🔗 2021-07-13 Email from ADOR (CBO Office) → HYBE (Park Ji-won)

(HYB_CBO Office) Shin, Dong Hoon / 신동훈 — July 13, 2021
To: Jiwon Ye, Min Heejin

Jiwon,
The document you attached was prepared by Source Music in August 2020.

As Heejin explained last week,
after receiving the initial launch strategy first proposed by Big Hit’s Marketing Team in March 2020 (written by Lee Hyejin / proposed by Si-hyuk), there were many points she disagreed with and many aspects that diverged from the direction Heejin had in mind.
As a result, the CBO Office independently developed its own launch strategy in May 2020 and presented it to Si-hyuk, Sungjin, the Worldview Team, and Source Music staff.
(This is the document Yemin previously attached and the content presented to you, Jiwon, last week.)

However, after hearing the presentation, Si-hyuk commented that
while Heejin’s proposal was quite excellent, it was also unconventional and seemed difficult to execute with Source Music’s infrastructure, so he suggested it might be better to proceed under M Label.
He also expressed his opinion that the 2021 Team should become a group that absorbs “the last remaining sweetness of the legacy girl group market” (his actual words).

At the time, upon hearing this, Heejin felt a significant gap between his opinion and her own vision, and expressed her intention to step away from the 2021 Team and focus on M Label instead.
However, due to Si-hyuk’s persistent and active persuasion, she withdrew her intention to leave.

Subsequently, in August 2020, Source Music re-proposed a preliminary planning document (the document you referenced in this email).
This document reflected a significantly scaled-down version of the direction from Heejin’s May launch strategy,
and based on the circumstances and content, it appeared to have copied several elements.
Heejin and Yemin formally complained about this to Source Music and Sungjin So. The working-level staff all acknowledged this, and Sungjin So did not deny it either.

For example, looking at just the direction alone:
The direction in Source’s March strategy was “a growth narrative as a beautiful figure of power,” but in Source’s August preliminary planning document, the direction was reset to “an adventure to find one’s true self—a growth narrative and adventure of girls.”
It is difficult to view the direction of the August document as having developed from their own March launch strategy (no similarities). Rather, it is much closer to the direction proposed in the CBO Office’s May launch strategy.

The concept of “Teen Influencer” from the May CBO document was reflected in the August Source document through similar concepts such as
“a peer friend to teenage girls worldwide,” “an honest and free-spirited vibe,” and “global influencer.”

The content from the May CBO document about building on teenagers’ empathy and admiration was
reflected in the August Source document as: targeting teenage females as the main audience, delivering relatable messages combined with visuals they want to emulate, appealing as both a peer and an aspirational figure.
This was a complete departure from the original Big Hit (Source) March document, which had a mixed main target and was focused on male fans.

Additionally, Si-hyuk’s opinion during the May CBO presentation—that they should follow the legacy girl group approach—which was the basis for opposing Heejin’s proposal, was also not reflected in the August document.

Even after recognizing the issues with the August document, in the broader context of collaboration,
the CBO Office initially chose not to raise the issue to avoid unnecessary friction.
However, during subsequent working-level operations, Source Music stated that the May CBO document had been “dropped”
and that the strategy was “impossible to implement” at Source Music.
Given this, it became necessary to point out the seriousness of this error and the aforementioned similarities.
As explained above, Yemin formally raised the issue once to the entire working-level team,
and Heejin also clearly complained during a meeting with Sungjin. The Source Music working-level staff acknowledged this, and Sungjin did not deny it.

Therefore, please understand the August 2020 Source document you attached as a copied, scaled-down, and edited version of the May CBO document.

As an additional note, considering that girl group trainees were featured in a BTS music video last week without prior consultation, it feels like this pattern of disrespectful conduct is continuing.
I am concerned that situations are increasingly arising that make it difficult to trust Source Music or Big Hit Music going forward.