On February 6 2023, Chloé announced that actress Guan Xiaotong has been appointed the fragrance brand's first Chinese ambassador — a stellar move for local exposure. It's already working.
The immense popularity of actress Guan demonstrates how powerful China’s fan culture is – today alone, the dedicated hashtag of #蔻依香氛代言人关晓彤# has 1.074 million reads, and the movie star's name (#关晓彤#) on Weibo has generated 2.1 million reads.
Commenting on the news, Guan took to Weibo describing the brand’s perfumes as “precious and timeless” in a post that attracted 316,000 likes and counting, as of press time.
Already an established name in luxury as a Valentino ambassador, and for starring in several Coach campaigns, the star’s reach covers China and beyond.
She has 851,000 followers on Instagram, and her Weibo page has generated 20.82 billion reads in total.
Known as “the nation’s daughter” in China, the actress’ rise to prominence began with her starring role in the 2003 movie Nuan aged four and accelerated thanks to roles in flicks like 2018’s Shadow and 2021's The Curse of Turandot.
The combination of the 25-year-old’s long career and her large local fanbase makes Guan a winning KOL choice who is likely to generate sales.
On Wednesday February 8 2023, the fragrance line owner Coty Inc. announced a five percent decline in Asia Pacific net revenues for the second quarter of this year. Though results elsewhere showed a lot of strength, the struggle in China could be improved by this new appointment.
Seeing as this is the brand’s very first involvement with a Chinese brand ambassador, it will be insightful to measure the direct impact the move has on the brand, and Coty Inc.'s revenue. Given what we’ve seen so far, Guan’s appointment will likely prove the power of leveraging fandom in China.