On July 5, the ministry announced that it will support 30 small businesses through the 'Brand Small Business Jump-Up' initiative, which involves participation from private comprehensive advertising agencies.
This initiative is a follow-up enhancement of the 'Brand Small Business Development (TOPS)' program, aimed at helping small business products become global premium brands.
TOPS involves ten tiered platforms that directly discover promising brand small businesses and support them with step-by-step online sales channels through specialized programs. Last year, the ministry identified a total of 3,022 businesses to foster and support small enterprises.
This year’s program, which is being launched for the first time, recorded a competition rate of approximately 30 to 1. The final selection of the 30 companies was made by a comprehensive advertising agency based on the competitiveness and growth potential of businesses already verified through existing government support programs like TOPS and Strong Small Businesses.
Major domestic advertising agencies competed to be selected as the private executing organization for the program. After a comprehensive evaluation of their understanding of small businesses and their marketing and content planning capabilities, SM C&C was ultimately chosen.
The selected 30 companies will receive tailored support from SM C&C for about six months until December. The support program includes building brand images incorporating character intellectual property (IP), producing video content and advertising for entertainment programs to enhance brand awareness, and assistance in entering overseas markets.
Lee Byung-kwon, the Second Vice Minister of SMEs and Startups, stated, "The purpose of this initiative is to combine the branding and media capabilities of private comprehensive advertising agencies with verified small business products to cultivate them into premium brands recognized in the global market."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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