Why Lee min ho use Kakaotalk in SBS drama "The Heirs" ?

Have you ever called to order pizza after watching your favorite character eat pizza on TV? It may be a coincidence, or it could be the outcome of indirect advertising by a pizza maker.

This kind of indirect advertising is often referred to as product placement (PPL).

In #1 k-drama at wednesday,thursday timeslot,SBS 'heirs', Lee min ho and Park shin hye chat with smartphone messenger service, SMS they use is the so-called "Korea's favorite messenger 'named' Kakao Talk '.

In Korea, more than 90% of smartphone users use kakaotalk, cumulative number of subscribers exceeded 35 million this summer.

So why KakaoTalk take advantage of TV product placement marketing (PPL) when their domestic subscribers already reached saturation point?

The KakaoTalk team says it wanted to focus on foreign markets especially in Southeast Asian nations like Indonesia as part of their overseas expansion strategy.

Kakao official said " We prepared for a full-scale expansion into a overseas markets in the second half of this year. Indonesia is the fourth largest country on earth with a population of 250 million people, 4th most populous country in the world.

"It is high enough to increase in subscribers as soon as we enter market,"

Drama 'heirs' was made with foreign market(sell right agreement to foreign country) in mind from a early stage of production so they casted Lee min ho who is very famous in south east asia especilly Indonesia and Singapore.

In march. actor Lee min ho held his first fan meeting at Jakarta Convention Center with five thousand fans.

Thanks to the popularity of the drama 'heirs', kakaoTalk's prospects for overseas advertising is looking brighter. Currently SBS drama'heirs' has signed a export rights contract in Asia and Europe market, such as Japan, the United States and in 13 more countries. This announcement comes on the heels of DramaFever’s recent deals with Telemundo and Fuji TV, which both represent the top networks in their respective markets.

Building on its domestic success, KakaoTalk is expanding abroad as soaring mobile web traffic offers new growth drivers to internet companies and game developers. KakaoTalk is offering mobile messaging services in 230 countries in 13 different languages.

“We have secured enough user pool at home. It is time to go global with effective maketing strategy such as PPL in popular k-dramas and k-pop shows with Hallyu stars,” says Lee Sir-goo, joint chief executive of Kakao.