The Influence of Celebrity Effect on Brand Image in the Internet

Celebrity Economy: A Case Study of Prada Endorsed by Cai Xukun

Xinyue Yu

School of Photography, Communication University of China, Nanjing, Nanjing, 210000, China

Keywords: Internet Celebrity Economy, Celebrity Effect, Brand Image.

Abstract: With the rapid development of the internet celebrity economy, celebrity endorsements have become an

important means of brand marketing, and endorsers directly affect the shaping of brand image. This article

takes Prada endorsed by Cai Xukun as an example to explore the in-fluence of celebrity effect on brand image.

Through literature analysis and case studies, this article systematically analyzes the impact mechanism of

celebrity endorsement on brand awareness, consumer cognition, and brand value. The research results indicate

that as a young idol, Cai Xukun's endorsement significantly enhances Prada's brand awareness and

favorability among young consumers, while also strengthening the brand's fashion and trend attributes.

However, celebrity endorsements also carry certain risks, such as negative events that may have a short-term

impact on the brand image. Therefore, when choosing a spokesperson, brands need to comprehensively

consider their image fit and potential risks.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the existing research on the relationship between

internet celebrity economy and celebrity effect, there

are mainly the following shortcomings: firstly, there

is a lack of systematic theoretical framework for the

dynamic mechanism between celebrity effect and

brand image, which mostly stays at the description of

phenomena and fails to deeply explore the

moderating effects of mediating variables such as fan

emotional identification and value fit; Secondly,

research often focuses on short-term traffic

conversion, lacking empirical analysis on brand risk

response strategies and long-term image restoration

paths caused by negative celebrity events; Once

again, existing achievements are mostly based on a

single cultural background, lacking comparative

research on the effectiveness of celebrity

endorsements from a cross-cultural perspective. For

example, the issue of localization adaptation between

international luxury brands (such as Prada) and local

Chinese celebrities has not been fully explored. In

addition, most researchers lack long-term tracking of

online celebrity economic life cycle and brand value

precipitation, resulting in insufficient interpretation

of the dialectical relationship between "flow foam"

and "brand equity". These theoretical gaps result in a

lack of targeted guidance for the practical application

of celebrity effects in brand strategy, which urgently

needs to be improved through in-depth case analysis

and interdisciplinary research. This article will

comprehensively understand the current market

situation through literature research and case analysis.

And taking Prada spokesperson Cai Xukun as an

example, the author will deeply analyze the

mechanism of celebrity effect and explore its

interactive relationship with brand image. This not

only helps to understand market dynamics and

consumer psychology, but the celebrity effect, as an

effective marketing tool, can provide reference for

brand marketing by understanding its mechanism of

action and degree of influence.

In recent years, with the progress of Internet

technology, network information has flooded all

aspects of people's lives, which is characterized by

large amount of data and high dimensions (Seger

Guttmann, 2019; Siyal et al., 2021; Wu, 2021;

Moraliyska, 2023). Rapid innovation in the network

field has brought more development. Due to the

ubiquity of social media in people's lives, self media

platforms have become an important channel for e-

commerce capital (Hedid, Abdessamad, 2020), and

the emerging economy of "internet celebrity

economy" has emerged in people's vision with its

rapid development. The rapid rise of social media and

706

Yu, X.

The Inﬂuence of Celebrity Effect on Brand Image in the Internet Celebrity Economy: A Case Study of Prada Endorsed by Cai Xukun.

DOI: 10.5220/0014002200004916

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication (PRMC 2025), pages 706-711

ISBN: 978-989-758-778-8

live video websites such as Weibo, WeChat, Tiktok

and Kwai has made the number of online celebrities

and fan groups increasingly large. Their commercial

influence is expanding day by day, and with their

open nature, they are expected to realize their own

commercial value. The videos, pictures, texts, etc.

posted by internet celebrities, and then promoted

through marketing accounts, have become one of the

main ways to obtain traffic in contemporary times

(Qiao & Shao, 2024). And the internet celebrity

economy is centered around internet celebrity

individuals or organizations, gathering traffic

resources through carefully crafted accounts and

realizing traffic monetization. Whether it is

collaborating with brand owners to promote products

or using the influence of the account itself for

marketing, both have brought considerable market

profits to internet celebrity accounts.

The celebrity effect refers to the general term for

the effect of attracting attention, strengthening the

situation, expanding the scope of influence, and the

psychological phenomenon of the public imitating

celebrities through their popularity or reputation,

influence, etc. The celebrity effect is equivalent to an

advertising communication method, which not only

presents the charm of celebrities to the public, but

also conveys the brand to consumers (Lou, 2016).

