YouTrip puts a price on looking like a K-pop idol

YouTrip is tapping into K-pop fandom to drive engagement around its year-end travel promotion, with a lookalike contest offering SG$9,000 in cash prizes and a chance for attendees to win flights to South Korea.

The Singapore-based multi-currency payment platform is searching for a local lookalike of a South Korean boy band member through its "JKook" contest, which runs alongside its "100 Flights to Korea" giveaway campaign. 

Applications close on 3 November, after which YouTrip will select 20 submissions to feature on its Instagram page for public voting. The 10 contestants with the most votes will advance to a live finale on 12 November, where registered attendees will vote for the top three winners.

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The winners will receive SG$5,000, SG$3,000 and SG$1,000 respectively. Attendees can also enter a lucky draw to win a pair of flight tickets to South Korea and take part in a K-pop trivia quiz during the finale. Event registration runs from 7 to 10 November, with seats allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

For YouTrip, the contest is an opportunity to turn consumers' interest in Korean culture into an experience that goes beyond a conventional travel giveaway.

Kelvin Lam, chief operating officer at YouTrip, said the "100 Flights to Korea" campaign was built around Singaporeans' interest in the country's food, culture and travel experiences shared with family and friends.

"We also wanted to create something our community could actively participate in, and K-pop fandom is inherently social and expressive," he told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. 

Rather than limiting engagement to the campaign's online promotion, YouTrip introduced the lookalike contest as a way to bring participants together in person.

"The lookalike contest gave us a natural bridge from online engagement to an in-person experience," Lam said. "By culminating the campaign in a live finale, we turned a flight giveaway into a shared community moment where users could come together, have fun and connect over their shared interests."

The contest forms part of YouTrip's wider "100 Flights to Korea" promotion, which runs until 31 December 2026. The campaign will award 31 YouTrip users three flight tickets each, allowing winners to bring family or friends along.

Beyond engagement, the promotion is also designed to keep YouTrip top of mind among Singaporeans planning trips to Korea and encourage more consumers to use its platform.

"The 100 Flights to Korea campaign encourages more Singaporeans to experience Korea, while allowing both new and existing users to be part of that journey on us," Lam said. The lookalike contest, he added, creates an additional opportunity to engage the community through a shared interest in K-pop.

New users can enter the giveaway by downloading the YouTrip app, signing up and using the promo code FLY100KR. Existing users can qualify by tapping "Join now" on the in-app banner and spending SG$500 with their YouTrip card.

Existing users can also earn three additional lucky draw entries for every YouTrip Family Child Account created during the campaign period. Winners will be announced on 31 December.

To evaluate the campaign, YouTrip will look at both participation and brand affinity, according to Lam. This includes new user sign-ups, contest entries, public voting and engagement at the live finale, alongside audience sentiment, online conversations and event feedback. To sum it up, Lam said: 

Ultimately, success is not just about how many people participate, but whether we create a memorable experience that brings our community closer to the brand.

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