Givenchy's New China Ambassadors Have Work to Do

What happened On March 3, Givenchy announced two new brand ambassadors, the actor Fan Chengcheng (brother of Fan Bingbing) who is also a singer in the boyband Nine Percent, and the actress Ouyang Nana. Givenchy, who appointed Matthew Williams as its creative director last year, had already been developing relationships with the celebrities: Both attended its recent pop-up at the Beijing SKP mall earlier this year and promoted its exclusive edition, Antigona handbag. Givenchy also launched an official beauty store on Tmall at the start of the pandemic, which gained a whopping 500,000 followers on the opening day. The Jing Take Givenchy is gearing up for its Paris Fashion Week show later this week, making this the ideal time to announce two new ambassador hires in China. The news quickly trended on Weibo’s top 10 classifications, and the topic generated almost 400 million views on its official Weibo account, unsurprising as the two are beloved by China’s Gen Zers. However, several netizens used the opportunity to remind fans of Givenchy’s 2019 T-shirt scandal. Much of this discussion was captured in response to a post about the announcement by the influential fashion KOL Pipijuice (with 1 million Weibo followers), where many of her readers argued that it has still not apologized adequately. Moreover, Givenchy is failing to reach anywhere near the popularity it had under the creative direction of its previous designer Riccardo Tisci. Putting Williams at the helm was predicted to give it a boost on the mainland given his streetwear credentials. But the brand will need to do much more. And while the two stars can amplify, they have a combined following of over 40 million fans, who knows if this can convert into sales. The Jing Take reports on a piece of the leading news and presents our editorial team’s analysis of the key implications for the luxury industry. In the recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese social media.

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Givenchy's New China Ambassadors Have Work to Do