Kim Yeon-gyeong, a renowned world-class volleyball star, who is the advertisement model of World Cone. (Photos: Lotte Confectionery)

This year’s ice cream cone market is expected to get hotter than ever. Lotte Confectionary’s World Cone has demonstrated its standing as Korea’s representative ice cream cone by leveraging sports star marketing every year.

In particular, expectations are mounting over the selecting of Kim Yeon-gyeong, a renowned world-class volleyball star, as the advert model of World Cone, whose personal image suits that of the world-class standing of World Cone. World Cone is a household name in the Korean ice cream market.

Amid the difficulties the Korean confectionery market suffered due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, World Cone maintained its status as a best-seller in the Korean market. The item saw sales top 70 billion won, according to a Nielson estimate.

Despite the 2020 sales, which were lower than those of the previous year, World Cone had retained the No. 1 position the item held for the past 20 years.

A view of diverse versions of World Con, one of Lotte Confectionery’s best-sellers.

World Cone marks the 35th year since its debut in March 1986. The item saw cumulative sales stand at about 1.57 trillion won since then. The cumulative number of World Cones sold so far stands at 2.9 billion.

To put that into perspective, if ice cream cones sold so far were lined up in one line, they would wrap around the globe 16.3 times, stretching for 652,500 km.

World Cone snatched the No. 1 position in the cone market in 1988 two years after it made its debut. The item has advanced from strength to strength to retain the No. 1 position in the Korean ice cream market since 1996.

Lotte Confectionery attributed the ice cream's success to its excellent quality aspects, such as its flavor, size and design, which it has maintained constantly since its release.

World Cone has adapted thorough differentiation strategies in terms of size and price compared to its rival items. It remains larger than its competitors' products, Lotte claims, and is sweeter, softer and tastier as well.

From a design perspective, the confectionary has attracted attention with creative colors with a contrast between red and blue on top of its intrinsic images, made with a star pattern and strong logo styles.

The structure of World Cone is the harmonizing of tastes, in which it is decorated with chocolates after peanuts are scattered on the top of an ice cream, which cannot be copied, bringing in heightened visual effects.

The inner part of the cone, coated with chocolates, makes it constantly crispy and tasty. The differentiated design of World Cone is a factor for maintaining its identity. It identity motif — red color, wild log type and a star pattern — has been adopted and evolved, and it has pursued changes to instill a fresh image.

The 2022 World Cone comes in four versions: the most popular and familiar Madagascar Vanilla and Chocolate, as well as the newly introduced Cooky and Cream, and Camarosa Strawberry.

The high season for the product is between April and October.

Lotte Confectionery plans to conduct diverse marketing activities via social network services such as Facebook. The company aims to raise sales to more than double-digit growth this year over the previous year through aggressive marketing activities.