Here on the eve of what I would argue is the biggest musical release of the entire first part of 2026, I wanted to talk about several aspects of Blackpink’s marketing and strategic plan, using the ultra-impressive “GO” teaser as a springing off point.
If you are one of the two people in the world who hasn’t seen it yet:
First, let’s be clear. Blackpink are the biggest group in the world right now.
(I know the ARMY is going to have a problem with that but BTS has been gone a long time, and ONCE will have something to say and you know I love TWICE. But my statement stands. Sorry Swifties – and I love and respect Taylor too – but worldwide it’s looking more and more black and pink out there.)
For the world, they are the as big as any of the biggest bands with fervent fanbases at their peak – Beatles, Rolling Stones, KISS, whoever. And like with the reaction to an artist as huge as Bad Bunny before the Superbowl, to US people who are mired in their myopic view that US culture and specifically English speaking US culture is supreme in all areas, remarkably you are just as likely to find people in the US who would agree with my statement above as you are to find people who’s response would be “What are you talking about? Who is Blackpink?” (Though the latter crowd is certainly diminishing because you REALLY have to strive to not pay attention at this point.)
Anyone with any doubt can consider so many metrics:
They are the first artist in history to have over 100 million YouTube subscribers. They have over 41.1 billion total views. Over 50 of their videos have more than 100 million views. On Spotify alone, monthly listeners are around 43 million.
The group has over 57 millions followers on social media. They (obviously) hold the Guinness World Record for “Most Viewed Band on YouTube”. They were TIME magazine’s 2022 Entertainer of the Year – so TIME understood quicker than most.
When they headlined Coachella April 15 and April 22, 2023 – and they had yet to explode supernova like as they have now – they performed to a crowd of over 125,000 people.
Their list of endorsements includes Adidas, Guess, Orea, Asahi Super Dry, Sprite Korea, Samsung, PUBG Mobile, Mise-en-scène, and Zepeto.
The above doesn’t even speak to them as individuals, where on top of all their musical accomplishments, basically are ubiquitous in fashion and fashion magazines.
Jennie is a Chanel global ambassador, and her other endorsements include Calvin Klein, Hera Beauty, Tamburins, Gentle Monster, Lotte Soonhari, Haribo, and many others.
Jisoo is a global ambassador for Dior and Tommy Hilfinger as well as Pokémon’s 30th-anniversay campaign, and her other endorsements include Cartier, Alo Yoga, MapleStory, Dyson, and many others. Jisoo also did an exclusive collaboration partnering with Sanrio and MuseM.
Lisa was a former global ambassador for Celine, and currently her roster includes Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Prada, MAC Cosmertiics, Chivas Regal, Penshoppe, Vivo, AIS, and many others.
Oh and she is Thailand’s official Amazing Thailand Ambassador as named by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and revealed at a ceremony at the Wat Arun temple. So there’s that.
Rosé is a global ambassador for Yves Saint Laurent, and includes Tiffany & Co., Rimowa, Puma, Levi’s, and others among her brands.
Jisoo is building a substantial acting career in parallel with all this (“The Producers” cameo, main roles in “Snowdrop” and “Newtopia”, the upcoming television series “Boyfriend on Demand” – 6 March 2026 on Netflix – and the upcoming feature film “The Prophet: Omniscient Reader”), and Jennie (“The Idol”) and Lisa (“The White Lotus”) have acted enough that they also have fans that think they are actors not singers (yes, you, my MIT fraternity brother Erik Larson before you were enlightened ;-). Rosé was a main cast member in the variety “Sea of Hope”.
Jisoo and Rosé popped up on Superbowl commercials (Levi’s and Pokémon). All four members were appointed by King Charles III honorary members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). Lisa was part of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Rosé and Bruno Mars’ performance opened the 2026 Grammys.
It goes on and on. This large list encompasses only a fraction of the group’s accomplishments and just hints at their accomplishments as individuals.
This is their time.
The Deadline Tour that occurred PRIOR to the album (as opposed to the conventional way of touring, you know, to SUPPORT the album that has been released) was a quaint 33-show sold-out stadium tour spanning the globe.
Just normal stuff.
(As an aside and a whole other topic: all of this was accomplished essentially drama and scandal free to a remarkable level. And it’s been over 9 years since their debut, all of which were spent completely in the public spotlight, where during the entirety they all have come off as remarkably good natured and down to earth. This alone is incredible.)
