Will T-ara’s New Strategy Work Against SNSD and Wonder Girls?

T-ara will join what is dubbed the “Great Battle of the Girl Groups” this month as their new album promotions will coincide with those of SNSD and Wonder Girls. To face up against two of the most popular girl groups in the industry, T-ara has come up with a new strategy that has never been tested in the past.

Their first move was to release part one of “Cry Cry’s” music video. On November 9, they unveiled the 15-minute epic video, starring prominent actors Cha Seung Won and Ji Chang Wook, as well as four of the T-ara members. It is reported to have taken more than 96 hours of filming for this 30 minute MV, which will be divided into two parts and includes some unprecedented large-scale footage rarely seen in music videos.

However, the interesting part is “Cry Cry” is not even T-ara’s new title track. It’s in fact “Lovey Dovey” which will be released a month from now. The “Cry Cry” MV is actually part of their larger strategy to raise awareness and gain additional publicity for their new album. Also, they were able to lessen the pressure of promoting at the same time as SNSD and Wonder Girls by shifting some of the attention to their blockbuster MV.

In fact, when they start promoting their title track, “Lovey Dovey,” in December, the hype for SNSD and Wonder Girls are expected to drop a bit. The two groups could be wrapping up their first round of promotions, and in that case, T-ara’s title track can avoid direct competition against the two giant groups. And even if SNSD and Wonder Girls come up with their follow up tracks later, “Lovey Dovey” will be able to be at the center of attention and save some time in the meantime.

The problem, however, is the year-end award shows. T-ara’s promotions for “Lovey Dovey” will coincide with most of the year-end music shows and could hurt their chances of winning any awards. They won’t have enough time to fully promote the new album, but T-ara employed a similar strategy last December with their mini album title track, “Ya Ya Ya,” and still managed to do quite well with the awards.