Hyundai, Louis Vuitton and Hanwha show how companies are turning culture into brand experience

Corporate participation in culture is moving beyond sponsorship, advertising and simple product placement. Companies are increasingly using films, cafés, museums and immersive spaces to create experiences that allow consumers to spend time inside a brand’s worldview.

Hyundai Motor’s recent film-related projects show how this shift is taking shape in Korea. The company supported director Na Hong-jin’s new film HOPE, released in Korea on July 15, and presented a making video featuring actor Jung Ho-yeon and Hyundai’s heritage model Stella. In the film, the Stella appears not merely as a vehicle, but as a police car that helps build the chase sequences, period atmosphere and narrative rhythm. Hyundai described the collaboration as part of a content partnership strategy designed to communicate brand heritage and cultural value through storytelling.

This approach differs from conventional product placement. A car in a film is no longer just an object placed in the frame. It can carry time, memory, technology and cinematic tension. The product becomes part of the story’s structure.

Hyundai had already experimented with this direction through the short film Night Fishing, created with actor Son Sukku and director Moon Byounggon. The film was shot from the perspective of cameras mounted on a vehicle, turning automotive technology into a cinematic point of view. Hyundai described the work as a “humanism thriller” built around an unusual visual format, while its press material highlighted the use of vehicle-mounted cameras as a fresh approach to the car film genre.

The film also tested a new distribution model. Presented as a “snack movie,” Night Fishing was released with a short running time and a 1,000 won ticket price, attracting attention as an alternative theatrical experience.

The key point is not that Hyundai’s cars appeared on screen. The more important shift is that Hyundai’s technology shaped how the story was seen. In this case, the brand did not simply say, “Look at our car.” It suggested, “This technology can create a new way of seeing.”

A similar transformation is visible in the luxury sector. Louis Vuitton’s Le Café Louis Vuitton Seoul, located inside Maison Louis Vuitton Seoul, extends the brand beyond fashion into food, space and hospitality. The official Louis Vuitton page describes the café as a culinary journey within Frank Gehry’s Maison Seoul, combining Korean flavors with French inspirations from Saint-Tropez and Paris.

Here, the customer is not only looking at products. The customer is spending time inside the brand’s taste. The café turns fashion into atmosphere, cuisine and spatial memory. The brand experience is no longer limited to what is purchased, but also includes where one stays, what one eats and how one remembers the space.

Hanwha’s partnership with Centre Pompidou offers another model. Centre Pompidou Hanwha, established through a partnership between Hanwha Foundation of Culture and Centre Pompidou, opened in June 2026 inside Seoul’s 63 Building in Yeouido. According to Hanwha Foundation, the museum spans about 3,000 square meters, includes two major exhibition halls and will present exhibitions from Centre Pompidou’s modern and contemporary collections over the next four years.

This shows how corporate cultural participation can move beyond event sponsorship toward cultural infrastructure. A company does not simply fund an exhibition; it helps build a site where exhibitions, education, tourism and urban identity can meet.

These examples point to a broader change. Companies are no longer asking only how their products can be seen. They are asking how their brands can be experienced. Film, food, architecture and museums are becoming platforms through which companies create emotional contact with audiences.

But this expansion also raises questions. When does cultural participation become meaningful collaboration, and when does it become disguised marketing? Who benefits from a branded cultural space? Does it support artists, audiences and local communities, or does it simply extend the company’s image?

The most successful cultural projects are not those that place a logo at the center. They are the ones that allow culture to speak while the brand creates the conditions for a new experience. Hyundai’s Night Fishing was interesting because vehicle technology became a cinematic language. Le Café Louis Vuitton Seoul attracts attention because it translates brand taste into time and space. Centre Pompidou Hanwha matters because it connects a private company with public cultural infrastructure.

The next stage of corporate cultural strategy will not be judged only by how much money a company spends. It will be judged by what kind of experience it creates, who participates in it and what remains after the campaign is over.

Consumers no longer remember only products.
They remember stories, places, moods and the time they spent inside a brand’s world.

In that sense, the future of branding may depend less on what a company sells, and more on what kind of culture it is able to create with others.

[Sayart = Maria Kim] 
sayart2022@gmail.com