PROFILE
Innovation pays off at Incheon
Incheon International is one of the world’s great airports, handling some 68 million passengers last year, winning a string of awards and ranking as the single biggest airport duty free location on the planet. It also boasts an innovative advertising offer, as Mark Lane discovered in conversation with Hyun Lee, the man in charge of exclusive advertising concessionaire Dong-A.
When he talks to potential advertising clients, Hyun Lee has a formidable arsenal of advertising options at his disposal. Namely, 36 lightboxes, 178 digital screens and 188 TV screens. Lee knows the Incheon landscape intimately, having joined Adskykorea, the airport’s then-exclusive media concessionaire, in 2003. In the intervening years he has sold advertising and promotional media to a host of global and local brand advertisers and agencies amid a period of profound evolution in the Out of Home advertising market.
Hyun Lee: “Traditional advertising media will survive but gradually lose its power against digital media”
That transformation is particularly evident at Incheon International Airport’s new Terminal 2, opened in January 2018, which features digital screens only.
“Traditional advertising media will survive but gradually lose its power against digital media,” Lee observes. “Still, traditional media can be integrated with digital media into a new form of media.”
Lee has been responsible for several notable recent media campaigns at Incheon. The biggest talking point was the launch of a spectacular 23 metre-high giant LED screen in Terminal 1 in 2018.
As reported in Sight Lines 1, the giant installation rises majestically from the terminal’s beautiful pine garden to the ceiling high above.
Great French fragrance brand Chanel N°5 is showcased to brilliant effect on Terminal 1’s spectacular 23 metre-high LED screen
Sight Lines Publisher Martin Moodie captured the power of the giant Incheon T1 advertising installation in this short iPhone clip
“I was successful in arranging Chanel to book this medium in a dominant manner,” Lee recalls when asked about some of the more memorable campaigns. “In December 2018, Chanel displayed a massive Christmas campaign on the giant LED screen in T1 and another two LED screens in Terminal 2 successfully.’’
But it’s the visibility of another French beauty house, L’Oréal, that really stands out for Lee among recent campaigns.“The advertiser now occupies two digital screens in Terminal 1 and three digital screens in Terminal 2,” he says. “The locations reach most of the departing passengers dwelling in the duty free store area. The locations of these advertising media are second to none in terms of exposure, visibility from target audience and media hardware quality.”
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder: Sulwhasoo showcased
Perfectly framed: Korean eyewear brand Vedi Vero
Incheon International Airport, which enjoys an enviable passenger profile drawn largely from Korean, Chinese and Japanese travellers, offers a myriad of high-profile brand advertising opportunities across its two terminals