From a psychological perspective, the high popularity

of celebrities can attract high attention and visual

impact, often forming a demonstrative effect that

attracts people's imitation. For example, celebrities'

choices of food, clothing brands, tourist destinations.

can attract people's attention and imitation of related

content. At the same time, advertising is a form of

persuasive communication, using celebrities to

persuade and play the role of opinion leaders (Xie,

2024). The "halo effect" is also increasingly being

used in marketing: consumers' love and pursuit of

celebrities extends to everything about celebrities,

including blindly following their dressing style,

language style, behavior, etc., and then accepting

consumer products or social concepts recommended

by them.

Driven by the internet celebrity economy, luxury

brands such as Prada are accelerating their youthful

transformation through celebrity effects, but they also

face dual challenges of image and risk. Taking Cai

Xukun as an example, although his endorsement

brought short-term traffic explosion to Prada, the

subsequent negative events led to an increase in the

sensitivity of the brand's stock price and a sudden

increase in public opinion pressure. Prada has

frequently encountered spokesperson collapses in

recent years, exposing the vulnerability of relying on

traffic stars - the contradiction between short-term

popularity and long-term brand value.

Facing young consumers, luxury goods need to

balance traffic and brand tone. Prada's trans-

formation attempts include: turning to athletes (such

as Ma Long and Yang Shuyu) and highly national

artists (Jia Ling), strengthening brand stability with

the concept of "not following the trend";

Simultaneously consolidating the high-end image

through art exhibitions and re-tail experience

upgrades. However, traffic marketing is still a double-

edged sword: although it can quickly reach

Generation Z, excessive dependence can weaken

brand scarcity, and sustainable influence needs to be

built through diversified strategies such as content co

creation and value output.

2 PRADA'S BRAND DILEMMA

AND CAIXUKUN'S TOP CLASS

CHARACTERISTICS

In recent years, the rise of online celebrity economy

has reshaped the pattern of brand marketing, and

celebrity endorsement has become an important lever

for the luxury industry to leverage the young

consumer market. As an international luxury brand,

prada has frequently cooperated with Chinese top

artists since 2019, trying to revive the Chinese market

through the mode of "traffic+brand". However, this

strategy not only brings high exposure, but also falls

into the "Curse" dilemma due to the frequent negative

events of the spokesperson. Prada has successively

signed with top artists such as Zheng Shuang, Li

Yifeng and caixukun in re-cent years, but these

spokesmen have "collapsed" due to negative events

such as surrogacy, prostitution and private life

disputes, which has led to the brand falling into the

vortex of public opinion for many times. For

example, the Zheng Shuang event terminated the

contract in only eight days, while the Li Yifeng event

triggered short-term fluctuations in the stock price.

Although Prada cut quickly to reduce the negative

impact, frequent negative associations still weakened

its high-end image, which was jokingly called "the

beacon of collapsed houses" by netizens.

Caixukun, as a new generation idol, has

accumulated a huge fan base by virtue of his debut in

the C position of "idol trainee", with more than 38.5

million microblog fans and nearly 18million

buffeting fans. Its fans are mainly "generation Z" and

have strong consumption power. For example, the

album "fans" has sold a total of 2018400 pieces (QQ

music) within 3 hours of its launch, and the concert

The Inﬂuence of Celebrity Effect on Brand Image in the Internet Celebrity Economy: A Case Study of Prada Endorsed by Cai Xukun

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tickets have been sold out in seconds. This high

viscosity fan economy injects young vitality into

Prada, making it quickly reach emerging consumer

groups. Secondly, caixukun's fashion expression is

highly consistent with Prada's avantgarde and artistic

brand tone. For example, in 2019, the advertising

blockbuster "human almost" co-operated with artist

Caofei created caixukun as a "contemporary youth

symbol" through philosophical narration, which

strengthened the cultural depth of the brand. In

addition, his creative designs in prada520 activities

(such as the 75m ribbon gift) further highlighted the

brand's interpretation of the theme of "love" and

"growth".

In order to cater to young consumers, prada chose

caixukun, an idol with both traffic and fashion appeal,

which can really quickly increase the exposure

through social media. For ex-ample, the advertising

film endorsed by caixukun has been forwarded more

than 1million times on Prada's official microblog,

with 30 comments. 60000. However, this "flow

dependence" strategy also exposes the brand to

uncontrollable risks of star personal behavior.

