A Vietnamese bank has been covering social media in recent days when it announced that G-Dragon (Big Bang) will perform at the concert at My Dinh Stadium.
In Korea, financial groups investing in communication and promotion campaigns through the images of artists and celebrities has been a trend for many years.
When listing the largest financial groups in Korea, it is not difficult to recognize that each group has a few celebrities as representative faces or advertising models.
According to Chosun, last year, advertising spending of five major banks (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, Nonghyup) reached 781.4 billion won. Not only is advertising budget increasing, but the strategy of hiring many celebrities to be models is also focused on.
Previously, athletes were the top faces targeted by Korean financial and banking corporations, because they were considered the pride of the country, in line with the necessary prestige and reliability in the financial industry.
But in recent years, with the desire to expand the customer base, especially the connection with Millennials and Gen Z, the trend of choosing actors and idol singers with many fans has become popular.
According to SCMP, KB Kookmin Bank of KB Financial Group has caused an explosion in the trend of choosing Kpop singer and group models, when they decided to make BTS a spokesperson and representative in 2018.
At that time, KB Kookmin's official shared that there were initial strong reactions, because a young pop group like BTS was proposed to represent the bank.
However, the positive results of this contract were immediately proven. Within just 1 year, the number of customers opening MB's installment savings account named "KB x BTS" increased 6 times.
Other financial groups are also implementing a similar strategy, aiming to reach new leads, especially young and stylish Kpop fans.
In 2019, Woori Financial Group chose girl group Blackpink as its first promotional model. Singer IU has been an ambassador for Woori Financial Group and Woori Bank for more than 3 years.
The trend of choosing ambassadors for Korean financial and banking groups is also getting younger.
Nonghyup Bank promotes youthful images with some models such as Jung Hae In, Byeon Woo Seok, Go one Jung.
Finance Group Shinhan signed a modeling contract with girl group NewJeans in 2022, the first year they debuted. At that time, the youngest member of NewJeans was Hyein, only 14 years old.
Earlier this year, Shinhan Bank introduced a new advertising model for singer and actor Cha Eun Woo ( Astro).
In 2023, Hana Financial Group spent billions of won to make 22-year-old idol singer Ahn Yu Jin (IVE) a model.
Another IVE member, Jang Young Won (21 years old), was also invested by Woori with the same "huge" amount of money to sign a model contract in February 2025.
In addition to advertising images and videos, banks always take advantage of ambassador and model resources to organize private music events, or cooperate with Kpop companies, bringing concerts that gather many famous artists.
However, the financial industry still has to promote trust and prestige, so they are also very sensitive when facing the risks from choosing actors and singers who tend to be ambassadors.
When Kim Soo Hyun was involved in a big controversy, affecting the image of the brands he represented, it was reported that Shinhan Group expected to terminate the contract with the actor, after only 1 year of cooperation.
Last year, Nonghyup Bank terminated the contract extension with Han So Hee when she was involved in a love scandal with Ryu Jun Yeol.
