What organisations can learn from boy bands

The phenomenon that is the K-Pop group, BTS.

BTS is phenomenally successful K-Pop group. In 2020, they were the #1 top-selling artists in the World, ahead of Taylor Swift and Drake. They dominate social media and have a fan base of 40,000,000 - the BTS ARMY. They bring around $3.6 billion to the South Korean economy and have endorsement deals with numerous multinationals.

Last year, The Gruen Transfer on ABC talked about their success and global reach of their brand. To me, Todd Sampson's description of the power of their brand held a message for organisations. He said,

"If you imagine them as a brand. 7 sub-brands. Each different. Appeal to different markets. And they are marketed differently. But on social media, they have one voice, and they communicate so often, they flood their army with information about their lives and take on social causes."

To me, this sounds like how a 'do ONE THING deep' campaign could run in your organisation.

A brand. The whole boy band. That's the whole organisation.

With sub-brands. Each individual 'boy' in the band has his own style and following. You could think of this as your departments. They have different constituents and need to hear information in their own style and in different ways.

But your organisation has one voice to communicate their ONE THING message. And it's done frequently and with purpose and vulnerability. And that mobilises an army of fans.

Now that could be phenomenally successful.