Ad Planning & Media
Content formats in Korea, by placement
Content placements in Korea split into four — short vertical video, image sets, long-form posts, and where buyer reviews collect. Length and aspect ratio for each, what the opening segment has to carry, which home-market assets move over unchanged, and how subtitles and on-screen text go on.
Content in Korea takes a set shape depending on where it sits. There are four placements — short vertical video · image sets you swipe through · long-form posts · the place where buyer reviews collect. Length, aspect ratio and the opening segment differ in each one. Which of your existing assets can move over unchanged and which have to be rebuilt splits along the same four.
How many kinds of placement are there?
Service names change every year, so they are not worth memorising. Sort instead by the posture a person is in when they arrive, and you get four. The same product becomes a different piece of work in each.
| Placement | How people arrive | Usual format | How long one piece works |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short vertical video | Scrolling, and something stops them | One vertical video | A few days |
| Image set | Looking through an account | Several photos | 1–2 weeks |
| Long-form post | Coming in from a search | Text and photos alternating | Several months |
| Where reviews collect | Checking right before buying | Photos and text from buyers | Keeps building up |
The first three are places a company posts to. The fourth is not somewhere you post — it is where the writing of people who bought accumulates, so it is prepared differently.
What length do you plan for in each placement?
The ranges below hold in most cases. Detailed specifications differ by placement and change over time, so check that placement's own guidance once before you upload.
| Placement | Length · volume | Aspect ratio | What shows first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short vertical video | 15–45 seconds | Vertical 9:16 | The first 2 seconds |
| Image set | 5–10 images | 1:1 or vertical 4:5 | The first image only |
| Long-form post | 1,000–2,000 Korean characters · 8–15 photos | 860–1000px wide | First 3 lines and 1 photo |
| Where reviews collect | 1–3 photos · two or three sentences | Whatever the buyer's phone produces | The first photo |
There is no rule against going past 45 seconds. But fixing the length first and putting in only what fits takes less work than cutting it down once it is finished. Keep one piece to one thing you want to say.
What goes into the opening segment?
In all four placements, a list view shows only the front slice. That slice has to say what is being sold, or nothing else opens. A logo or brand intro at the very front spends that slice — put the logo at the end.
- First 2 seconds of a short vertical video — the product is on screen with one line of text over it. It has to read with the sound off.
- First image of an image set — only this one is picked up in a list. Put the shot showing the whole product first and push detail shots back.
- First 3 lines of a long-form post — this much appears verbatim in search results and lists. Put the conclusion at the front.
- First photo of a review — the buyer takes it. What a company decides is the state the product is in when the box opens.
Can assets made at home be used as they are?
Open the asset folder and split it into three columns — as is · subtitles only · remake. Two things decide the split: whether text is burned into the picture, and whether product labelling is visible.
| Asset | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Cut-out product shot with no background | As is | No text, so language does not matter |
| Wordless process or usage footage | As is | Only the subtitles are redone |
| Horizontal video of someone speaking | Subtitles only | Survives a vertical crop only if the person sits centre frame |
| Image with text drawn into it | Remake | Without the editable original the text cannot be swapped |
| Packaging shot showing labelling | Remake | The labelling on the product sold in Korea may differ |
| Seasonal or holiday material | Remake | The calendar differs — in a country with reversed seasons it is off entirely |
Laying another language's audio over a close-up of someone speaking puts the mouth out of step with the sound. Keep those scenes as subtitles, or shoot them again. Scenes where the face is small or only the hands show survive an audio swap, so separate these two before choosing what to move.
How do subtitles and on-screen text go on?
They are two different things. Subtitles carry the speech; on-screen text is added to emphasise. Give them separate zones so they never sit on top of each other.
| Item | Standard |
|---|---|
| One subtitle line | 12–16 Korean characters · two lines at most |
| Text size | At least 4% of frame height in vertical video |
| Safe margin | Leave 10–15% clear at the top and bottom of vertical video |
| Line spacing | 1.4–1.6 for Korean — Latin settings left as they are feel cramped |
| What to keep | Three versions: no subtitles · a subtitle file (SRT) · burned-in subtitles |
Translation changes the number of lines. Do not push the new text into the original subtitle slots — retime and rebreak line by line after translating. Account names, captions and buttons sit in the top and bottom margins of vertical video, so text placed there is covered.
In what order do you fill the four?
Trying to fill all four at once produces work that fits none of them. Pick one to start with. The deciding factor is how much explaining the product needs.
Products you understand on sight — things you eat or apply, where the use is visible — start with short vertical video. Products that need explaining — ingredients, specifications, comparisons — start with the long-form post. The image set is cut from whichever of the two was made first.
Where reviews collect is not a place you fill. It appears only once selling has started, so it comes last in order. What to settle before the first shipment is different — the state the product is in when the box opens, and whether the instructions and labelling read in Korean.
What to do today
Open the asset folder you have been using at home and spend 30 minutes splitting it into three columns — as is · subtitles only · remake. Copying the file names across is enough. The count in the third column is how much new production Korea needs; the count in the first is what is usable today.
