Episode 5. From A Small Agency, B1A4’s Successful Ways [ARTICLE TRANS]
“Each stone has its own color and personality, in order to find it and create valuable gems, this place exists.”
That is a phrase written inside of the WM Entertainment building. Refining stones into sparkling and shining gems and discovering people who have talent and making them into stars. But you’ve heard of places such as SM Entertainment and YG Entertainment, is WM Entertainment something new?
‘Idols, are they products? Are they people?’ In the first episode, through fandom interviews, we unveiled dissatisfaction from the majority of fandoms from small and medium sized companies. Fans of large agencies already know about the systems from broadcasts and through media. On the other hand, we raised the possibility of bigger problems with small/medium sized agencies with their rough speculations and relatively small scale systems.
WM Entertainment is a typical small/medium agency in Korea. WM is the home to the 5 membered boy group B1A4. B1A4 debuted in 2011 and during their third year since debut, in 2013, they achieved first place on a music program showing steady growth as a group. B1A4’s first win with ‘What’s Going On’ was the start. Each song they released then, ‘Lonely’ and ‘Solo Day’ achieved first place demonstrating the group’s popularity.
In one year, WM has grown B1A4 to be one of the most popular groups in Asia amongst the dozens of idols that have made their debut in the fierce market. A large agency would get that result with no real awareness to it.
What is the secret of success? It’s that rather than seeing them as idols, starting to see them as people.WM Director Kim Jinmi said “The role of an agency is to be a fence” and she also told us the agency’s philosophy, “We support the members as people, not as celebrities, and we want to be the part of a fence.” From Lee Seunghwan’s agency Dream Factory and after being a founding member of FNC Entertainment, Kim Jinmi became a director at WM, through which she observed their system.
Q. Firstly, what is the secret that a small agency could create B1A4?
Director Kim Jinmi: B1A4 is a team that was made with all of the employees’ affection. Because of the brand that the Big 3 have, there is a notice that emerges from those agencies. Even though we, as WM, didn’t have a brand yet, for some reason in the beginning, we had confidence. We believed in each other. Even the members were positive. A contract would not have been easy for the members of a small company. We had talked to each other a lot and because we believed in each other based on those conversations, I think that’s where the confidence came from. If you look an agency, I think that it’s just one fence. Although the life of a celebrity may be short, you come this way to make it a life career without knowing if you might do it for a lifetime. Therefore, there is a responsibility to everyone.
LONG ARTICLE!!!
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