Han Sung Motor, South Korea's official importer of Mercedes-Benz cars, said Thursday it had completed its annual Dream Gream program that awards talented young artists with scholarships and mentoring opportunities.

Under the slogan, “New Earth, New World,” this year’s program aimed to bridge eco-friendly management with the digital world, with environmental, social and corporate governance and the metaverse being main themes. The company said it chose the themes to show its commitment to solving environmental issues and to link the global climate crisis with artistic creativity.

The company launched this year’s program in March on a metaverse platform called Dream Gream Metaplanet. Under swaying cherry blossoms, Han Sung Motor CEO Ulf Ausprung greeted 11 new students represented by avatars.

During the opening ceremony, the company’s virtual character Han Dia also made her debut. She has been frequenting Naver’s metaverse platform Zepeto to introduce Dream Gream’s diverse projects.

In June, Han Sung Motor rolled out the program’s ESG online campaign called Dream Green Town, based on 16 “environmental characters” determined through a quiz aimed at Millennials and Generation Z.

One environmental character is assigned to each person based on a questionnaire developed by students and mentors participating in the Dream Gream program. The campaign gives eco-friendly lifestyle tips for each character by providing a personalized recommendation of environmentally friendly products and services. The characters were designed by 11 students in collaboration with local illustration studio 127.

The car dealer said it also provided opportunities for students to experience art through the metaverse.

The students were given the chance to work with non-fungible token artist O Ye-seul to create a lineup of artificial reality works of art called “Metabun_ny World,” according to the company.

The lineup consists of 10 rabbit-themed artworks that were planned and designed by the students and retouched by O. It was put on display during Asia’s largest art fair, Kiaf Plus, held in Seoul in September.

Visitors to the fair were able to summon “Meta-bun_ny” characters at designated photo zones using artificial reality technology.

Han Sung Motor has been the official sponsor of Kiaf since 2017. A portion of the sales it recorded from the AR art was donated to the Korean Association for Children with Leukemia and Cancer.

The company also recruited Zepeto creator Maho World as a mentor, and held a session in which students could experience making AR filters to be used on social media.

“Art has already become an integral part of life for the younger generation,” said Han Sung Motor CEO Ulf Ausprung. “We will continue to provide our Dream Gream-sponsored students with a creative environment, so that they can strengthen their platform to incessantly push themselves in the ever-change field of art.”

Han Sung Motor has played a prominent role in Korea’s import car market for 37 years. It runs 24 showrooms, 27 service centers and nine certified used car showrooms nationwide. On the back of growing consumer interest, Han Sung Motor opened the world’s sixth AMG brand center specializing in the exhibition and servicing of high-performance Mercedes-AMG models.

Through the Dream Gream scholarship program, the company has nurtured 40 talented young artists in the past 11 years.