SEOUL, KOREA- Bacchus, the energy drink marketed by Dong-A ST, a subsidiary of Dong-A Socio Holdings, is selling like hotcakes in Cambodia. In the first year of launch in 2009, Dong-A ST sold only 20 million won worth of Bacchus in the southeast Asian country. Last year, however, the company sold 29 billion won worth of the drink, as much as 24 percent of the company's overseas sales of 120 billion won. By the year's end, the company expects it would sell 100 million cans of Bacchus, about eight cans per person in a country of 15 million population.
A can of Bacchus is sold locally at about 70 U.S. cents, which is out of reach for most people who earn on average $900 a year. An official at Cam Gold Co., the local distributor of Bacchus in Cambodia, said, "Thanks to Korean drama Jewel in the Palace and our marketing strategy to approach Bacchus as an elixir to relieve fatigue, the sales began exploding." "Next year our sales revenue would be in excess of 35 billion won," he added.
His company bought TV commercial slots during the evening news time and the commercials used Korean narrations even without modification. He said, "I visited Korea many times before when I was engaged in the heavy equipment business. Back then, heavy equipment operators always bought me cans of Bacchus and that's how I found the jackpot item in Bacchus."
