Celebrity endorsements frequently overturn the traffic dream of luxury brands?

On the afternoon of October 22, the cold wind suddenly rose.

In the Huamao Center Plaza, where Beijing luxury brands gather, several groups of black and white containers combined into a cool industrial style exhibition hall, many people gathered, shouting "Duan Yihong" and "Duan Yihong". On the same day, the famous actor Duan Yihong participated in the IWC Dafei theme exhibition of IWC, a swiss watchmaker schaffhausen, as a close friend of the IWC brand, and interacted with the media and fans at the event site.

On the same day, another high-end watch brand, Rolex, was busy deleting traces of a young pianist's spokesperson in various public channels. On October 21, the topic of the detention of a pianist who was in prostitution caused an uproar in public opinion, and the scandal caused the pianist to blow up the endorsement of a number of high-luxury brands, and the brands have drawn a line with it.

"Who would have thought that a pianist would also have a scandal?" A brand publicist who did not want to be named lamented that the brand's "spokesperson" and "ambassador" have become a minefield, from Zheng Shuang, Wu Yifan, and now a pianist, all of which have set off terrifying waves. Luxury brands, spending huge endorsement fees, are they buying benefits or risks?

It is undeniable that although high-risk events occur frequently, these stars have the common characteristics of high traffic and high popularity, and luxury brands love to use traffic stars, which is also a matter of recent years. Luxury brands have embarked on the shortcut of traffic stars on the way to hunt young people, and building brand recognition faster is also accompanied by corresponding risks.

<h4>There is a difference between Chinese and foreign "ambassadors</h4>"

According to incomplete statistics, in the past five years, only in the official microblog of luxury brands, the content involving various types of celebrities is basically 20-30, of which there are 15 brand friends mentioned in Louis Vuitton's official microblog, 9 brand friends with a word difference with close friends, and 7 brand ambassadors. Chanel did not lose, not only 11 brand friends, but also 11 brand ambassadors.

It is interesting to note that on the overseas social media of luxury brands, the word ambassador is basically used, and it means "ambassador". But this is not the same as Chinese "ambassador", one is a Weibo special offering, and the other is equivalent to a brand spokesperson.

From the early days of "carefully selected" stars with high national popularity to endorse them, it has become a "leek" that divides traffic stars and harvests fans with goods. Brand spokesperson, brand spokesperson in Greater China, brand friend, brand ambassador, image ambassador... Behind such refined management and the division of titles of celebrities by luxury brands is the change in their marketing and promotion strategies in China.

<h4>Star traffic acceleration</h4>

This shift starts with the cold winter experienced by China's luxury industry, according to previous data from market research institute Bain, the growth rate of luxury consumption in China in 2013 was only 2%, down sharply from 7% in 2012. In 2011, that number was a staggering 30 percent. From 2008 to 2012, the average annual compound growth rate of total luxury goods consumption in the mainland reached 27%.

A year later, that is, in 2014, with the return of K-pop stars such as Wu Yifan and Lu Han to China, the new generation of actors such as Li Yifeng and Yang Yang also became popular because of a series of idol dramas, and the entertainment industry began to enter the era of traffic Chinese mainland. Luxury brands have also chosen to catch the express train of traffic in the face of difficulties.

In 2016, Lu Han became Cartier's first close friend of the Chinese brand, and Wu Yifan also became Burberry's first non-British spokesperson and catwalk in October of that year. In the context of the depreciation of the pound in the same period, Wu Yifan's star effect helped Burberry achieve a 22% year-on-year increase in sales revenue in the third fiscal quarter of 2016. This choice of spokesperson is also regarded by overseas media as the biggest contributor to the brand's performance growth.

At present, Burberry has long emptied all relevant content, and there is currently no Weibo update in which Chinese celebrities participate.

Or maybe Burberry's strategy of achieving sales conversion through celebrity spokespersons worked – previously, luxury brands could be picky about brand partners, usually step by step, starting with event cooperation and then promoting to brand friends, brand friends, brand ambassadors and other titles.

