South Korea is famous for its booming culture and arts industry - especially their K-Pop and K-Drama products which are watched billions of times around the world. But it?s not just the songs or TV shows, but Korean fans are known to do anything to show their love for ?their? celebrities. This actually, often ends up making a lot of social contributions; environmental impact is definitely one of them.

We should use the power of cultural trends and forces to promote environmental friendly policies of conservation, changing consumption habits, rehabilitating environments, sustainable resources. Hoping to promote the pubic to plant more trees, Two Korean CEOs, Kim Hyung-soo and Jeong Min-cheol, created a mobile game named Tree Planet, but sooner or later recognized something extraordinary; users began naming their trees after K-pop stars.

After realizing that tree planting was affected by the Korean Wave, they took advantage of such cultural trends and suggested them to plant whole swathes of trees in the name of their celebrities. Though the Korean Wave was not one of the factors that Kim and Jeong expected in the beginning, this became a new part of their culture and more and more fans started to plant trees for their celebrities such as EXO, SNSD, and Bigbang on their birthdays or debut dates.

Taking this as an example, companies themselves can utilize this as a marketing tool, attaching cultural trends to environmental causes. Like the Tree Planet, companies can launch larger projects (for example, to reduce paper usage, purchase efficient products, and take short showers) with fan clubs or other large organizations.

Applying this a marketing strategy, companies can expect an advertisement-like effect; instead of creating TV and newspaper advertisements or spending on corporate social responsibility, companies can actually ?show? their core values and how much they are concerned about the environment, creating a positive first impression on the public.

The cultural force has more potential to impact the world than any other type of influence. If companies learn from projects such as Tree Planet, target regions with deforestation issues, and get K-drama fans to become advocates, they will sooner or later find themselves changing the whole world.