Little Pink Starfish

The sheer scale of attention poured onto Sedalbaekil’s music videos was undeniable.

From the flood of articles released the moment the MVs dropped, to the best posts dominating every online platform—

The entire world was Sedalbaekil.

-The reaction’s… not normal, is it?

-We were mentally prepared for the 1st album to be their peak…

-But what if that was actually the low point…?

-Just how much was Choi Daeho’s sabotage suppressing?

-Choi Daeho… you again….

This wasn’t delusion born of fandom.

It was plain reality.

The proof? The rankings on music sites had frozen.

Real-time rankings are naturally volatile.

Even if you’re #1 on the daily chart, that doesn’t mean you’ll always be #1 in real-time.

There were times a song stayed #1 in real-time all night thanks to fandom support, yet didn’t even crack the daily top 50.

But now, just four songs had completely halted the real-time chart.

The very top was locked.

It looked like a system error.

1 – Winter Cream (Hot)
2 – Stage (Hot)
3 – Passing Through Time (Hot)
4 – Time Traveler (Hot)

And that wasn’t all.

The scale of music video views changed.

Surpassing one million views just two hours after release—even Sedalbaekil’s own fandom was shocked.

-What the…?

-Did normies latch on?

-Sedalbaekil’s always been normie-approved though;

Even TT, who obsessively analyzed views by the minute, was caught off guard by the firepower—but the answer was simple.

It was overseas.

-(link) This is a foreign K-pop forum, and they’re even more stunned over there?

-Why?

-Starting with “How did I not know about this group?” to “Wait, this was a K-pop group in Color Show?” It’s all over the place!

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋ This is hilarious. The blues forum is now explaining Sedalbaekil to the K-pop forumㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Ahhㅋㅋㅋ Makes sense since Sedalbaekil’s kind of known over there.

-Yeah, they started getting recognition after the Seaside Heights performance.

-Anyone got a fluent English version of the lyrics?ㅠㅠ

-Even State Of Mind’s MV views are exploding; seems like international fans are binge-watching.

-Whoa. The Sedalbaekil history fan video is getting flooded with comments;

When they released their first album, Sedalbaekil didn’t follow traditional idol market promotions.

In fact, they practically avoided them.

What truly led The First Day album was collaborations with international powerhouses.

Leaning on the prestige and success of already-established names is smart marketing.

That’s how the showbiz industry works.

But it wasn’t without risks.

The rigidity of attaching to “already successful” names.

What if a top celebrity endorsing a brand got caught in a drug scandal?

That taint transfers to the brand too.

That’s the danger of star marketing.

Similarly, The First Day wasn’t structured to appeal to the recommendation algorithms used by international K-pop fans.

International fans prefer Korean idol music that offers flavors different from their own country’s music.

So songs by Sedalbaekil, entangled in the algorithm web of Mary Johnson, Jankos Greenwood, and Eric Scott, were naturally sidelined.

But now, things were different.

While The First Day was entirely managed by Sedalbaekil from distribution to promotion, the 2nd album Stage had backing.

By SBI Entertainment.

A company Han Sion built by scouting current K-pop industry professionals under the lead of Director Seo Seunghyun.

So what exactly did SBI Entertainment do?

Certainly not A&R.

Absurdly enough, SBI Entertainment didn’t even have an A&R team for Sedalbaekil.

Maybe when they signed more artists, but right now Sedalbaekil didn’t need music support.

Not even promotions.

It’s not that they ignored domestic promotion, but they didn’t go all-in.

According to SBI’s internal analysis, Sedalbaekil’s Korean fans already had high loyalty.

And that loyalty wasn’t built through image—it was built through music.

“An album released by Sedalbaekil.”

“Sedalbaekil released an album.”

These two sentences may seem similar, but to a marketing team, they’re worlds apart.

If fans expect the latter, the promo team needs to prepare a flood of content.

Because once the buzz fades, so does interest in the album.

But if they expect the former, excessive image marketing must be avoided.

Letting the album be consumed solely as an album yields better results.

And since Channel M-Show was already betting big on Sedalbaekil, taking over promo duties, SBI didn’t have much to worry about.

So what did SBI’s promo team do if it wasn’t A&R or domestic marketing?

The answer: Spread Strategy.

Spread or diffusion.

Its goal was clear.

Forget about what image to deliver and how—just make sure it spreads as widely as possible.

Their primary target? International K-pop fans.

SBI’s team added English subtitles to every piece of content Sedalbaekil created and optimized it for inclusion in global K-pop algorithms.

Of course, old uploads can’t benefit from algorithm boosts.

And it’s hard to generate buzz retroactively.

But they timed it so that whenever Sedalbaekil dropped a new album, overseas fan algorithms would pick up the signal.

