our games.

The more our characters are exposed, the better they will be recognized. This will make our characters more likeable. Therefore, NC already has strong arms to fight with. However, compared to the level of awareness that our games enjoy, some of our characters are relatively unknown. This will also mean that we would have a lot to do through interpreting the existing characters from a different perspective.

The charm of character content marketing lies in the fact that we could not only raise awareness of our products and services, but also expand into diverse businesses through creating additional values based on IPs. Our goal is to improve the level of utilization of the existing IPs and to create a virtuous cycle, which starts with introduction of new characters and leads back into playing of games.

As much as the world is changing fast, people’s preferences and dispositions change fast. The attitude to fight against such changes is an important capability required to marketers. I tell others to see and learn as much as possible, instead of sticking in a single place.

There are three other qualifications required to marketers that would ultimately support the aforementioned requirement. First, marketers should pay much attention to details. There is a saying that “small things make a big difference”. A small detail may determine the overall quality.

Second, marketers should be proactive. Instead of asking what to do in a passive manner, they should be able to think voluntarily and think what is necessary on the next phase. And then, they should take actions.

Lastly, marketers should maintain intellectual curiosity. Of course, it is important to acquire knowledge required at work. However, instead of limiting the scope of knowledge to the one required at work, marketers should have an intellectual curiosity about small things as well, including the places, clothes, and foods that people like these days. In the end, curiosity would lead to learning, and the areas that you have not even thought about would give you new ideas.

After graduation, I was lucky to pass the exam to become a teacher. I enjoyed working as a teacher, since I started my career without giving much thought into it.

However, I initially wanted to become a sports marketer. Baseball took a large part of my life since I was very young, because my grandmother was a passionate baseball fan. I had strong passion for not only baseball, but also other sports, including basketball and volleyball.

Even when I was working as a teacher, I put my heart into sports events; for instance, I planned a soccer tournament for all classes. After seriously thinking about my future, I decided to try as much as possible to do what I initially wanted to do. Therefore, I quit my work as a teacher and decided to enter a business school in Shanghai, China, to study business administration.

After deciding to enter graduate school, I had a chance to meet a sales director of a global sports brand. I received a business card at the time, and I thought that I would regret if I did not grab the opportunity. So, I just printed my resume out, barged into the office, and expressed my passion for sports business in an honest manner. Very luckily, I was offered a retail sales position.

Looking back, I think I was brave because I knew nothing. I thought it was a good opportunity, so I worked after postponing the school for a year.

After graduate school, I joined a global healthcare company. After working in the US headquarters, I worked in the branch office in Singapore and Korea. I could expand my horizon through experiencing various duties in sales and marketing and working with the colleagues from different nationalities and cultures.

However, I still had the passion for sports marketing deep down inside of my heart. I was being somewhat stubborn. One day, I heard that NC Dinos was looking for someone that had business expertise and loved baseball. There was no reason for me to think twice, because the passion for sports was the one that led me all the way down to where I was at the time. That is how I joined NC Dinos.

I worked in NC Dinos for four and a half years. It was fun and rewarding, and I was confident to be better than others. As I was working for a baseball club, my interest and passion for sports grew even larger.

After four years, I naturally had a chance to think about my career direction as a marketer. At last, after completing construction of NC Dinos Changwon Baseball Stadium, I started a new challenge as a character marketer in NC. Character marketing seemed like a fresh new start and a new possibility. It seemed fun and was all the more interesting, since it was something that I had not tried before.

Whenever I try something new, I think about three things. First, could I make contribution based on the experiences that I have accumulated so far? Second, could I grow through such new experiences? Lastly, I try to understand what the direction and the vision of the organization that I am trying to join are.

The same basic principles would apply to all areas, including sports and character marketing. Since I experienced various areas, including sports goods, healthcare, and baseball, I was confident about the basic skills required to marketers. I was confident that I could make contributions and grow through learning new things.

No experience is in vain. Even the experience as a teacher that rather seems irrelevant to marketing matters.

Since it was the teacher’s authority to determine what to teach to students, I felt a great sense of responsibility. Even now, I feel the responsibility to complete everything that I started. Also, I had to teach every student in different ways. When working as a manager, I always try to motivate each team member in different ways based on their disposition and think about ways to strengthen their capability to achieve the best result together.

I tend not to think much whenever I make new challenges. Whenever I do, I remind myself of a paragraph that I have read in a book.

Imagine that you are hanging on a cliff. You have two choices. One is to keep hanging on the cliff and fall off when you lose your strength. Or, you may also decide to reach out your hand, grab something, and climb up. If you choose the latter, there is a 50/50 chance of success. You will never know what you can get from your life unless you try new things. I will go for the 50/50 chance of success.

I personally don't believe that I am a creative type of person. Rather, I am a person that is better at process- or strategy-based thinking.

However, whenever I try something new, I move forward without any fear. Of course, it is important to wait until the best timing for making such challenge comes. There will always be unclear things whenever we are faced with changes, including our thoughts about the need to wait and be patient. However, the capability not to fear changes and to beat such ambiguity is the most important lesson learned from my past experiences.

There are no such things as failed attempts. You learned something new, so the only thing that you need to do now is not to repeat the past mistake. Once experiences are accumulated, you will find yourself much improved compared to the past. My goal at the moment is to create new values through combining character IP, content, and technology. I will keep moving forward without any fear, looking for the possibilities that are yet to be discovered.