Kyowon Group Accelerates Character IP Business... Launching TV Animation in Second Half of the Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Kyowon Group announced on the 23rd that it will officially launch its intellectual property (IP) business utilizing characters.

Kyowon Group plans to launch a TV animation in the second half of this year featuring the character "Sosria." Furthermore, the company intends to expand its business into various character products such as merchandise using this character. Sosria is a character independently developed and produced by Kyowon Group, inspired by sauces like ketchup and mayonnaise. Since 2020, Kyowon has been strengthening its animation creation capabilities by presenting various episodes and content through YouTube.

The Sosria TV animation series, set to be released in the second half of the year, is planned and produced as a beneficial animation aimed at helping children and adolescents improve their eating habits. The fantasy-themed story will be set in Sosria Village, composed of various ingredients, where characters collect recipe cards and engage in cooking battles and efforts to improve eating habits with friends and villains.

Prior to this, short-form videos on YouTube such as "Scary Chef" and "Sos's Chaotic Cooking Challenge!" have each recorded an average of over 50,000 views. In May, the Sosria channel surpassed 100,000 subscribers, earning the Silver Creator Award on YouTube. Additionally, the animation is being produced simultaneously in Korean, English, and Chinese to pursue a global distribution strategy, while diversifying channels through Chinese video platforms and other social networking service (SNS) channels.

Before fully launching character licensing, Sosria completed the business validation stage through active collaboration with different industries. Various cooperative marketing efforts have been conducted, utilizing Sosria content in confectionery and food companies, outdoor brands, and etiquette promotion videos for the Shinbundang Line. Recently, the "Sosria Game" was introduced on the metaverse platform "Roblox."

A Kyowon Group official stated, "Until now, characters created by Kyowon have mainly been used for educational purposes, but in the case of Sosria, we judged that the character's unique charm and content story hold limitless potential for business expansion such as licensing. Starting with this TV animation, we plan to accelerate the expansion of the IP business, including extending content areas and character productization into emoticons and merchandise."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.