As the whole world is hit by the Hallyu wave, K-Pop idols are keeping themselves busy by getting involved in global affairs and partnerships that can be effective for them and the companies that they work with. One has to acknowledge that Korean celebrities are being glorified more than those who are famous worldwide. Among them are aespa, IVE, LE SSERAFIM and NMIXX whose estimated net worth are at $1,2 million, $874,5K, $419,8K and $392K respectively.

AESPA

Debuted in November 2023, aespa consists of four girls named Giselle, Karina, Winter and Ningning. Their first single Black Mamba created a record of highest views in 24 hours and touched 100 million views on YouTube in 51 days. Around six of their songs have been listed in Billboard Global 200 with the Savage from 2021 and Girls from 2022 getting into the top of the World Albums chart.

Housed in Metaverse

An interesting feature of the band is that their acts include both real and virtual figures. This made them more unique than the other bands. Each member of aespa has their own digital avatar, known by the name “ae.” However, this approach has received both praise and criticism.

With this initiative, they have become the official spokespersons at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development. They gave a speech on Next Generation to the Next Level with positive notes on sustainable developments. The group has attracted a global audience not just because of its Millenial and Gen Z followers, but also by raising their voices on sustainability. On the other hand, it raised concerns of being too unrealistic and can be manipulated by deep faking it into pornographic content.

But, recently, they have changed their way of thinking to be more naturalistic. They released a new album, titled My World, with the quote “aespa are in the REAL WORLD!”

Net Worth

Among them, Ningning is the richest member with an estimated net worth of $1,5 million. Winter’s net worth comes around $1,2 million, whereas Karina and Giselle earn $1 million. With their official YouTube channel, the band is generating over $1,25 million.

Luxury Fashion Brand Deals

aespa was just entering and rising their stardom in the K-pop industry when they were already swarmed with various brand ventures. Both domestic and international labels were booking the group as a whole or targeting a single member. The brands include skincare label Mediheal, Kakao Games, Cilo, French sportswear company Eider, Lotte Duty-Free, Acqua di Parma and KB Kookmin Bank.

Givenchy

In February 2021, SM Entertainment announced that aespa was chosen to be the first brand ambassador of Givenchy. Furthermore, they shared that the band will be featured in the lines and collection of Matthew M. Williams. The post mentioning their entrance into the brand received 727K likes on Instagram. aespa was the face of the brand’s 4G Bag campaign. The members were seen in the Spring Summer 2023 collection show of Givenchy at Paris Fashion Week 2022. They also attended the brand’s Fall/Winter 2022 show.

Chopard

The K-pop band was named the official brand ambassador of Chopard in September 2022. They served as the main models in the brand’s Happy Diamonds and My Happy Hearts collection. The former’s YouTube video received 175,491 views, 3200 likes. However, the second one recorded 994 views and 96 likes. Then, they were spotted in the Precious Lace line, followed by Ice Cube and Alpine Eagle collections. The “aespa x Ice Cube Collection" video earned 3,693 views and 198 likes, whereas the “aespa x Ice Cube & Alpine Eagle Collections” video generated 1,538 views and 125 likes.

On Instagram, the posts and reels featuring all the members received more than 100K likes, whereas the posts with one or two members generated fewer likes.

Crocs

In October 2022, aespa collaborated with Crocs for a virtual Roblox concert to commemorate the label’s 20th anniversary. The ae-versions of the members performed in the Crocs world of Roblox. In the same month after a year, the brand repartnered with the idols for an ethereal Stomp Lined Clogs. The post that first shared this collaboration reached 1,8 million views and 27K likes on X and 310K likes and 2,3K comments on Instagram.

IVE

IVE is a girl band composed of six individuals named Rei, Yujin, Wonyoung, Gaeul, Liz, and Leeseo. It was founded by Starship Entertainment. They entered the K-pop category in December 2021 with their single album Eleven which was listed on the Billboard Global 200 and placed nine at Billboard World Digital Song Sale. Their second single album Love Drive’s primary song was placed at number one on the Circle Digital Chart. Its recent song “Either Way” is standing at the 4th position and Baddie at 6th position on the Melon Top 100 Chart on Spotify.

In January 2022, a group of legitimate musical officials voted IVE as the most anticipated singer of 2021. The band was on the Forbes Korea Power Celebrity 40 list. In September 2023, IVE performed at the Krazy K-pop Super Concert, in New York and KCON, in Los Angeles.

Net Worth

Jang Won Young stands first with over $6 million in possession. Second is Ahn Yu Jin with $5 million. Leeseo is the third richest girl in IVE with an estimated net worth of $1 million. The fourth place is shared by three: Rei, Gaeul, and Liz whose net worth is forecasted to be about $500K.

