NEWS & EVENTS

Students from the Public Relations and Advertising programme have returned from an intensive six-day study tour of Seoul, where they examined how South Korea has engineered its cultural exports into one of the most influential entertainment ecosystems in the world. The cohort of fifteen, led by Dr. Henry Fung, moved between broadcast studios, agency boardrooms, and palace courtyards in pursuit of a single question: what makes Korean entertainment travel?

The answers began inside the country's media powerhouses. At the national broadcasters KBS and MBC, students went behind the scenes of the production pipelines that transform local storytelling into global content, gaining a working understanding of how editorial decisions ripple outward to shape public perception. That macro view was sharpened at the Seoul office of The Hoffman Agency, where General Manager Dr. Kelly Kwon and her team walked students through the realities of B2B public relations in the Asian market: the pitches, the pivots, and the cultural calibration that separates a successful campaign from a forgettable one.

From there, the group turned to the consumer-facing machinery of K-Pop, dissecting the merchandising, experiential marketing, and fan engagement strategies on display at COEX and other major entertainment hubs. What looks, on the surface, like spontaneous fandom revealed itself to be the product of highly disciplined brand architecture.

The academic dimension of the tour was anchored by a workshop at Ewha Womans University, where students examined how creative storytelling can be harnessed for Corporate Social Responsibility, a growing priority for communicators working with global brands. At the Samsung Innovation Museum, they traced the technological substrate beneath modern communication, from artificial intelligence to mobile innovation, and considered how these tools are reshaping the relationship between brands and audiences.

Cultural immersion ran alongside the professional programme. Students rolled gimbap, wore hanbok, and walked through Gyeongbokgung Palace, Bukchon Hanok Village, N Seoul Tower, and Myeongdong. These experiences grounded the abstract concept of "cultural export" in the lived texture of the city itself.

The students returned to Hong Kong with a working understanding of how a nation builds and sustains global cultural influence, and a sharper sense of the strategic communication skills their own careers will demand.