Guerlain’s experiment with Yang Yang, one of the first traffic stars in China’s new digitally-empowered fandom culture, ended the traditional celebrity hierarchy in China’s brand ambassador system. Its success showed that young, media-hot traffic stars are much more effective in triggering consumer purchasing decisions than Oscar-winning artists.

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Since then, traffic stars who rose to fame via popular talent shows and TV dramas have become the go-to media strategy for big-name brands – in beauty but also in luxury, fashion and consumer goods as well. By 2018, over 40 international beauty brands switched their female celebrity ambassadors for male “traffic stars” in their marketing campaigns.

These pretty-faced male stars come with a massive young female fan base who are especially attuned to spending money on the brands their idols promote. Because of how fans see themselves as responsible for their idols’ commercial value, these brand appointments have been able to bring about both media buzz and immediate business results.

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Fan Chengcheng, a singer who rose to fame from C-pop talent shows, is another example of how brands have quickly embraced China’s idol culture to fit their marketing agendas. With more than 25 million fans on Weibo, Fan is now the face of Givenchy, Christian Louboutin Beauty, Fenty Beauty and Shiseido.

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This direct link between star appointment and fan sales makes China’s ambassador programme particularly attractive to beauty brands that traditionally operated with a seasonal/regional business model through their young, female clientele. However, an overreliance on pop celebrities for business growth can also be a honey trap for brands, as the strategy comes with its downsides too.

First, the short-lived nature of traffic stars in China’s ever-changing entertainment industry means that brands must keep changing ambassadors to stay up to date with market trends. Young idols tend to have a fan base that intensely engages for a short period yet turns to the next star in short order. For brands that want to cultivate a solid customer relationship management (CRM) strategy in the Chinese market, using idols to recruit fans is only a short-term move.

And in July, Chinese-Canadian idol Kris Wu set off some of the most explosive scandals in the history of China’s entertainment scene. Following several sexual misconduct allegations, Wu lost endorsement deals with more than 10 high-end brands, including Louis Vuitton, Bulgari and Lancôme, in less than a week. Since then, many Chinese state media accounts have issued public pledges to commit to a “media cleaning” project, promising a crackdown on morally tainted stars that supposedly corrupt younger generations.

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With the number of traffic star scandals rising, China’s official hard-line stance against idols with apparent bad influences implies that brands are likely to face more restrictions in appointing stars for future campaigns.

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Today, brands and agencies must consider whether a star’s character aligns with Beijing’s national objectives to avoid getting caught up in the next ambassador scandal.

“The best kind of idols to appoint should be role models,” said Susanna Cheng, an independent KOL consultant based in Shenzhen. “Brands need to make sure that the idol posts patriotic words, shows the right attitude towards social issues and has a morally acceptable personal life.”

If China is, in fact, undergoing an idol industry shake-up, it will quickly change the evaluation metrics of the beauty ambassador landscape. Beyond popularity, brands would also have to look at an idol’s moral reputation and make sure it fits the cultural norms Beijing is promoting.

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