3 PRADA'S CELEBRITY EFFECT

MARKETING STRATEGY

ANALYSIS

3.1 Accurate Selection of Traffic Stars

First, using data-driven decision-making: Prada

believes that Caixukun's fan portraits (with a high

proportion of women and strong consumption power)

and social media influence (with more than 100

billion microblog super words read) can effectively

transform young customers. Second, identify the

differentiation positioning: Caixukun's "creative

Idol" design is consistent with Prada's artistic gene.

The advertising film "human almost" starring in it

metaphors the brand's exploration of tradition and

innovation by playing the role of natural person/man-

made person, and strengthens the cultural depth of

marketing content. This is not only the balance

between art and commerce, but also the in-depth

output of culture. The sci-fi narrative and

philosophical metaphor in the advertising films (such

as the discussion of "human nature and technology")

make the marketing activities go beyond the simple

product promotion and transform into the

transmission of brand values.

At the same time, prada inevitably needs to bear

the risk of audience narrowing. Excessive focus on

Caixukun's fan base (mainly young women) may lead

the brand to ignore other potential customers (such as

male consumers or high net worth mature customers).

Reflect the limitations of the strategy. Once

Caixukun's "creative Idol" label collapses (such as

being involved in plagiarism disputes or moral

scandals), it may damage the brand image, and there

are also some hidden dangers in the binding of

people.

Prada has long shown itself as a "high cold"

image, while the marketing of traffic stars is of-ten

accompanied by the culture of the rice circle (such as

data ranking, control and evaluation). Some

traditional consumers believe that this move "lowers

the brand style" and leads to the differentiation of

brand loyalty, which leads to the contradiction

between elitism and flow culture and the possibility

of cultural conflict.

3.2 Omni Channel Integrated

Communication

With "human almost" as the core, the short film was

distributed through microblogging, dithering and

other platforms, with more than 39million views and

88million readings of related topics, forming fission

communication and marketing of content. At the

same time, the sci-fi aesthetics and philosophy topics

in the advertising films stimulate users' secondary

creation (such as the content derived from the topic of

"Prada human almost interpretation" on the

microblog), forming a self cycle of brand

communication. However, there is a risk of dilution

of cultural symbols in this way. In order to cater to the

fragmented communication of short video platforms,

the advertising film "human almost" was cut into a 15

second version, which led to the simplification of

philosophical narrative and weakened the original

intention of cultural expression of the brand. At the

same time, although the challenges, stickers and other

special effects on the dithering platform have

increased participation, some contents (such as fans'

imitation of Caixukun's style) deviate from the high-

end tone of the brand and tend to be excessively

entertaining, which has triggered the controversy of

"whether Prada is too sinking".

Secondly, Prada allows customers to experience

the scene and hold an art exhibition at Prada Rongzhai

in Shanghai. It combines Cai Xukun's endorsement

with the brand history and the concept of sustainable

development to enhance fans' recognition of the

brand value. At the same time, the interactive devices

in the exhibition (such as the experience area of

recycled nylon materials) will transform the brand

value proposition into a perceptible experience,

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enhance the emotional connection of users, and play

the role of immersive consumption guidance.

In 2019, the company cooperated with jd.com to

launch new products in autumn and winter, using

Caixukun's "carrying capacity" to promote online

sales, and fans' orders exceeded 100, realizing the

direct transformation from traffic to sales and e-

commerce linkage. During the double 11 in 2019,

Prada's sales increased by 120% year-on-year (Prada,

2019), verifying the effectiveness of the strategy.

3.3 Risk Hedging Mechanism

Prada has signed short-term endorsement agreements

with many stars. Once there is negative public

opinion (such as Zheng Shuang's surrogacy incident

and Li Yifeng's prostitution scan-dal), it will

immediately terminate the contract to reduce brand

losses. In addition, prada has adopted the layout of

spokesmen in multiple fields to disperse risks. In

recent years, it has introduced athletes such as Malone

and Yang Shuyu to disperse its dependence on the

flow of entertainment industry. At the same time, it

has tried to cooperate with virtual idols to reduce the

risk of "house collapse". This strategy also makes the

audience diversified and expanded. Athletes'

endorsement attracts sports lovers, and virtual idols

attract technology lovers, helping Prada break

through the boundaries of the original customer base.

However, the short number of spokespersons also

makes the brand image fragmented. Frequent

replacement of spokespersons (for example, a total of

8 spokespersons signed from 2019 to 2023) may

make the brand memory points scattered, leading to

confusion in consumer cognition. Short term

contracts also make it difficult for spokesmen to

understand brand culture in depth. For example,

Caixukun repeatedly described Prada's design

concept as "high-end" and "art" in the interview.

