ZURICH 

HALLYU! THE KOREAN WAVE
2025

The exhibition was the first major showcase dedicated to the Korean Wave (hallyu) exploring the global impact of South Korea’s pop culture—from its roots in traditional art to its influence on fashion, film, beauty, and media. With over 200 objects on display, it offered a dynamic, immersive look at hallyu’s rise: from K-pop and K-dramas to iconic film sets, bold fashion, and digital fan culture. Highlights included stage costumes worn by K-pop groups like BTS and æspa, a re-creation of the Parasite film set, and interactive spaces where visitors could learn K-pop dance routines.

Created by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the exhibition travelled to Boston and San Francisco before arriving at Museum Rietberg—its only venue in Continental Europe. Through photographs, video clips, fashion, technology, and historical materials, Hallyu! traced South Korea’s transformation from a post-war society to a global cultural powerhouse.

We developed a unique, tailor-made campaign for the Zurich edition, which was very well received by the media. Collaborations with major industry players—including SM Entertainment, Pledis Entertainment, Virgin Music Group, and Netflix—were key to its success.

Digital campaign: To build hype ahead of the exhibition, we teamed up with Henne / Ordnung to create three teaser videos—each between 32 and 39 seconds—in two formats (9:16 and 16:9) and four languages: German, English, French, and Italian. These teasers were shown as ads in Swiss cinemas and across digital platforms (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, TikTok) in Switzerland and neighboring countries. The first teaser, titled What Is Hallyu?, provided a quick overview of the exhibition’s key themes: K-pop and K-dance, K-art, K-dramas, as well as K-fashion and K-beauty. It featured clips from popular music videos by aespa, BTS, and Orange Caramel, alongside scenes from the Netflix series Crash Landing on You. 

The second teaser, How Is Korea Shaping The World?, focused on K-pop and the global success of Korean artists like BTS—highlighting visually striking music videos, choreography, and fan communities that transcend borders and generations. 

Fashion and beauty are key aspects of the Korean Wave, known for their innovation and global appeal. In our third teaser How Cool Is Korea?, we highlighted these themes using footage from fashion shows by Korean designers featured in the exhibition. 

Trailer: The exhibition trailer, with a runtime of 89 seconds, was produced by Berlin–Tokyo and Henne / Ordnung in German and released in four additional versions: English, French, Italian, and Korean. It was used for cinema and digital advertising across six markets—Switzerland, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, and South Korea—adapted in both 9:16 and 16:9 formats.

In the trailer, the exhibition’s curator, Khanh Trinh, guides viewers through the show, highlighting its key themes and objects. The film opens with quotes from media reviews and features local K-pop fans who were invited to participate, adding an authentic and emotional layer to the campaign. To boost the final weeks of the exhibition, an additional 9:16 version was created, featuring the message Only a few more weeks! to drive urgency and engagement. 

Media partnerships: An important part of the Hallyu! campaign was our collaboration with media partners in Switzerland, Germany, and France, including Blick, Le Temps, Monopol, ARTE, Radio Energy, and Poly magazine. Monopol and Blick produced special editions of their publications, which were distributed as supplements in the Süddeutsche Zeitung in Germany and the SonntagsBlick in Switzerland.

Ad Campaign: The print media campaign featured a key visual paired with a QR code that linked directly to the teaser.

PR Campaign: The exhibition was featured three times on prime-time news shows on Swiss public television—SRF and RSI—as well as on 3sat and ARTE. One of Switzerland’s leading newspapers also ran it as a cover story, including a caricature to underscore its cultural relevance. Internationally, the exhibition was highlighted on the websites and social media channels of ZDF, Hypebeast, Vogue Italia, Elle, Weltkunst, Billboard Italia, L’Officiel, and many others.

© Museum Rietberg

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