Jensen Huang Eats, and the Crowd Goes Wild... Global CEOs’ ‘Free Marketing’ Effect Sparks Buzz [Trend Recipe]

[Financial News] Driven by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s tour of K-Food, South Korea’s food and restaurant industry is continuing to ride the K-Food boom.
As the restaurants and products Huang visited drew intense attention, the food industry as a whole has been energized by the global CEO’s powerful “free marketing” effect, which is stronger than advertising worth billions of won. In the past, celebrities and sports stars drove consumption. Now, analysts say, business leaders are also shaping consumer trends.
According to industry sources on the 13th, the renewed K-Food craze sparked by Huang’s visit to South Korea began not with a simple meal, but with meetings with top business leaders.
The catalyst was the so-called “samso” gathering — samgyeopsal and soju — held on the 5th at a barbecue restaurant near Hongik University in Mapo District, Seoul, with Chey Tae-won, Koo Kwang-mo, and Lee Hae-jin.
After learning how to wrap meat in lettuce from Lee that day, Huang handed out “HBM Chips,” a convenience-store collaboration snack named after SK hynix’s high-bandwidth memory, to passersby and shouted, “More HBM! Everyone loves HBM!” drawing widespread attention.
The samgyeopsal restaurant and the snack saw sales surge after being featured on broadcast media.
His unusual affection for Korean fried chicken was also confirmed once again. Last year, Huang’s meeting at Kkanbu Chicken during a visit to South Korea significantly boosted brand awareness, but this time BBQ Chicken benefited the most.
After finishing the samgyeopsal gathering in Hongdae, Huang and his party moved to BBQ Chicken’s Hongik University station branch to enjoy fried chicken. Weekend sales at that store on the 5th and 6th reportedly rose by more than 20% from the previous week.
During his visit to Jamsil Baseball Stadium on the 7th, NVIDIA reportedly placed a group order for 113 boxes of BBQ Chicken’s “Crunch Boneless Cracker” at the Jamsil Baseball Stadium branch. At the stadium, spectators lined up to order the beer-and-chicken set he had been drinking.

BBQ plans to use this opportunity as a springboard for more aggressive market expansion. The company has launched a two-week limited-time sale of set menus, including the “Golden Olive Chicken” that Huang actually ordered. The idea is that the publicity effect will continue for a while even after Huang has left.
A BBQ official explained, “As consumer interest has continued, with many people saying they want to try the menu items Jensen Huang recently enjoyed, we prepared this limited set.”
The places Huang visited, as well as the food he ate, have spread rapidly through Social Network Service (SNS), giving the related brands and stores a strong promotional boost. Among younger consumers in particular, Huang has been nicknamed a “food expert,” and the dishes he ate and the places he visited are being widely shared.
An industry source said, “The moves of global tech icon Jensen Huang are spreading through SNS,” adding, “Because this is not a planned marketing campaign but a natural form of exposure, it is likely to go beyond a one-time effect and raise the global brand value of K-Food over the long term.”
ssuccu@fnnews.com Kim Seo-yeon Reporter