However, it failed to explain the specific connotation

and ex-posed the lack of depth of cooperation.

4 ANALYSIS OF RISKS AND

CHALLENGES

The granting of the identity of brand spokesperson

first represents the enterprise's recognition of its

personal brand image and social value. Then there are

controversial negative events in the brand

spokesperson selected by the enterprise, which is

likely to make consumers who are brand followers

feel cognitive imbalance and uneasy, and even doubt

the values and concepts advocated by the brand.

People also tend to think that the enterprise itself

should be responsible for the negative impact of the

brand caused by hiring celebrities with bad deeds to

speak for it. Compared with positive events, negative

events of celebrity spokesmen can attract more public

attention, and consumers' negative associations with

negative events of celebrity spokesmen are more

likely to be automatically transferred to the brand

(Campbell & warren, 2012). From the positive effect,

the higher the correlation between the two, the better

the endorsement effect. On the contrary, the higher

the correlation, the more obvious the reverse effect of

negative effects.

In the era of social media, the high prosperity of

all kinds of we media has significantly improved the

speed and breadth of information circulation. The

negative events of brand spokesmen can detonate the

whole network in a short time with the slightest

change, and the evaluation of consumers on the brand

also changes rapidly, and the brand "boycott culture"

has become increasingly fierce (Mao, 2022). Social

media gives consumers the ability and power to share

views and bravely question authority, especially on

Facebook, Facebook, and Twitter 、 Under the

background of the vigorous development of sina

Weibo, Douban and other we media platforms, once

a negative event occurs to the brand spokesperson, the

news will quickly spread on the network in a fission

mode. In recent years, the negative events of the

brand spokesperson during the endorsement period

have been exposed and continuously fermented on the

network, resulting in an endless stream of negative

phenomena that consumers sit on the brand and

induce large-scale boycotts. Specifically, after the

spokesperson broke out negative events, many

consumers would immediately express their views

and put pressure on the brand. They chose to issue

"call up posts" on microblogging, Douban

community and other social media to boycott the

brand endorsed by the person concerned, which

clearly expressed their disappointment at the brand's

inattention, would boycott the inferior artists and the

brand they endorsed, required the enterprise to

terminate the cooperation with the inferior artists,

made a response such as no longer using the brand

products, appealed to the surrounding people not to

buy the products endorsed by the inferior artists, and

used brand competitive products instead; It will also

"besiege" the brand's e-commerce live room and

directly convey the boycott opinions by commenting

on the screen.

Take Prada, Caixukun's spokesperson, as an

example. Prada chose Caixukun as its spokesperson

The Inﬂuence of Celebrity Effect on Brand Image in the Internet Celebrity Economy: A Case Study of Prada Endorsed by Cai Xukun

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and really reaped a wave of traffic dividends. On the

second day after Prada officially announced Cai

Xukun as its brand spokesperson, Prada's hot topics

were exposed to more than 700million people, and the

videos related to Cai Xukun released by Prada's

official micro blog were broadcast more than

30million people. Murcia Prada, the current CEO of

Prada group, al-so said publicly that "fans know

Prada not through us, but through Kun". On June 26,

2022, the Caixukun scandal (involving minor female

scandals and falling in love) broke out, and the whole

network was in an uproar. The image of Caixukun is

also separated from the positioning of the brand

image of "high cold" and "intellectual". With the

fermentation of Caixukun incident, Prada's brand

reputation has been greatly impacted. On the day after

the scandal broke out, Prada's share price suffered a

big setback and its market value evaporated by

billions of Hong Kong dollars (Xueqiu, 2023). Prada

was nicknamed as a "house collapse specialist" by

netizens due to frequent house collapse incidents

(seven spokespersons in five years were thundering),

and even questioned as "vague brand values". Prada

also fell into the public opinion storm of

"spokesperson curse", and the voice for the brand

owner to terminate Caixukun was also growing.

5 RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Correct Choice of Spokesperson

It is also important for celebrities to have a certain

degree of social trust. Only by giving people a sense

of trust can advertising play a positive role, and vice

versa. When choosing celebrity endorsements, the

past experience and moral level of celebrities should

be investigated. Only celebrities with high social trust

can be trusted by consumers. Therefore, enterprises

should be careful in choosing spokesmen. In addition

to popularity and trust, they should also

comprehensively consider various factors including

image, affinity, popularity and so on. They can even

establish an evaluation system of celebrity

advertising indicators to screen out the really suitable

candidates according to the actual needs.