I point out all this to highlight the incredible and indeed unfathomable anticipations and expectations associated with literally anything and everything Blackpink does, both collectively and individually. It’s quite a challenge to create quality art. It’s quite another entirely to do this in an intense public spotlight, starting from a young age. And then it’s quite another level of all this to be Blackpink today.
So everything they do at this point has to be viewed through this lens – what it’s like to be them with all these demands, the burden of constantly overcoming all their previous accomplishments (even bands like The Rolling Stones didn’t always – some would argue rarely – succeed in this), and the immense expectations of a rabid global multi-cultural fanbase audience who is possessive of them in that very special KPOP intense way.
So once again, the teaser for “GO” hits it out of the park. It drips with excess because it had to. It’s visually jaw dropping incredible because it had to be.
It also continues the, in my opinion, brilliant “less is more” strategy that YG Entertainment has executed with BlackPink.
This teaser is short, stunning, reveals essentially nothing, and leaves you simultaneously craving more and watching it over and over and over again.
I personally chuckle when people criticize the job YG has done with Blackpink, and these shots come from both fans who aren’t Blackpink fans and Blackpink fans themselves, which is even more laughable to me.
Obviously whatever YG is doing is working, on a ridiculously successful scale. If I could have YG manage my artistic career and bring me this level of success I would certainly be like “Yes absolutely! PLEASE DO THAT.”
With Blackpink they have brought managing scarcity to an art form. As of mid-2025, BLACKPINK has officially released 33 original songs (22 in mainly Korean, 11 in English) in addition to 17 Japanese versions of their Korean tracks and various remixes. What this choice means is that the stakes for each individual track and the accompanying music video, and the impact of each, is much larger.
TWICE, to cite a different strategic approach, are managed by JYP in quite a contrasting way, with near constant releases and a huge deep catalog. This obviously works for them, as they have many many hits in many different genres, and nearly the global success of Blackpink. It’s just a different approach. (What they do have in common is a pointed desire to penetrate this US market and indeed the entire world market.)
YG is doing great with Blackpink, which obviously the members agree with (how could they not?) since they renewed their initial seven-year contract.
The arrangement where the group stayed with YG while having the freedom to manage their solo careers themselves was both ground breaking (for KPOP) and logical. I could argue both that it was brilliant of YG to do it this way while at the same time the members were so powerful at that point they had no choice. And both are true.
YG and Blackpink themselves have also done a wonderful job of utilizing both the solo strengths and group strengths, including of course on this most recent tour which followed the solo releases by the members through their own companies, but indeed prior to that with solo stages in performances.
One of the reasons that Blackpink is so successful is that the group and each member have equal and definitive personas at a level rarely achieved. The Beatles for one. KISS is their hey day. (There are a lot of KISS parallels actually, which I will elaborate on at length in another blog post at some other time.) The list isn’t very long.
Another aspect YG gets criticism for sometimes which I also think is laughable is the notion of trying to squeeze money out of the fans – which of course is their JOB and what they are SUPPOSED TO DO.
This reminds me a bit of sports teams that have ownership that charge high ticket prices so they can pay big name athletes and hopefully win championships (Dodgers, Lakers, et cet.). THIS AGAIN IS THEIR JOB.
Who knew that I needed a Black, Pink, Gray, Mood Light, and four individual member-specific Silver versions of the album? I didn’t know myself but when I saw how cool they were I certainly did then!!!!!!
Again, brilliant job by YG. As Gene Simmons always says about high priced KISS merchandise and events – if you don’t want them, don’t buy them.
“BLACKPINK sells out all versions of their mini album ‘DEADLINE’ in less than 25 minutes during its official pre-sale”
https://www.allkpop.com/article/2026/01/blackpink-completely-sold-out-all-versions-of-their-mini-album-deadline-in-less-than-25-minutes-during-its-official-pre-sale-1769028273
Apparently they were wanted. 🙂
Blackpink succeeded wildly with “Jump”. Under impossible expectations, both the song and the music video exceeded them triumphantly, and this was reflected also in the enthusiastic audience response to “Jump” on the tour.
We’ll see in just a few hours if they can do it again.
– Eric John, CEO, Erotique Entertainment
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