‘Maximizing synergy between drama and webtoon’

The drama ‘Motel California’, starring Lee Se-young and Na In-woo, has embarked on a ‘two-track’ strategy aimed at box office success.
The drama, which will be first broadcast on January 20th next year, is a romance drama about a female protagonist who was born and raised in a rural motel and reunites with her first love in her hometown she ran away to 12 years ago. It is based on the popular novel ‘Home, Bitter Home’ by author Shim Yoon-seo in 2019.

According to MBC and Kakao Entertainment on the 22nd, they are aiming for a ‘win-win effect’ by releasing the webtoon a month before the first broadcast of the drama.

The webtoon ‘Home, Bitter Home: Motel California’, which began serialization on the 20th, shares the same setting and worldview as the original novel as well as the drama, and will focus on the romance between the male and female protagonists unique to the webtoon, providing a different kind of fun from the drama.

This is drawing attention as one of the ways to maximize the synergy effect utilizing intellectual property (IP), which has recently been popular in the broadcasting industry.

It is easy to increase the popularity of the drama by releasing the webtoon first, and it also generates interest in the original work and the webtoon while the drama is airing.

‘The Call You Dialed Now’, starring Yoo Yeon-seok and Chae Soo-bin, also succeeded in leading to a simultaneous rise in popularity by releasing its webtoon before the drama aired.

‘The Phone Call You‘re Making Now’ is a drama based on a web novel of the same name, and is a romantic drama about a couple in a political marriage who discover their hidden feelings after a threatening phone call.

The drama started with a rating of 5.5% (Nielsen Korea) and recently rose to 7.0%, capturing both viewership and buzz. The original web novel’s sales also increased 14.6 times after the drama aired. The number of views also increased 5.0 times. The webtoon of the same name, which began serialization before the drama aired, also increased sales and views by 6.9 times and 3.6 times, respectively.

An official from MBC‘s IP strategy division said, “This is a consumption structure where viewers and webtoon subscribers enjoy the same IP in various ways,” and “We expect a virtuous cycle where web novel subscribers read the webtoon and then watch the drama by launching it as a webtoon before the drama.”


Reporter Lee Jeong-yeon annjoy@donga.com