Every summer in Korea, the same melody returns: “Yeohaenghal ttae Yeogi Eottae” (“When you travel, Yeogi Eottae”). Models and destinations change, but the jingle stays. It can look like a brand that simply cannot be bothered to make something new. Kang Seok-woo, a brand experience lead at the travel platform, explained that it is a six-year strategy built on brand assets: most ads are forgotten, but a few traces stay in people’s minds and become the starting point for the next campaign.
Kang began with the platform’s limits. A travel app has no physical product to touch, little real differentiation because rival apps copy each other’s UI and perks, and no exclusive content of the kind that draws people to a streaming service. Travel is a considered purchase, yet switching apps takes a second. So the goal is modest: be in the top few options when people think of travel, and keep them in the app at the moment they decide to go.
The jingle has drawn about 300 million cumulative views, around 176,000 likes and 2.07 million hours of watch time. Kang argues that ad spend alone cannot make people watch to the end. Still, the team does not repeat it out of habit. Each year, agency briefings start from the assumption that the song will not be used, and three questions are re-tested:
Brand research twice a year measures fatigue with the song, so familiarity does not slide into boredom.
The brand keeps the jingle, the tagline and the urge-to-travel mood. It changes models, destinations, concepts and genres each year. Owning the phrase “when you travel” for six years has made it a language asset competitors struggle to use. Casting favors people who seem least likely to sing the song, for surprise. This year, with high prices hurting overseas travel, the campaign focused on domestic trips and used the jingle less than ever, with the melody arriving only after ten seconds.
The brand had relied on collaborations with popular YouTube channels, but production fees rose about 20% a year while expected views stayed at 500,000 to 1 million. After spotting the problem in late 2023, it formed a dedicated team in September 2024 and launched its own channel in May–June 2025. Debating a new versus existing channel took three months, and convincing leadership took a year, helped by a phased plan to run partner and owned channels together before reducing outside spend.
The new channel hides the brand on purpose, since an obvious brand would signal commercial intent and drive viewers away. Led by its hit dating series, it reached 200,000 subscribers and 71 million views in its first year. Kang said recognition of formats and cast matters more than subscriber counts, and owned content avoids paid comment pinning and usage-rights limits, so it can feed promotions indefinitely.
Before copying this playbook, check three things: whether you already have a brand asset worth protecting, whether you measure the impact and fatigue of repetition, and whether your team can sustain years of preparation. For a brand without assets, consistency is a goal to build, not a legacy to guard. And being remembered is not the same as being liked. For another principle-led approach, see How Poppi Keeps Its Cultural Marketing Fizz Without Over-Relying on Data — The ‘If It’s Not F Yes, It’s F No’ Rule, and for why original owned content matters, read YouTube Shorts Algorithm Update Favors Original Content — Re-Upload Channels Lose Reach.
A platform brand without a physical product or exclusive content needs repeated, memorable cues. The team re-tests the jingle every year and measures fatigue twice a year.
It keeps the jingle, tagline and travel mood as brand assets, and changes models, destinations and concepts every year.
It reached 200,000 subscribers and 71 million views in its first year, while avoiding the rising costs of partner channels.
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