Nongshim sailed a six metre Shin Ramyun cup down the River Thames past Tower Bridge and Big Ben

Key Takeaways

• Nongshim sailed a roughly six metre inflatable Shin Ramyun cup along the River Thames on the evening of 6 October 2026.

• The cup travelled on a specially adapted boat from the Royal Docks past Tower Bridge, the London Eye and Big Ben.

• BMB created the stunt with Jack Arts on production and december19 on media, carrying the line "Work done. Day done. SHIN ME."

• The back of the cup promoted SHIN TO WIN, a UK scratch card promotion at retailers including Tesco, B&M and Sainsbury's that runs until 31 October with a £5,000 top prize.

Anyone glancing at the River Thames on the evening of 6 October could have spotted a giant steaming bowl of noodles drifting past Tower Bridge, because Nongshim sent a six metre Shin Ramyun cup along the river with a pair of oversized chopsticks poking out of the top and steam rising from the noodles inside.

The South Korean food company used the cup to bring its SHIN ME message to London, which presents a hot bowl of spicy noodles as the reward at the end of a long day and sums the idea up in the line "Work done. Day done. SHIN ME." The voyage was timed for peak commuter hours, so the people most likely to relate to that line were the ones heading home along the river while it sailed by.

BMB timed the Royal Docks to London Eye voyage for commuters with Jack Arts and december19

The cup was designed to look like a freshly made serving of Shin Ramyun, with lighting that kept it visible after dark alongside the chopsticks and the rising steam, and it stood on a specially adapted boat that set off from the Royal Docks and headed west towards the London Eye and Big Ben. BMB came up with the idea, Jack Arts handled production and december19 looked after media, while Nongshim said the stunt was meant to reach both Londoners and the international visitors spending time in the city.

A Nongshim spokesperson explained the choice of setting, saying "The River Thames is a symbolic part of London, where everyday city life meets some of the world's most recognisable landmarks. Through this campaign, we want to introduce UK consumers to a new Shin Ramyun brand experience, enjoying a warm, spicy bowl of ramyun as a moment to unwind after a busy day."

Matt Bonny, managing partner at BMB, described the stunt as something designed to turn heads, fill social feeds and give the press something to write about, and he was just as clear about the role he wants the noodles to play once commuters get home. "We want people to turn to Nongshim noodles when they need to blast off the dust from the day and sink into a bowl of spicy happiness," said Bonny, who also described the inflatable as a way of encouraging the London public to adopt the SHIN ME line for themselves.

The rear of the cup carried a reminder of SHIN TO WIN, a nationwide promotion that has put scratch cards into multipacks of Shin Ramyun, Shin Ramyun Toomba and Shin Ramyun Kimchi since 10 August, with cash prizes starting at £10 and a top prize of £5,000. The promotion runs for around 12 weeks at retailers including Tesco, B&M and Sainsbury's before closing on 31 October, which placed the river voyage in the final weeks of the offer and gave the giant cup a practical job alongside the spectacle.

Shin Ramyun reached its 40th year in 2026 after a Taste of London pavilion and two aespa campaigns

The Thames voyage arrived in a landmark year for the brand, since Shin Ramyun launched in Korea in 1986 and is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2026, by which time it is sold in more than 100 countries and Nongshim estimates that cumulative sales reached 42.5 billion units by the end of 2025. Overseas sales first made up more than half of the brand's total in 2021, and much of the anniversary year's marketing has been aimed at audiences outside Korea.

London has already been part of that push this year, as Nongshim ran a 150 square metre pavilion at Taste of London in The Regent's Park in June, where visitors played an ingredient guessing game for prizes and tried Shin Ramyun and the newer Shin Ramyun Toomba at seating designed to look like a Korean street side tent restaurant. Seung Won Shin, global marketing specialist at Nongshim, said in June, "Nongshim will continue to engage directly with international consumers through experiential marketing campaigns and expand awareness of our brand across Europe." The Thames cup followed less than four months later.

The UK activity has also run alongside a global celebrity programme, after K-pop group aespa became Shin Ramyun's first global brand ambassador last November with a music video style commercial that Nongshim says drew 270 million views. The brand then launched a second global campaign on 20 August, made up of one omnibus style film and 14 short clips showing the group cooking with a friend, shopping for Shin Ramyun and travelling, all built around the idea of spicy happiness.

Putting a brand on the water to make use of the scenery around it is a format other marketers have tried recently, with Apple TV taking a similar route when it sent a floating Widow's Bay billboard around Cape Cod to mark the show's Emmy wins and let the coastline do much of the work.

The giant cup was one part of a wider set of activity under the SHIN ME platform, which positions Shin Ramyun as the food to eat at the end of the day, and with the SHIN TO WIN scratch cards still in shops until 31 October, London shoppers have a couple more weeks to try their luck on a multipack after watching the noodles sail past Big Ben.