00:00In 1998, the people of a small town in South Korea had a problem.
00:05Nobody wanted to visit them.
00:07Their solution? Mud.
00:10Seriously? Mud?
00:17Hi, I'm John and welcome to 9 to 12.
00:21Most festivals come from tradition, history, or culture.
00:24The Poryong Mud Festival came from a marketing meeting.
00:27Today, I'm going to find out how a small South Korean city turned a jar of mud cream
00:34into one of the world's biggest festivals, attracting over 2 million visitors a year.
00:40Poryong.
00:40A small city on the west coast of South Korea.
00:44About 100,000.
00:46Relatively unknown.
00:47That was until 1998.
00:50This is what changed everything.
00:53Poryong Mud.
00:54Rich in minerals like germanium and bentonite,
00:56the locals had been using it in their skin care products for years.
00:59But nobody outside of Poryong knew about it.
01:02So then someone had an idea.
01:04Instead of selling the mud to the people, bring the people to the mud.
01:09Did you know the first Poryong Mud Festival back in 1998 had 220,000 visitors.
01:15By 2019, that number had grown to over 2 million visitors.
01:19A global phenomenon.
01:21And here's the genius part.
01:22They didn't just sell the people the mud.
01:24They let them play in it.
01:26Mud wrestling, mud slides, mud massage, mud prison.
01:30They turned their biggest natural resource into the world's messiest playground.
01:35Is that supposed to be me?
01:38Now here's the real lesson.
01:41Poryong didn't invent anything new.
01:42They took something they already had and reframed it completely.
01:46Mud went from something you wipe off your shoes,
01:48to something people fly across the world to roll around in.
01:52Did you know, studies have shown that the minerals in Poryong Mud help cleanse skin,
01:57reduce inflammation and retain moisture.
01:59So it's not just for fun.
02:00And you know what?
02:01It even smells good too.
02:06Now, what made Poryong so extraordinary was a simple shift in thinking.
02:11Instead of asking, how do we sell this?
02:14They asked, how do we make this unforgettable?
02:17One city, one idea, 2 million visitors.
02:21So here's my question.
02:22If you could create a festival around anything, what would it be?
02:26See you next time on 9 to 12.
02:30Seriously, what is a mud prison?
02:34Prison made of mud.
02:43Porn of mud.
02:51Houston made of mud
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