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The problem with C-pop and luxury: why Chinese fans of Wang Yibo, Ouyang Nana and Fan Chengcheng can make or break a fashion brands like Chanel and Burberry

Kris Wu for Burberry, Ouyang Nana for Givenchy and Sean Xiao Zhan for Estée Lauder. Photos: Burberry Weibo, @dramapotatoe/Twitter, Estée Lauder

C-pop has undoubtedly been a driving force behind luxury’s explosive growth with China’s young consumers over the past two years, and brands continue to mine the industry for idol ambassadors with massive influence over millennials and Gen Zers.

Recent appointments include Wang Yibo for Chanel and pop stars Fan Chengcheng and Ouyang Nana for Givenchy. But despite luxury and fashion’s growing infatuation with C-pop, China’s increasingly hysterical fandom culture and the government’s repeated criticism over C-pop-related social scandals have become potential risks that could hamper brand PR agendas.

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C-pop’s Ouyang Nana is now an ambassador for Givenchy. Photo: @dramapotatoe/Twitter

The rise of C-pop stars in luxury campaigns comes as a result of the surging purchasing power of China’s youth. A decade ago, the prestige of representing the world’s most coveted fashion houses was reserved for Western, Oscar-winning megastars that brands thought of as “aspirational” for their audiences. But the industry’s shift towards Gen Z and China has rewritten those rules, forcing brands to favour a star’s social media influence and commercial potential over traditional cultural measurements.

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So far, C-pop celebrities have had huge success in helping brands regain media buzz and spike their sales, especially those labels that had lagged in market hype.

Burberry tapped Chinese rapper Kris Wu in 2017 to curate five distinctive looks called “The Kris Wu Edit”. Photo: Burberry/Weibo

In October of 2016, British luxury brand Burberry appointed the Chinese rapper Kris Wu as its global brand ambassador, making him the group’s first non-British spokesperson. By the first quarter of 2017, Burberry’s financial report showed a 13 per cent year-on-year increase, with APAC leading the way with growth of 16 per cent. Wu’s image also gave Burberry’s Chinese social media presence a big boost. Since announcing the appointment, it saw Chinese user views of the brand’s WeChat marketing content more than triple.

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Another remarkable example has been Prada’s appointment of idol Cai Xukun, better known as Kun, in 2019. The day after Kun’s announced the tie-up, the topic quickly rose to 730 million views on Weibo, with Prada’s campaign video featuring Kun played over 76 million times. Weeks later, Kun’s fans created a hashtag community where they posted more than 50,000 Prada shopping receipts, while a Prada keychain with Kun’s name was soon out of stock worldwide.

“Fans don’t know about Prada through us; they know Prada through Kun,” said the house’s director Miuccia Prada in an interview with Chinese media GQ Lab.

C-pop’s Cai Xukun in Prada Men’s autumn 2019 campaign. Photo: Prada

In part, the C-pop craze has exploded due to intensified nationalism among younger Chinese. Instead of wanting to see yet another Hollywood face on a luxury billboard, they feel proud and connected to a brand when they see a Chinese idol in this prime position. Aside from the nationalist factor, China’s peculiar fan culture has also contributed to a high level of engagement, making C-pop idols particularly commercially viable for brands.

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In the C-pop community, fans see bolstering the idol’s commercial portfolio and sales KPI as a concrete way to support their hero. They buy and post about whatever products the idol sponsors.

C-pop’s Cai Xukun in Prada Men’s autumn 2019 campaign. Photo: Prada

This direct show of loyalty through purchases by C-pop fans has led to astonishing results. For example, Produce Camp 2021, a Chinese talent show that aired this February, raised an average of US$6.13 million per contestant from its audience, eager to help its favourite idols triumph. And earlier in June, the Weibo hashtag community #王一博粉丝晒单#, where Wang Yibo’s fans post their proof of purchase for everything he promotes, from Chanel watches to Kentucky Fried Chicken takeaway – surpassed two million posts.

Tencent TV’s Produce Camp 2021, shot in Hainan, selected 11 winners from 90 local and overseas contestants to form an international boy band. Photo: Tencent TV

However, C-pop fans’ devoted shopping is not a free pass for brands to go on recruiting more idol ambassadors. That’s because erratic or ill-informed actions by certain C-pop fans can even end up harming brands.

The most famous of these incidents was when actor Sean Xiao Zhan lost his ambassador contracts with brands like Estée Lauder, Piaget and Cartier because his fans raged a cyberwar against a website that allegedly “defamed” his image.
Actor and singer Sean Xiao Zhan. Photo: @xiaozhan.daytoy/Instagram

And in May 2021, season three of the talent show Youth with You led to gallons of milk being poured into a river after fans bought a milk product from a show-sponsoring brand just to get a QR code so that they could vote for their favourite idol. Incentivised by competition with other fans, people bought the bottles by the thousand, but simply poured the milk out. People’s Daily, the government’s official mouthpiece, condemned the show for encouraging wasteful behaviour. Youth with You was first suspended and then its finale was cancelled.

Within a local context of slowing income growth and soaring living costs, celebrities who post about their extravagant lifestyles are now also becoming a target for media censorship. For example, Su Mang, the ex-editor-in-chief of Bazaar China, faced a significant social media backlash after saying on a cooking show that a 650 yuan (US$100) budget is not enough for breakfast. Likewise, Zheng Shuang, a controversial Chinese actress who lost her Prada ambassadorship due to a surrogacy scandal, drew resentment after disclosing that she earned as much as US$2.1 million a day.
Zheng Shuang in an advert for Prada. Photo: Prada

To tame this outbreak of fan-related scandals, the Chinese government launched a media crackdown called “Qinlang” in May, aiming to remove all celebrity content that potentially promotes bad values to the country’s youth, such as reckless spending and drug use.

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For brands, therefore, using C-pop celebrities for image or sales boosts has become an increasingly risky venture. To be smarter about their partnerships, brands must keep these three things in mind:

Actor Wang Yibo attends Best Taste 2017 in December 2017 in Beijing, China. Photo: Visual China Group via Getty Images

1. Do your due diligence on the idol. They are the key to reaching Gen Z consumers, but brands need to know who to choose. Because of the emotional and financial value that young Chinese pour into idols, they can be intensely disappointed and resentful if their heroes get caught committing immoral or illegal deeds. Often that leads to them boycotting the brands the idol represented.

2. Reward the idol to reward the fans. Since China’s fan culture ties fans’ identities to their idols’ commercial success, seeing an idol bag coveted roles with, or privileged treatment from, a prestigious brand rewards them too. Brands have to show concrete rewards like these for the idol to maintain high engagement and good sales performance with fans.

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3. Be prepared for potential pitfalls and PR crises. Know that no human is perfect: that any celebrity could experience a fall from grace, making fans boycott their brand. Given how fast things can escalate in China’s social media, brands are better off taking a firm stance immediately after a scandal breaks, rather than waiting for the perfect answer to present itself.

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This article originally appeared on Jing Daily

  • Young Chinese consumers will buy whatever Cai Xukun, Kris Wu, Fan Chengcheng or Ouyang Nana endorse, making millions of posts about their purchases on Weibo
  • Prada dropped Zheng Shuang after a scandal and talent show Youth with You got cancelled after fans bought and dumped gallons of milk to get more QR voting codes