[2025 The CEO of Sunchon National University Early-Stage Startup Package] SoYeon Ji, CEO of BELLARIE

Startup specializing in brand performance marketing ‘BELLARIE’

Equipped with a differentiated structure that combines influencer branding and performance marketing
Sincerely connect brands and followers through storytelling content that touches the sentiments of consumers

With a differentiated structure that combines influencer branding and performance marketing, BELLARIE aims to be a ‘content-oriented commerce platform’ where celebrities and brands naturally connect. The company has grown rapidly since its establishment, achieving sales of 1 billion won in its first year. It is now an integrated marketing agency, encompassing collaborations with various global brands, as well as advertising, promotion, and branding. It was established by CEO SoYeon Ji in September 2024.

“BELLARIE is not just an advertising agency, but a media commerce-type marketing company centered on the influence of creators and celebrities. It doesn’t just expose the brand’s message, but sincerely connects the brand and its followers through storytelling content that touches the sentiments of consumers.”

In the process of working as a model and actor, and experiencing numerous brand collaborations, CEO Ji felt the limitations of the ‘structure in which brands unilaterally select celebrities.’ It was decided that a new structure was necessary to enable celebrities to directly choose and propose brands. Consequently, the ‘Celebrity Reverse Proposal’ marketing model was created.

This innovative system shifts away from the traditional brand- and celebrity-centered approach, allowing celebrities to select and propose brands that align with their image and resonate with their followers. Brands can then review the content and collaboration ideas presented by the celebrities and work together to develop the campaign. Through this, not just sponsorship, content with authentic stories and natural experiences is born.

CEO Ji opened the agency channel BELLARIE to realize this structure. This channel is linked to various digital platforms and functions as an open collaboration window where brands and celebrities can meet naturally without high barriers to entry. Brands directly expose their products and concepts to celebrities through the BELLARIE channel, and celebrities naturally introduce the brand through collaborations that align with their personalities and content. Ultimately, this structure leads to branded content planning, co-production, and sales linkage, creating tangible outcomes that connect to brand awareness and sales. In addition, BELLARIE is building a 360-degree integrated performance model that simultaneously grows branding and sales, including celebrities’ individual branding, group purchases, shopping mall launches, and content IP business.

BELLARIE operates a 360-degree integrated performance model that includes not only online-focused performance marketing but also celebrity networks, SNS branding, offline pop-ups, and home shopping collaborations.

“Beyond simply creating ads, we design structures where content leads to consumer perception and purchase conversions. This allows celebrities to strengthen their brand equity and brands to secure a trusted point of contact with consumers. Eventually, BELLARIE is acting as a bridge to realize the structure in which content leads to commerce.”

BELLARIE has grown based on its own capital and sales so far, and recently attracted seed investment in the accelerator, upgradepart2. In the future, it is preparing for a Pre-A investment round for VCs, and plans to expand its K-content x commerce model through collaboration with domestic and foreign entertainment and IT companies.

How did SoYeon Ji start her own business? “While working as a model and actress and collaborating with numerous brands, brands always wanted ‘authentic content’. Celebrities want ‘meaningful collaboration’, but I felt that there was a lack of structure to connect them efficiently. To bridge this gap, I founded BELLARIE to create a structure where brands and celebrities can suggest each other and grow together. The initial startup funds were secured through personal activity income and campaign profits from existing collaborative brands, and no separate large-scale external investment was received. I designed a profit structure based on content and secured revolving funds through project-specific sales, while growing the company stably.”

After founding the company, the CEO said, “I feel the greatest sense of fulfillment when I see the brands and celebrities I have personally participated with promoting and growing their brands through BELLARIE content.”

Regarding future plans, Ji said, “BELLARIE aims to expand beyond Korea to the global market based on the celebrity network and content production capabilities it has built so far,” and added, “In the short term, we will concretize the structure of celebrity reverse proposal marketing where brands and celebrities can freely connect, and expand our business centered on the branded content channel ‘BELLARIE’, which serves as its foundation.”

Date of Establishment: September 2024
Main Business: Influencer marketing, content creation, brand branding, and IP business
Achievements: Selected for the Early-Stage Startup Package by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups

reporter jinho lee
jinho2323@hankyung.com