What Is the Secret Behind Seoul Districts Strong in Promotion?

With the 8th Minseon Administration, the importance of publicity in Seoul's autonomous districts is increasingly emphasized, with growing enthusiasm... "Publicity should be systematized through not only the interest of district mayors and vice mayors but also by holding publicity strategy meetings," analysis

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] “What exactly does promotion mean to public officials?”

This is a question posed by a director of a district office in Seoul.

Although he has spent his entire life as an administrative public official, he admitted that his ‘promotion mindset’ is still weak. He is not alone. Most public officials tend to have a low awareness of promotion.

This is because promoting administrative content they create does not bring significant benefits. Moreover, they know that promoting policies made by other departments by asking about them one by one is even more difficult.

However, Lee Young-gi, Deputy Mayor and Public Relations Officer of Gwanak-gu, who previously served as Seoul City’s press officer, makes a convincing point that “the final destination of administration is indeed promotion.”

No matter how good a policy is made, if it is not properly promoted, it cannot be effective.

◆Mayors and District Heads Need to Take Interest in Promotion to Produce Good Content

Seoul City traditionally requires a promotion plan to be prepared and reported at the end of any project for approval. This establishes a basic framework for promotion.

However, district offices generally have smaller projects, so their promotion mindset is relatively low.

In this context, promotion requires the highest administrative leaders’ interest to produce good content. The Mayor of Seoul and the 25 district heads inevitably have a strong promotion mindset because promotion is the biggest means to publicize their achievements.

Furthermore, since they are elected politicians, they inherently have a strong mindset toward promotion. Whether the entire organization develops a passion for promotion depends on whether they directly express this and discover and place talented personnel.

An executive from a Seoul district said, “Ultimately, the quality of promotion depends on the mindset of the final personnel authority.”

If the head of the organization shows less interest in promotion, public officials’ enthusiasm for promotion naturally declines due to their nature.

However, as local autonomy history accumulates, with the 8th term of elected officials, the enthusiasm for promotion among heads has increased, and the 25 districts of Seoul seem to have entered a promotion war.

In particular, re-elected Jungnang-gu Mayor Ryu Kyung-gi, a former Seoul City spokesperson, as well as Deputy Mayors Ahn Jun-ho of Gangnam-gu, Kim In-cheol of Nowon-gu, Lee Young-gi of Gwanak-gu, and Kang Ok-hyun of Yangcheon-gu, all emphasize the importance of promotion, gradually raising the promotion fever.

◆Promotion Must Also Be Systematic to Be Sustainable

Along with the promotion mindset of the first and second leaders such as district heads and deputy heads, establishing a sustainable promotion system requires building a system.

Currently, among Seoul’s districts, Seongdong-gu has the most stable promotion system. This is because of the advanced policy mindset of Mayor Jung Won-oh and the established promotion strategy meetings that have continued since former Deputy Mayor Han Young-hee’s tenure.

In particular, since Deputy Mayor Yoo Bo-hwa took office, Seongdong-gu holds weekly promotion department meetings and promotion informal talks, as well as regular promotion strategy meetings attended by bureau and division heads.

Because of this, bureau chiefs manage major weekly press plans, creating a foundation for good policies to emerge.

A deputy mayor of a Seoul district said, “One of the important roles of a deputy mayor is to manage promotion work,” emphasizing, “Before the district head directly tells you to promote this or not, the deputy mayor needs to take charge.”

When a district deputy mayor proactively resolves issues with Seoul City and manages promotion well, the district head will highly evaluate them.

Additionally, a deputy mayor can sometimes stabilize the organization by scolding(?) on behalf of the district head, enabling them to become a long-serving ‘top deputy mayor’ without shortcomings.

Since Lee Young-gi became deputy mayor of Gwanak-gu, the promotion strategy meetings have increased from once a month to twice a month. Yangcheon-gu Deputy Mayor Kang Ok-hyun recently said, “I have not yet fully started managing promotion work,” indicating an intention to kick off full-scale promotion management.

Thanks to these efforts, these districts are producing good promotional content, leading other district officials to increasingly benchmark their promotion know-how.

Of course, districts that excel in promotion do not succeed by the promotion department alone. Fundamentally, each department produces good content.

During the latter half of the 4th term of elected officials, Dongdaemun-gu, under the acting district head system, designated and trained employees from each department as ‘promotion officers’.

The acting district head at the time, a former Seoul City press officer, said, “It is necessary for all public officials to have a media mindset,” and introduced this system, which showed considerable results.

Another Seoul district executive said, “Public officials have guaranteed tenure and tend to have a somewhat passive attitude compared to private company employees, so it is not easy for them to be proactive in promotion,” indicating that expecting enthusiasm for promotion from public officials is not an easy task.

Nevertheless, there is a growing consensus that it is fundamentally necessary to recognize the importance of promotion work that properly informs Seoul citizens and district residents about their duties.

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