K-League aims to improve brand value following the expansion of profits from new market development in collaboration with Zootopia Trading Card Bulummarble
Aug 12, 2025
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From the 25th to the 6th of last month, the Korea Professional Football Federation held a 'K League-Zootopia Pop-up Store' at The Hyundai Seoul in Yeouido, Seoul for a total of 13 days. It was the second character collaboration marketing following the hugely successful 'K League-Sanrio Characters pop-up store'. Disney's representative animation 'Zootopia' is the first example of collaboration between the K League and Disney Korea, and the K League is the first to collaborate with a professional sports league under the theme of Zootopia.
Through this event, 25 kinds of products, including football T-shirts, mufflers, luggage colors, and doll key rings, were sold jointly by all K-League clubs and Zootopia. In addition, various hands-on contents such as photo zones, uniform marking service zones, and team K-League team participation events have also been prepared.
The response from the fans was enthusiastic. A total of 58,816 visitors visited the pop-up store for 13 days, with an average of 4,524 visitors a day. The figure exceeded the average daily visitors of the K-League-Sanrio pop-up store (3800). It was also successful in terms of revenue. On the first day of the pop-up store operation, the average purchase per person reached 99,000 won. The average purchase per person during the entire operation period was 68,000 won, and the maximum amount of payment per pop-up store reached 1,447,200 won.
Both Hyundai Seoul and Disney officials responded positively to the pop-up store's success. "At the same time as this pop-up store, overseas club stores such as Barcelona and Newcastle United were also held, and the K-League was much higher in terms of actual purchasing power," The Hyundai Seoul said. As this is the first time Disney has collaborated with Sports with Zootopia IP, the headquarters watched it with great interest. In particular, it was a fascinating and new experience to see team K League players and fans wearing uniforms and training suits that collaborated with Zootopia during the Coupang Play series."
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It's not just that. In September 2023, the K League released the first panini trading card for an Asian professional sports organization. A trading card is a card printed with a player's game scene and is called a trading card in the sense that fans collect or exchange it. It was sold out in the first year of its release, and since then, it has sold more than 1.5 million packs, creating a box office craze. Since then, it has been expanded to K League 2, and trading card exchange among fans has become a play culture.
Recently, even a board game came out. 'Burumabul K League Edition' and"Dobble K League" were released. The K-League is the first to enter the board game market in domestic professional sports. The federation found content to enjoy the K-League in addition to the game when watching away games in the K-League, and chose a board game that can be enjoyed together. Blue Marble and Doble are popular board games with more than 20 million cumulative sales worldwide, and have been well received by fans by melting various soccer-related elements.
This year, the federation established an IP business team to strengthen the K-League IP (Intellectual Property) business and expand its profit model. It plans to establish a virtuous cycle structure that leads to new market development → Federation, expansion of club profits → K-League value improvement → secure stable income sources and generate new profits through content development outside of Gyeonggi and cooperation in heterogeneous industries. An official from the federation said "We will strengthen consumer accessibility by securing distribution channels and seek to maximize IP fandom inflow and sales through strategic collaboration. We plan to build a differentiated brand image by expanding lifestyle contents that can be consumed 365 days a year.'
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
