Prepared for Steven Berman — ShinHan Art Materials
Owning The
Next Generation.
A content engine that marries original production with creator content, backed by paid campaigns across Meta, TikTok, and Pinterest — built to move ShinHan from retailer-dependent shelves to a direct-to-consumer brand that owns the 25-30 artist before the competition reaches them. Validate on a pilot. Scale what converts.
01 / The Opportunity
A 55-Year-Old Brand With No Social Presence
ShinHan makes some of the best art materials in the world. The art community already knows it. The next generation of artists does not, because ShinHan has not shown up where they live: TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.
The art supplies market is a $12 billion category growing 4-6% annually, with online channels accelerating at 12%. Social media did not just market existing products into this space — it created entirely new demand, converting people who never called themselves artists into active hobbyists and buyers. This market grows when creators grow.
ShinHan's competitors understood this first. The opening is still there, but it closes a little more every quarter. This proposal closes it now, validated on a pilot before committing to full-scale investment.
02 / The Competitive Reality
Your Real Threat Isn't Copic. It's Ohuhu.
Everyone benchmarks ShinHan against Copic. That framing misses the actual battle. The brands winning the next generation are DTC challengers who paired manufacturing efficiency with social commerce — and showed up on TikTok while the heritage names were still figuring out Instagram.
Roughly $90M in annual marker sales and ~75% of the US online marker market. Won on social-first DTC, aggressive creator seeding, and accessible pricing. This is the playbook ShinHan needs to answer, not Copic's catalog.
Dominant in beginner gouache — the entry point for new hobbyists. Captures artists early and keeps them. The ~$500M gouache market is growing 6% annually and ShinHan has a credible product here the market never sees.
The premium incumbent. The market frames ShinHan as the "cheaper Copic alternative," which caps ShinHan's perceived value. The reframe is the whole game: ShinHan is the Korean professional standard, not a discount substitute.
Before we build, we pull the live ads. We document exactly what each competitor is running on Meta, TikTok, and Pinterest so the creative we produce clears their bar and exploits their gaps.
03 / The Buyer
The 25-30 Artist Buys On Social
This is the demographic we agreed to target: newly financially independent, impulsive, and heavily influenced by what they see in their feed. One in three adults 18-34 has made a purchase directly on social media. They do not respond to polished brand ads alone. They respond to a real illustrator they trust pulling out a marker and showing what it does.
A second tailwind works in ShinHan's favor: the analog renaissance. Digital fatigue is driving genuine demand for tactile, offline creativity. Journaling, illustration, and handmade art are growing, not declining. ShinHan's heritage — Korean quality, 55+ years, family-owned — maps directly onto that cultural moment. We do not have to invent a story. We have to put the one ShinHan already owns in front of the right people.
We do not target "artists" as one block. The foundation defines a three-tier audience architecture, and every creative, audience, and offer maps to one of them.
04 / Champion SKU
Lead With The TOUCH Twin Brush Marker
A pilot needs one hero product, not a catalog. The recommendation is the TOUCH Twin Brush Marker. It built ShinHan's international reputation, it is the most-reviewed ShinHan product online, and it has every attribute creators love to demonstrate on camera: 204 colors, a dual brush and chisel tip, refillable, alcohol-based. Blend tests, swatch reels, speed art, side-by-side comparisons — the content writes itself, and the price point is low enough to convert a first-time buyer on impulse.
05 / Content Strategy
Original Production Plus Creator Content
The content engine marries original, art-spec'd production with influencer and UGC content — my team runs the full cycle. The foundation includes two production days in Southern California; from launch, one production day per month keeps the brand library fresh. Four pillars organize everything. Every brief, paid asset, and organic post maps to one of them, and each does two jobs at once: build the brand and drive the purchase.
Here is the kind of content this produces. These slots fill with real examples once the pilot is live.
06 / The Creator Engine
100 Sourced. 15 Licensed. Plus Our Own Production.
A systematic pipeline — and only half the engine. We do not pay for reach upfront: we source broadly, evaluate on real performance, and license 15 proven creators to launch. Alongside that, Cave produces original, art-spec'd content in-house, so the program never depends on creators alone. The roster expands every month as ongoing sourcing surfaces new talent.
07 / The Roadmap
Three Phases. Decisions At Each Gate.
Everything that has to exist before a single dollar of media runs: strategy, audiences, creative, creators, and the conversion infrastructure.
Cave delivers
- DTC strategy + 3-tier audience architecture
- 2 production days in Southern California, art-spec'd
- Creator sourcing + licensing (15 creators)
- 25 ad concepts ready for launch
- 3 landing page variants + attribution & LTV model
- 90-day test plan + KPI framework
ShinHan delivers
- Brand assets, product, and platform access
- DTC purchase flow confirmed live
- Champion SKU confirmed internally
- Lead / cadmium compliance docs ready (July 6 deadline)
Real content now exists. Grade it on engagement, authenticity, and conversion signals. Top performers get the paid budget. We only spend on what already works.
Cave delivers
- Grade all content — creator and produced — on performance signals
- Launch paid across Meta, TikTok & Pinterest
- A/B test "Korean standard" vs. "Copic alternative" hooks
- Landing page CRO against the 3 variants
- Weekly reporting on performance and spend efficiency
Decision gate
- Expand briefs for top-performing creators
- Set scale-up ad budget against what converts
- Cut underperformers on data, no sentiment
- Identify 2-3 potential brand faces
Proven creative, proven creators, real conversion data. Scale the program and build the owned brand channels — the asset ShinHan keeps.
Cave delivers
- Ongoing creator management: briefs, approvals, licensing
- Paid social scaled against converting creative
- ShinHan brand accounts built on IG & TikTok
- Organic strategy: heritage story + product education
The long game
- Creator UGC repurposed as paid ads, cutting production cost
- Owned community around the Korean quality story
- DTC revenue tracked vs. retailer revenue
- Best UGC licensed for 6-12 month windows
08 / Investment
Two Paths. One Foundation.
Both paths start with the same foundational build. Once the engine is live, you pick the structure that fits how aggressively you plan to scale media.
Then pick your path for Month 3+:
Both tiers include
- 12 organic posts per month
- 1 production day per month
- Ongoing creator sourcing
- Full ad management across Meta, TikTok & Pinterest
- Landing page CRO
- Weekly reporting, monthly executive reviews, quarterly strategic readouts
09 / What Success Looks Like
How We Measure It
Full transparency, both directions. We commit to sharing positive and negative results. We cannot guarantee a specific outcome — but you will have complete visibility into every part of the work. Here is what we watch.
Creator output
Of the 15 licensed creators, how many stay productive and performing — plus the output from Cave's own production days.
Content performance
Engagement, save rate, and watch time on creator and produced content vs. category benchmarks.
Paid efficiency
Cost per click and cost per DTC conversion across the 25 launch concepts. The number that decides scale.
DTC signal
Direct traffic and sales attributable to the program — the proof the channel shift is working.
10 / Working With Cave
A Team of 11 That Runs Like 25
Social-first digital agency, Los Angeles based, over a decade of work across consumer, software, and non-profit. AI runs our backend, reporting, and project management — which is how a team of 11 operates with the output of 25. You get a dedicated Notion client portal with full visibility into every step. Our capabilities deck is below.
11 / Next Steps