Nongshim brought the heat to New York’s Times Square with a splashy global campaign – and, for some of us who haven’t followed pop music since the CD era, a touch of cultural confusion – celebrating its Shin Ramyun collaboration with Netflix’s animated film KPop Demon Hunters.
The noodle giant took over digital billboards and event spaces at the “Crossroads of the World,” drawing some of the 450,000 daily visitors to sample its new Shin Toomba noodle creation, snap selfies in themed photo booths, and pick up prizes through a social media follow event that bridged the offline spectacle with online buzz.
The animated tie-in appeared on massive digital out-of-home screens – the kind of campaign that makes you wish you’d bought stock in LED pixels. Nongshim said the effort went “beyond simple digital advertising” to become a global celebration of the brand’s “Spicy Happiness in Noodles” slogan.
The KPop Demon Hunters edition of Shin Ramyun has been rolling out worldwide since August, with U.S. sales kicking off in mid-September and European distribution underway. The company plans to extend availability to key European markets and beyond before the year’s end.
For anyone born before the boy-band boom, the campaign may raise as many questions as it answers – like who exactly these “Demon Hunters” are and when K-pop became a cinematic universe. But if it means another reason to eat spicy noodles under massive LED screens, we’ll call it a win for culture, carbs, and cross-promotional chaos.