15. [C-JeS's insight] The traces and achievements of JYJ's world tour
From the Fall of 2011 to the Spring of 2012, JYJ held a true world tour. It was a world tour that took them across the main continents, from Asia to North and South America, and Europe, to meet their fans. In the process, JYJ created a new record for the becoming the first Korean singers to hold a solo concert in Europe and South America.
Not only does JYJ's world tour have such 'historical' meaning, but it also allowed them to become pioneers of K-pop. South America was an area that others couldn't easily go to because of time and cost issues. But JYJ toured the South American region and performed. Only after their South American leg did other K-pop singers hold concerts there as well.
"Europe and South America. It was quite hard to hold concerts in countries that others didn't perform in. Not only did we not have any concert-related data to work off of, but we had no idea how many fans would actually come either. If we were to hold a concert in China, we would be able to hire local agents to estimate the number of fans who would come, but because there hadn't been any K-pop concerts held in South America, we had no way of estimating at all. We weren't in a position to receive help from others either. It might have seemed impossible to others. So we went out and did field surveys ourselves. We believe that if we hadn't shown others that holding a concert in that region was possible, other singers couldn't have dreamed of going there. We were the pioneers. We were the ones who reached out to all the continents."
Like CEO Baek Chang Joo said, C-JeS Entertainment, which was in charge of planning JYJ's world tour, had no help from any outside sources and took control of everything about the world tour, from start to finish.
"There's a difference between seeing your favorite singer on an online video and seeing them in person. We wanted the fans to meet JYJ in person. And there are some people who just go to famous overseas singers' concerts, even if they aren't fans. They go to these concerts and become fans. It was important for us to go and show them who we were and what we could do. Even if there were only 3,000 people who would be coming now, we knew that in the long run that number would increase. Because we tried it first, other companies and other singers followed us. That's what was most rewarding."
Like this, JYJ's world tour looked to the long run, even if there weren't many fans or profit in the short run, and left an important trace in South America.
"It was when we visited Chile. The first time we went, 1,000 fans greeted us at the airport but the second time we went, 3,000 people were there. Though there weren't as many fans in Brazil as there were in Chile or Peru, we still went there. We believe that if we keep going back once or twice, the number of fans will keep increasing. If we had only been focusing on getting money from the concerts, it would have been a place we should have never gone to."
These efforts by C-JeS Entertainment won the local fans over. When C-JeS Entertainment began planning their second South America performances, agents in the region agreed to work with them without a moment of hesitation.
But wouldn't it be right to earn a certain amount of profit so as to create a possibility for reinvestments in the next concerts?
"It was a concert we could have never done if we were in it for the money. We have to look at it in the long run. For JYJ, if the trust they placed in their work is broken, they can't work. We believed that it couldn't end with one concert, we have to keep visiting the fans again and again. The process of preparing for our second concerts in South America was much easier than the first time."
Did the members have no worries of going to South America, the opposite side of the globe?
CEO Baek Chang Joo emphasized, "We didn't have any alternatives. I think if we were actually given a choice, it would have been harder for us. Because we only had one path that we could take, we were able to put all our efforts into making it happen."