For example, Zhu Yilong's cooperation with LV, in September 2018, he first appeared in the form of event cooperation, nearly a year later, he won the brand friend, and quickly turned into a brand friend, and after another year, he won the brand ambassador title in October 2020. Zhong Chuxi, Liu Haoran and others have all gone through a two- or three-year journey to become image ambassadors.

In recent years, the rise rate of new cooperation stars has been increasing, such as Ouyang Nana, who has never cooperated with LV before, appeared as a brand close friend in her first official Weibo appearance in September 2020; in June 2021, Gong Jun, who had only been cooperating for one month, suddenly stepped from activities to LV brand ambassadors; in July 2021, without any preparation, Liu Haocun parachuted into LV brand ambassadors.

Previously, the frequency of Chinese stars participating in LV's promotional activities was not high, and the spokespersons with titles were basically all foreign actors and models, since 2019, Chinese stars such as Liu Yifei, Yang Chaoyue, Gong Jun and other Chinese stars began to frequently participate in LV's daily publicity, and it is more representative that the traffic stars represented by the debut of the women's group began to participate in LV's promotional activities.

This may be closely related to the changes in the global consumer market, and the epidemic has played a further role in fueling the waves. According to the 2020 China Luxury Consumer Digital Behavior Insight Report released by the Boston Consulting Group, in 2020, the demand for luxury goods in the United States and Europe is expected to shrink by 45% after being hit by the epidemic, while the demand from the Chinese market is still 30% increasing.

Looking back at other luxury brands, whether it is a large number of ambassadors, close friends and other titles, traffic stars occupy half of the country, in the spokesperson, DIOR's spokespersons are Yang Ying, Wang Junkai, Zhao Liying, Prada is Cai Xukun, Chunxia and Zheng Shuang, Cai Xukun also won the spokesperson of some lines of GIVENCHY in one fell swoop. It is no exaggeration to say that luxury brands have fully entered the era of traffic.

Needless to say, traffic stars bring huge amounts of traffic to brands. Among them, in May 2019, PRADA officially announced the endorsement of Cai Xukun, which is also the first time that PRADA has officially selected Chinese among the spokespersons. It was reported that on the second day of the official announcement, PRADA's hot topics were exposed to 730 million, and the advertising short film was played more than 76 million times.

In the first half of 2019, PRADA's revenue growth rate was lower than the growth rate of luxury personal products worldwide, and its revenue in Asia showed negative growth. Since then, although there is no clear data on how much direct benefit Cai Xukun has brought to PRADA, it has appeared in the financial report presentation on PRADA's official website, with the title of "Positive Market Reaction after Market Restart".

<h4>Fancy title big show</h4>

Among the many luxury brands, Dior is undoubtedly the luxury brand that takes the Chinese star route most thoroughly.

If LV's endorsement battlefield is still a step by step promotion, Dior is a one-step direct use of the "ambassador" name, a variety of prefixes: China Brand Ambassador, China Millennium Ambassador, Makeup Ambassador, Skin Care Ambassador, Jewelry Ambassador, Wilderness Men's Perfume Series Ambassador, Flower Secret Treasure Image Ambassador, Fragrance Family Ambassador, Muscle Vitality Image Ambassador...

From the region, the category to the specific product, as if as long as it is a favorite partner, Dior can all create a position to arrange, and a higher coffee position can directly arrange a spokesperson, or even do not need to change the article. For example, the skin care ambassador is Jing Tian, the skin care spokesperson is Zhao Liying; the makeup ambassador is Wang Ziwen, and the makeup spokesperson is Yang Ying; the ambassador of the Wilderness Men's Perfume Series is Huang Jingyu, and the spokesperson is Wang Junkai.

In August 2018, the first Ambassador of the Fragrance Family was Wang Ziwen, and in the next two or three months, all the ambassadors were quickly rolled out: Dior China Brand Ambassadors Zhao Liying, Yang Ying, Huang Xuan, Fragrance Family Ambassadors Huang Jingyu, Han Dongjun, Yang Caiyu, Lei Wanying, Wan Baobao, Liu Zhao, Wang Ziwen, and China Millennium Ambassador Chen Feiyu. In 2019, Wang Likun, the image ambassador of Flower Secret Treasure, appeared on the scene, and Zhang Xueying was added to the brand ambassador of China.