Alliance with Leading Brands

The group was witnessed joining forces with brands. They released their song “I Want” in partnership with Pepsi in July 2023. They also got in together with Kakao Entertainment America and Columbia Records to boost their North American presence. They released the song “I’ve IVE” in April 2023 which sold 1,1 million copies. Their major collaboration was with Puma which commenced in 2023.

Puma

In July 2023, Puma made an agreement with IVE to be Asia-Pacific ambassadors in 15 countries. The post specifying this collaboration on Puma’s official Instagram account received 91,4K likes and 586 comments. The brand released elaborate videos and images of the partnership on its Japanese Instagram page. The posts’ likes ranged from 879 to 1.364. IVE tweeted about this on their official X account. It received 701,7K views and 22K likes.

Meanwhile, in the period between 2016 to 2018, BTS and Puma collaboration campaigns received likes ranging from 129K to 303K and views from 257,9K to 486,11K on Instagram. The post announcing BTS as the brand ambassador garnered 305,3K likes. On X Korea, one of their campaigns’ video tweet earned around 100K likes and 64K retweets.

NMIXX

NMIXX is a girl group, comprising six members (formerly seven), founded by JYP Entertainment under SQU4D. They debuted in February 2022 with the album Ad Mare. In May 2022, they collaborated with Gabby’s Dollhouse to create “Hey Gabby!” in Korean. Later in December 2022, one of the members, Jinni, decided to depart from the group due to personal reasons. In March 2023, after a break, NMIXX came back with a mini album Expérgo.

At the same time, they announced their ‘Nice To Mixx You’ US tour starting in May 2023. Their album A Midsummer NMIXX’s Dream made the band the sixth girl group on the Hanteo Chart to sell more than 1 million copies in the first week of its launch.

Earnings on YouTube

NMIXX holds around 2,21 million subscribers on YouTube and garnered over 641,8 million total views for a video count of 560. In October 2023, they earned an estimation of $24K with their YouTube channel. When compared to 2022, the earnings have become higher in 2023. Their highest forecasted earnings were in July 2023 which were four times higher than the same period from the previous year.

Teaming Up with Loewe

NMIXX received immense support from Spain and Latin America. When other K-Pop groups follow their own distinguished strategies, NMIXX is focusing on the underrated region - Latin America. During an interview with hello82, NMIXX expressed their Spanish language knowledge. The video was viewed by 670,2K users and received 45K likes.

With this being one of the key drives, Loewe, a renowned Spanish label, decided to appoint them as its first group ambassador in September 2022. The band’s Instagram post referring to their joining received a 3820% increase from average likes, whereas it faced a 70% increase in likes on the brand’s Instagram page. The tweet about this news reached a total engagement of over 15,8K.

The band was the face of the SS23 pre-collection. The collection’s posts received around 3,5 times higher likes than the average on Instagram and 48,9 times higher engagement on X. They were seen in the label’s Spring Summer 2023 show. Furthermore, the band made an appearance in the women's Fall Winter 2023 show in Paris. It garnered 3267% and 465% increased impact than average performance on X and Instagram respectively.

LE SSERAFIM

LE SSERAFIM was founded by Source Music with six members. However, one of the members, Kim Ga-ram left the group in July 2022. They debuted in May 2022 with the album Fearless. The second album was Antifragile which was positioned in 14th place on the Billboard 200. In January 2023, they entered Japan with the Japanese version of the Fearless album.

They did a tour named Flame Rises from the 12th to 13th of August 2023 in Seoul, followed by countries such as Jakarta, Bangkok, Nagoya, Hong Kong, and Osaka. The band became the fastest fourth-generation K-Pop girl band to get into the Spotify Global Top 200 Chart in 2 days.

In-Game Activity

In October 2023, Blizzard Entertainment announced the group’s in-game musical collaboration with Overwatch 2. On the 26th of October, they released the single Perfect Night on the game. The song received 20 million views and 517K likes on YouTube. The partnership also included in-game apparatus such as hero skins and the band-influenced game mode.

Collaboration with Louis Vuitton

LE SSERAFIM has got into partnerships with companies including Japanese brand MURUA, and Overwatch 2. However, the rumours of a possible collaboration with Louis Vuitton as brand ambassadors have kept their fans on their toes.

The band announced the news confirming the rumour on their Instagram account in October 2023. The brand posted about this in November 2023 with the news Pre-Fall 2023 collection campaign. The video reached 55K views and 1,6K likes in two hours on X.

Cover Image: Drama by aespa, courtesy @wntrult X page.