Instagram Rels is becoming a holy place for K-pop artists. The Release is a short-form video service that Instagram introduced in February.
According to Instagram, on the 14th, thanks to the craze of ‘snack culture’ that can be enjoyed in a short period of time, Lil’s has established itself as a space where a new culture begins, and the existing culture spreads after about a year since its launch in Korea.
Recently, the Release of content uploaded by K-pop singers is diversifying, attracting attention. From the dance challenge, the absolute powerhouse of short-form videos, to unique music videos for fans, and exclusive videos behind concerts that you can’t see anywhere else, it’s about interacting with fans through a variety of content. Fans also gather in Lil’s to enjoy the contents of their favourite singers, leave comments, and create content with affection to continue two-way communication.
The most prominent trend in RILLS is the dance challenge. As a result of a survey conducted by Instagram on 1,200 men and women of Generation Z living in Korea, ‘Dance Challenge’ (31%, duplicate responses) was selected as the trend that received the most attention in the dance field last year. The Dance Challenge is also the most effective way to promote a new song for artists because Instagram users cover the point choreography and spread it online.
Jay Park, who has recently maintained the top spot on the music charts with his new song ‘GANDARA’, effectively promoted the new song by taking full advantage of the influence and characteristics of this dance challenge. He filmed the ‘GANADARA Challenge’ with various celebrities and artists, including Honey J, Monica, Kang Daniel, and Mr Stay, and shared it with Reels. In particular, it is noteworthy that the ‘collaboration’ function, which can be shared with other users, was used.
The advantage of using the ‘collaboration’ function is that the same post is uploaded to the feeds of other users who collaborated with you to share the content with the other users’ followers. Through this collaboration function, we exposed the new song ‘GANADARA’ to more users. The collaboration release video with Seventeen currently has 6.75 million views.
It is also found that Rills are used to create content that can be enjoyed together and communicate more closely with fans. Girl group ITZY (ITZY) produced a music video for the song ‘#Twenty’ in the last album through collaboration with Instagram Releases to congratulate member ‘Yuna’ who turned 20 this year and commemorate it with fans and released it on the 9th. Did.
This content boasts a trendy visual beauty using Lil’s UI elements and various effects, which is more meaningful. It is a surprise gift to commemorate a special moment with fans. ITZY’s #Twenty campaign went one step further from the existing music marketing formula and became a hot topic in terms of containing songs meaningful to artists and songs that fans like using the reel.
Since its introduction in Korea, ITZY has been using Instagram Reels and interacting closely with fans. At the fan meeting held on the 9th, answers to fans’ questions were filmed and shared as releases. At the ‘We pick Awards 2021’ held together with Instagram and Gaon Chart in October last year, the Release was released with five songs selected by the members themselves. We had a great time creating releases, receiving votes from fans, and making releases together.
A JYP Entertainment official said, “Through a platform where we can communicate happily with fans worldwide, we designed the content to reveal the group’s personality and charm.” I hope it will be a place where fans can build bonds with their favourite artists.”
In addition to dance challenges and communication channels with fans, K-pop artists also use Rills as a space to share their simple daily life. Starting with Seoul last March, the ‘BTS PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE – LAS VEGAS’ face-to-face concert was a success, dyeing Las Vegas with ‘Bora Haigas (Porahae + Las Vegas)’ on the weekend (8-9). BTS is a representative example.
From the rehearsal on the day of the Seoul concert, backstage, and the stage viewed from the first row, unadorned content that captures the sense of reality at the time was exclusively released to Release. This is even more, special because all BTS members filmed directly with their mobile phones without special shooting equipment or editing skills.
On the first day of the Seoul concert, the release video became a big topic among fans, recording over 10 million views in 24 hours. In addition, ahead of the Las Vegas concert on the 8th, a special Instagram release filter with game elements was released to amplify expectations for the show. Behind-the-scenes content from the Las Vegas concert will also be removed exclusively.
The team leader, who continued the partnership with the Meta (Facebook Korea) music label, said, “The fact that anyone can shoot easily and the strong global user base is the strength of Release. I will,” he said.