by LONDON – The top 10 Chinese stars who attended fashion shows in Milan and Paris this season generated more than $49 million in earned media value via Weibo and Instagram, data from influencer marketing agency Lefty revealed.
Lea Mao, Marketing Manager Asia Pacific at Lefty, expected that the return of the Chinese could slow the K-pop boom.
Although the Chinese luxury market will shrink by 10 percent in 2022, Bernstein said the market will grow by 13 percent in 2023, giving brands an opportunity to collaborate with influencers in this space, especially via native platforms like Weibo.
“China used to be the leading market for luxury goods, but the impact of the pandemic led brands to focus on other emerging markets such as South Korea, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam. As a result, brands activated influencers in those regions during fashion weeks – hence the K-pop boom,” she explained.
But with the full reopening of China on January 8th, a number of celebrities, buyers and press from China have returned to the fashion calendar and have taken big and important places at shows, alongside business owners or other big stars.
Mao also noted that Chinese influencers are “ambitiously building their image abroad” this season.
Fans of Xiao Zhan are awaiting his arrival on Tod’s Fall 2023 show.
AFP via Getty Images
Take Xiao Zhan, for example, who is the face of Gucci and Tod’s in China. The actor created an Instagram account during Milan Fashion Week and amassed more than 463,000 followers in a week. Xiao alone generated more than $9.3 million in earned media value on Weibo.
Meanwhile, musician Cai Xukun’s performance at Prada generated $1.37 million and $2.2 million in earned media value on Instagram and Weibo, respectively.
Model Liu Wen and actress Liu Yifei also caused a sensation in the millions with their respective appearances at Chanel and Louis Vuitton.
But the biggest social media winner from China this season was Liu Yuxin, the face of Dior in China. Her appearance alone accounted for half of the total top 10 media value, generating $23.6 million in earned media value on Weibo and $693,000 on Instagram.
In comparison, the world’s top 10 key influencers amassed more than $75 million in earned media value over the past fashion month.
