KEPCO unveils global brand identity with Times Square and Silicon Valley launch

For decades, KEPCO has operated at the scale of nations – yet existed largely outside of global brand memory. Its transmission systems, smart grids, and overseas power generation projects are embedded across continents, but its identity as a global brand had yet to be clearly defined.

 

As KEPCO’s international presence expanded following its New York Stock Exchange listing, a more fundamental challenge emerged – not one of capability, but of perception.

Despite its world-class infrastructure and technological achievements, KEPCO had not yet been translated into a clearly recognizable global brand in the public imagination. The question was no longer whether KEPCO could deliver energy at scale, but whether the world could instantly understand who KEPCO is and what it represents.

Rather than approaching this challenge through conventional corporate storytelling, KEPCO chose to redesign how it would enter global consciousness. Together with CRACK THE NUTS, the company reframed its strategy from communication to symbolic presence – from explaining what it does to designing what it should mean. This project was therefore conceived not as a media execution, but as a brand architecture initiative designed to compress KEPCO’s institutional authority, technological credibility, and national symbolism into a single globally legible identity.

Cultural Heritage as Global Brand Language
At the center of this transformation stood the tiger – a figure deeply embedded in Korean cultural memory and long associated with guardianship, strength, and vitality. Rather than borrowing the tiger merely as a national symbol, the team reinterpreted it as KEPCO’s global brand ambassador: a three-dimensional brand entity capable of embodying the company’s role as a reliable energy guardian.

Inspired by Hojakdo, a traditional Korean folk painting motif, the tiger was reconstructed with contemporary design logic, while its visual rhythm drew from Dancheong, the traditional decorative painting used in Korean architecture. Lantern motifs were further incorporated to reinforce warmth, continuity, and protection – qualities essential to how an energy utility should be emotionally perceived.

Through this process, cultural heritage was not treated as decoration, but as a strategic design system. The result was a symbol that maintained cultural authenticity while achieving international clarity – enabling KEPCO to communicate trust, scale, and authority without reliance on textual explanation.

Designing Presence, Not Just Visibility
Times Square is not an environment where brands are understood – it is an environment where they are either remembered or forgotten. Recognizing this, KEPCO deliberately abandoned explanatory messaging in favour of spatial storytelling.

By employing anamorphic 3D technology optimized for Times Square’s curved digital façades, the tiger appeared to emerge from the screen into physical space, creating a moment that felt less like a broadcast and more like an arrival. This allowed KEPCO’s brand presence to be experienced as an emotional interruption rather than a rational message.

The symbolic declaration was then extended to Silicon Valley, where KEPCO’s technological credibility naturally aligned with the surrounding innovation narrative. Positioned within the global epicenter of future industries, KEPCO reinforced its image as a future-ready infrastructure brand operating at the intersection of energy, data, and innovation.

The campaign was live across Times Square and key digital billboards in Silicon Valley from December 22, 2025 to January 2, 2026, marking KEPCO’s first coordinated global brand appearance following its NYSE listing.

Chad Song, Chief Vision Officer of Crack the Nuts Inc. and Lead Brand Architect of the Project, says: “Most national infrastructure brands are trained to communicate, but not to define themselves.

They explain what they build, how they operate, and what they deliver – yet they rarely design how they should exist in global memory.

KEPCO’s global step was not about visibility. It was about identity.

We were not trying to make KEPCO louder. We were designing how K-Energy should be recognized by the world – as a sovereign energy brand, not merely an infrastructure operator.

This project became a turning point where a national utility stopped behaving like a supplier of power and started acting like a nation-scale brand that declares its presence through symbolism rather than explanation.”

A Fact-Based Brand Declaration
All executions converged into a single declarative line: “Korea’s 1st Energy Utility Powering the World.”

Rather than functioning as a promotional slogan, the line served as a factual brand declaration grounded in KEPCO’s NYSE listing, global operational scale, and institutional credibility.

This campaign establishes a new reference model for how national utility brands can enter global markets. It demonstrates that infrastructure-scale brands do not need louder communication – they need clearer symbolic identity. By translating technological authority, cultural heritage, and institutional trust into a single globally legible brand symbol, KEPCO has redefined what global presence can look like for public infrastructure brands.

From Times Square to Silicon Valley, KEPCO has not simply appeared on screens.

It has designed how K-Energy enters global memory – and in doing so, has set a new benchmark for nation-scale branding on the world stage.

KEPCO did not simply go global. It designed how a nation-scale energy brand should exist in global memory.