TOUS les JOURS, the CJ Foodville-owned Korean bakery café chain with more than 200 U.S. units and 1,750 locations worldwide, has signed on as the official bakery café sponsor of BTS THE CITY ARIRANG NEW YORK, activating four New York-area cafés through August 9 with limited-time offerings, themed décor, and a pop-up series designed to convert fan traffic into repeat café visits.

The Activation

Four locations — Dumbo (Brooklyn), Union Street (Flushing), American Dream Mall (East Rutherford, N.J.), and Madison Square Park (Manhattan) — are running exclusive LTOs headlined by the BTS THE CITY ARIRANG Cake, alongside fan-favorite Korean bakery staples including Red Bean Bread, Kimchi Croquette, Milk Cream Bread, and Iced Ube Latte. The Madison Square Park café also hosts a Weverse Stamp Rally through August 3, where guests scan QR codes to collect digital stamps — a mechanic that bridges the brand's physical café experience with the BTS fan app ecosystem and drives dwell time.

A four-date pop-up series runs July 29 through August 1, each café taking a single 11 a.m.–3 p.m. window with complimentary samples, exclusive gifts, and photo moments — tools operators increasingly deploy to generate organic social content and widen daypart reach. The activation culminates August 1–3 at the official ARMY 'MADANG' fan gathering at the Korean Cultural Center New York, where TOUS les JOURS will offer signature menu items alongside branded giveaways including coupons, cakes, and spin-wheel prizes.

Strategic Context

"Korean culture is not a trend for us. It is at the heart of our food, our hospitality, and the experiences we create every day," said Max Gallegos, Chief Marketing Officer of TOUS les JOURS. The framing matters commercially: Korean food culture — from convenience-store-style grab-and-go pastries to café-format baked goods — has moved from niche to mainstream across major U.S. metros, and the bakery café segment is increasingly competitive. Players ranging from Paris Baguette (also Korean-owned) to domestic fast-casual bakery concepts are vying for the same urban breakfast and snack dayparts.

For TOUS les JOURS, a high-visibility cultural sponsorship tied to a globally recognized IP offers a relatively low-cost mechanism to drive trial and awareness across its New York cluster — a market where franchise unit economics depend heavily on foot traffic density. Merchandise tied to qualifying purchases also functions as a soft loyalty driver, encouraging return visits within the promotional window.

What Operators Should Watch

The BTS ARIRANG New York activation illustrates a broader playbook gaining traction in the franchise bakery café segment: anchor a limited-time unit-level experience to an external cultural event to compress marketing spend while amplifying earned media. With BTS returning to the global stage in 2026 — including headlining the FIFA World Cup Halftime Show — the audience reach justifies the operational complexity of simultaneous multi-unit LTO rollouts.

For franchisees considering the TOUS les JOURS model, the brand's ability to secure official sponsor status with a property of this scale signals the kind of marketing infrastructure that distinguishes larger franchise systems from independent operators. Area development agreements in dense urban markets like New York live or die on brand visibility, and activations like this one contribute directly to that equation.

TOUS les JOURS' U.S. franchise model, backed by CJ Foodville's global supply chain, positions the brand to continue expanding its metro footprint as Korean-inspired foodservice concepts attract growing investor and franchisee interest.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.