Ulsan Hyundai’s ‘official shooting’ of domestic professional soccer K League 1 (Part 1) is a hot topic every day. When Ulsan announced that it had recruited a new player, it was filmed at a local attraction in Ulsan or at its parent company, Hyundai Heavy Industries. It has become a new trend in the K-League to announce the news of player recruitment with ingenious ideas.
An official from the Ulsan Fan Media Team said, “When information on recruiting a player comes in from the scouting team, we prepare a press release for the recruitment and at the same time grasp basic information and background on the player. Based on this, a draft of an official video/pictorial scenario that matches the player is planned, and a suitable location, detailed investigation, and cooperation are reached. After that, we coordinate the schedule and shooting plan with the video and photo shooting team, and then produce the content.”
Recently, Ulsan announced the official announcement of Swedish midfielder Gustav Rubiksson. With the cooperation of IKEA Dongbusan, a Nordic furniture company, we filmed the official Rubik’s Hand, which was highly praised by fans. Previously, Ulsan used local tourist attractions, institutions, parent company and club infrastructure, but Rubik’s Hand’s official is evaluated to have opened a new horizon for official by collaborating with places with completely different interests from ‘Ulsan Hyundai’.
An official from Ulsan said, “I thought that filming at local tourist attractions, institutions, parent companies and club infrastructure can be boring for fans and familiar to working-level staff. I think the reason why fans give positive reviews to Ulsan’s official is ‘freshness and detail’. So, I wanted to take on a new challenge. I thought of IKEA, a place where I could create popular and diverse content, and where I could be deeply involved with Rubik’s Hand.” 스포츠토토
In fact, the official shooting started with Jeju United. I started filming the official at a local restaurant, and later received good reviews for the official plogging (a new word meaning collecting garbage on the roadside while jogging). The Ulsan front desk, which watched this closely, benchmarked. In December 2021, Ulsan became the leader of the K-League, starting with the official Kim Young-kwon filmed in front of the Ulsan Radio Observatory.
Through twists and turns, Ulsan became the K-League’s best ‘official restaurant’. The radio observatory, where Kim Young-kwon was filming, had to change the shooting settings and player poses dozens of times because the position of the radio network changed every few minutes for observation. The weather and waves were rough when filming the official Joo Min-gyu, which was filmed on board with the cooperation of the Ulsan Coast Guard. It took a day to explore the Ulsan plant of Hyundai Heavy Industries, where Martin Adam was filmed.
An official from Ulsan said, “All difficulties were resolved with the cooperation of the venue cooperation and active participation of the players.” Praise and evaluation are the biggest motivators. In the future, I want to pay more attention to the meaning, location, music, and editing to give fans the pleasure of the off-season as well as expectations for the team and players.”
Shooting official content at local tourist attractions or parent company and club infrastructure is a great effect as it is a local and parent company promotion type. Ulsan Heavy Industries & Construction is a B2B (business to business) company. An official from Ulsan explained that the purpose of the official shooting is to improve a positive image rather than selling products to the public. Promotion of local attractions is a natural effect.
Ulsan CEO Kim Kwang-guk said, “The staff who come up with various ideas for fresh and fun official shooting are really cool. The idea is so ‘shiny’,” he said. “We are a football club. Football determined our joy and sorrow as well as the fans, and now we have one more weapon that can give us a lot of joy even when we are away from the football stadium.”