Whether it worked was unclear—at least until the MVs dropped.

Sedalbaekil had focused only on physical album sales for weeks.

But now, with the staggered release of the music videos, SBI could see it clearly: their efforts paid off.

-So Cute!!! 🙂

-Please, Tell me this guy’s name!!

-EEON? HaHa.

Of course, this was just the beginning.

Right now, the appeal was reaching hardcore international K-pop fans.

But SBI’s true goal was to attract normal overseas listeners—those who didn’t mind K-pop.

And leading that charge?

Not the 2nd album.

Not music-genius Han Sion.

Not visual-genius Iion.

It was Choi Jaeseong.

Choi Jaeseong’s unit album Stage Side B had a sound more likely to hit overseas than in Korea.

And sure enough—

-Wait wait wait. The Drop MV is blowing up right now??!

-Huh? Why?

-The views are skyrocketing. The English comments are unreal;

-Wow, I just watched it—this is no joke.

-This is 100% the algorithm blessing overseas users.

-All of a sudden?

-Did the release of the 2nd album MVs trigger the algorithm?

To those unaware of SBI’s strategic plan, the sudden rise of Choi Jaeseong’s Drop was baffling.

But Han Sion already knew Drop would do better internationally.

The MV and choreography were tailored for Korean appeal, but the sound was laser-targeted at North America.

So even the short-form videos of Drop, which had begun to fade in Korea, suddenly went viral in the U.S.

-(photo)(photo)(photo)

-Holy sh*t what’s going onㅋㅋㅋ The overseas response is nuts??

-This vibe… feels familiar… Gangnam Style….

-OMG you’re rightㅋㅋㅋ This is exactly how Gangnam Style blew upㅋㅋㅋ

News of Drop hit mainstream online communities in an instant.

Before long, SBI was openly supporting Drop’s global push.

Of course, not everyone in the TT fandom liked this.

Especially fans with strong individual biases.

-Ugh, what is Choi Jaeseong even doing; he was useless during promos, and now he’s hogging all the international buzz?

-Is the company totally lost? Is now the time to push him?

They grumbled in private, and honestly, it wasn’t entirely illogical.

A full group album had just dropped, and music videos had been released.

And yet, the company was prioritizing pushing a unit member’s solo overseas?

It sounded ridiculous.

A move that could disrupt group chemistry.

But this had been part of Sedalbaekil’s plan all along—and even if it hadn’t, it still wouldn’t be a problem.

Because Sedalbaekil’s goal was to sell 200 million albums.

If Choi Jaeseong gaining fame helped push Sedalbaekil through the algorithm, that was a win.

Just days after the MVs dropped, the industry’s view of Sedalbaekil had changed.

They were already top-tier, and physical sales alone had spelled success.

But now—

“Something’s different.”

“They might seriously be on the verge of blowing up.”

“We need to push our group’s comeback back…”

All four music videos passed 10 million views in a neck-and-neck race, and Choi Jaeseong’s Drop passed 30 million.

In the U.S., short-form videos copying Drop’s highlight choreography started trending.

Exactly like it had in Korea.

Album sales, which had seemingly peaked during first-week numbers, began to climb again in week three.

Daily charts remained frozen as if broken.

It started to feel like a massive tidal wave—or a disaster—was rolling in.

Naturally…

-Not even gonna lie, Mix Wayㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Remember when Mix Way’s fandom bragged about outselling Sedalbaekil in first-week salesㅋㅋㅋ That aged wellㅋㅋㅋ

-Did you see Mix Way’s 2nd-week numbers?

-Yep yep yep, my comedy goldㅋㅋㅋ

-It’s my go-to when I’m feeling downㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Mix Way, who’d been positioned as a rival group, was now looking pretty awkward.

And the final nail in the coffin?

-Might as well go rewatch Mixdown’s music show clip.

-Ah, the legendary one.

Six days ago, Mixdown’s broadcast.

It was Sedalbaekil’s first official promotion and the same show where Mix Way had appeared, making it a huge deal.

Back then, Mix Way was riding high, boasting about beating Sedalbaekil’s first-week sales.

---

Six days ago.

For the first time in a while, TT gathered at M-Show for a prerecording + public show.

Everything about Sedalbaekil was great, but if there was one thing to complain about, it was their lack of music show appearances.

Sure, they made up for it with livestreams and fan interactions.

Their official site was top-notch, and some members (Choi Jaeseong, Onsaemiro) streamed whenever they were bored.

But still.

“Agh, I wish they’d do more music shows.”

“Right?”

Even the 2nd album’s broadcast schedule was weird.

For unknown internal reasons, only M-Show and SBN had scheduled appearances—no other music show slots.

Because of that, competition to win the prerecording draw for Mixdown’s first broadcast was insane.