5.2 Enhance the Relevance Between

Celebrity Effect and Brand

Positioning

On the one hand, the corresponding celebrities should

be selected through a combination with the brand's

functional attributes. When applying the celebrity

effect in brand communication, the brand's functional

positioning must be fully established first, followed

by the corresponding selection of celebrity endorsers.

For example, slimming celebrity endorsement is

required for weight loss products, and sports celebrity

endorsement is required for sportswear. On the other

hand, the corresponding celebrities should be selected

through an integration with the brand's target

audience. Different audiences often have celebrities

in their fields. When selecting celebrities, it is

necessary to select the corresponding celebrities in

combination with the audience of the brand. For

example, for pharmaceutical products, elderly

celebrities can be selected to endorse, which can

enhance the relevance between celebrity effect and

brand positioning.

5.3 Enable Virtual Spokesperson

While the real spokesperson has a negative image,

some characteristics of the virtual spokes-person are

amplified. For the brand, the price advantage of the

virtual spokesperson is obvious. The brand does not

need to bear the high star endorsement fees, and it can

effectively avoid the collapse of the spokesperson

(Cao, 2024). Virtual spokesperson is a virtual role

created for the purpose of selling products or services.

In 2018, noonoonouri, a virtual celebrity from

Germany, broke the wall of dimensionality and won

the favor of major brands soon after her debut.

Chanel, Dior and other brands asked her to watch the

brand show or invite her to "shoot" advertisements.

5.4 Improve the Risk Early Warning

and Long-Term Response System

Conduct real-time monitoring of public opinion,

deploy AI driven public opinion analysis tools, and

preset negative event response processes (such as 72

hours termination statement, values restatement

announcement) to reduce the loss of brand image. At

the same time, an artist's moral hazard rating system

is established to comprehensively monitor public

opinion (such as latent fans, legal compliance review)

and analyze the stability of public image, so as to

avoid relying solely on traffic data. Strengthen the

guidance of fan community, turn fans into brand

ambassadors through membership system and

exclusive activities (such as "prada520" emotional

marketing participated by Caixukun), strengthen

rational consumption advocacy, and reduce irrational

krypton behavior.

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6 CONCLUSION

Under the background of the vigorous development

of online celebrity economy, celebrity effect has

become an important means of brand image building

and reaching young consumer groups. Taking Prada,

who is endorsed by Caixukun, as an example, this

paper systematically analyzes the two-way impact of

celebrity effect on brand image, reveals the

opportunities and risks of traffic marketing, and

provides theoretical and practical enlightenment for

brand optimization.

The study found that Caixukun, as a top class idol

of the new generation, has significantly improved

Prada's brand recognition and popularity among

young consumers with his huge fan base and high

viscosity fan economy. Its combination with brand

artistry and Avantgarde tonality has strengthened

Prada's fashion attributes and values output through

cultural in-depth marketing activities such as human

almost. However, the strategy of relying too much on

traffic stars also exposed brand vulnerability. The

negative events of Caixukun and other spokesmen

have led Prada to fall into a crisis of public opinion

for many times. The fluctuation of stock price and the

public opinion label of "house collapse specialist"

reflect the contradiction between short-term flow

dividend and long-term brand value. Research shows

that the risk of celebrity endorsement is not only due

to the uncontrollability of personal behavior, but also

due to the instant and amplification effect of

information dissemination in the era of social media,

which makes the brand image vulnerable to joint

impact.

Based on this, this paper proposes that brands

need to build a multi-dimensional risk hedging

mechanism: first, select spokesmen through data-

driven and values, and establish a moral hazard

assessment system; Second, adopt diversified

endorsement strategies, introduce representatives

from different fields such as athletes and virtual idols,

disperse risks and expand audience boundaries;

Third, strengthen the core of brand culture, deepen

the emotional connection of users through art

exhibitions and immersive experience, and avoid the

dilution of brand image caused by excessive

dependence on traffic marketing. In addition, the

study emphasizes the potential of virtual spokesmen,

and their controllability and cost advantages pro-vide

a new way for brands to avoid the risk of "house

collapse".

This study also has some limitations. For

example, the cases focus on a single luxury brand,

which can be expanded to comparative analysis in

different industries or cross-cultural con-texts in the

future; In addition, the long-term tracking of the

relationship between celebrity effect and brand value

still needs more empirical data. In general, this paper

provides an important reference for the brand to

balance the flow and tonality, short-term popularity

and long-term assets in the era of online celebrity

economy, and reveals the dialectical logic be-hind the

celebrity effect - only on the basis of precise

matching, risk control and deep cultivation of culture

can we realize the sustainable growth of brand value.

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