From 2020 to now, 10 ambassador titles have been issued in just over a year, and therefore, at the level of brand friends and brand friends at the bottom of the endorsement and contempt chain, Dior is not active, rarely appears in the official Weibo, or is not too needed - "which ambassador is strong, Dior wholesale".

Today Dior has built a matrix of stars. After Dior, more and more luxury brands accepted and implemented the star strategy, and these brands began to actively seek cooperation among traffic stars in the Chinese market. In the world's top luxury universe of "six blue blood" and "eight red blood", Hermès, which does not endorse, appears to be "strange in style", but like LV and Dior, it is the mainstream to enhance the sense of interaction with the Chinese market and add a bet on the endorsement of domestic stars.

Even veterans such as Chanel began to quickly recruit Chinese stars to take sides for themselves from 2017, and the "ambassador team" expanded rapidly from "dumiao" Zhou Xun to More than a dozen people such as Wang Yibo, Chen Weiting, Liu Shishi, and Jing Bairan. And compared with traditional film and television stars, the endorsement road of the traffic stars who debuted in the draft is flatter, such as the brand spokesperson Cai Xukun, who placed heavy bets on PRADA, is also a Givenchy makeup spokesperson, both of which are almost the highest titles, Wang Jiaer, Yu Shuxin, Wu Xuanyi, etc. can get top titles and even walk between multiple brands.

It is undeniable that in addition to the brand's own design style to conquer the millennials, the cooperation with traffic stars is undoubtedly to enhance the youthful filter of these established luxury brands, which is also the direction of cultivating a new generation of consumers in the fashion industry. According to the "2020 China Luxury Consumer Digital Behavior Insight Report", in 2020, the proportion of consumers under the age of 30 exceeded half for the first time, and the expenditure contribution increased from 42% to 47%. Luxury localization products/marketing are favored. More than 90% of respondents accepted the various localization attempts launched by international luxury brands.

According to LVMH Group's latest financial report for the first three quarters, in the first nine months of 2021, the Group continued to maintain double-digit growth in the two major markets in Asia (excluding Japan) and the United States, accounting for 36% and 25% of total revenue, respectively. Sales in the first nine months of 2021 in the U.S. market increased by 24% compared to the same period in 2020 and 23% from the same period in 2019; sales in the First Nine Months of 2021 in asia (excluding Japan) increased by 34% compared to the same period in 2020 and 31% compared to the same period in 2019.

But it is worth noting that on the one hand, luxury brands do not skimp on various titles, constantly creating new terms, Chen Feiyu's Dior China Millennium Ambassador title is very interesting, neither according to the product line, nor completely by region, but by year, the brand's ambition to rejuvenate is clear. On the other hand, it is true that the Chinese market has become an important layout location for many luxury brands, but the product lines given by luxury brands to Chinese stars are concentrated in the beauty business, and chinese stars still rarely participate in core businesses such as clothing and couture.

In this regard, while choosing traffic stars, brands are also facing the replacement of brand value transmission by celebrities' self-characteristics, the focus on celebrities suppressing the charm of fashion design itself, and following the sway of consumer loyalty under the fan economy, making marketing strategies fall into top-heavy traps.

Another risk comes from the fact that luxury brands should see that while the traffic star fan economy brings sales, the original or potential consumers are disgusted with the brand because of their dislike of a certain star, and the public opinion of going to compete for shopping is not only a wave, but a real vote with their feet. The lesson of the past is that when Chanel chose Li Wei as a spokesperson, it was opposed by Hong Kong celebrities and ended hastily.

Stardom has never been the goal, just a convenient way to the public, and the current star is no longer the only path, and the risk is gradually increasing. At present, luxury brands that aim at the younger generation from product design ideas, marketing strategies and other aspects are also taking their risks while seeing the social opinion field cooperation traffic stars dominated by young people. The shuffle may begin.

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