Columbia: a celebrity renewal, decided on the evidence.
Columbia named actor Huang Xuan its first China brand ambassador in 2018. At the end of 2019 it asked us whether to extend him. We measured his reach, his image and his fit with the brand, benchmarked him against another star, and recommended against renewal.
Extend the ambassador, or not?
A celebrity contract is one of the largest single lines in a China marketing budget, and renewals are usually decided on fame and fan numbers. Columbia wanted the decision made on evidence: is his influence growing, does his image carry the brand, and do his fans buy outdoor gear?
No direct outdoor competitor then held a long-term celebrity partnership, so we benchmarked him against actor Zhao Youting, formerly the face of adidas Terrex.
| Huang Xuan | Zhao Youting | |
|---|---|---|
| Influence score, 0–100 | 76 | 79 |
| Douyin engagement, 2019 | ⅕ of Zhao's | |
| Images showing formal wear | 53% | 14% |
| Images related to the outdoor brand | <1% |
The top 20 celebrities on the same score ran from 90 to 95.
A fading star, for a brand his fans did not wear.
His Weibo engagement fell three years running
Engagement on Huang Xuan's own Weibo posts, January to October of each year
Source: unrandom, Celebrity data analytics: Huang Xuan, December 2019; public Weibo data. Likes, comments and shares.
View the data
| Year (January–October) | Engagements |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 9,074,878 |
| 2017 | 8,541,615 |
| 2018 | 5,056,873 |
| 2019 | 1,980,061 |
−78%
from 2016 to 2019, with the steepest falls in 2018 and 2019, his years as Columbia's face. His reach was shrinking before any renewal was on the table.
Columbia drew the least engagement of his brands
Average engagement per post on Huang Xuan's own Weibo, by brand mentioned, 2018–2019
Source: unrandom, Celebrity data analytics: Huang Xuan, December 2019; public Weibo data.
View the data
| Brand | Posts | Average engagement |
|---|---|---|
| Dior | 4 | 69,873 |
| Braun | 4 | 53,242 |
| Columbia | 2 | 30,323 |
2 posts
about Columbia in two years as its ambassador, against four each for Dior and Braun. They drew 43% of the engagement of his Dior posts.
- 1
His reach was falling.
Engagement on his own Weibo posts fell three years running: 9.1 million in January to October 2016, 2.0 million in the same months of 2019. On Douyin, content about him drew a fifth of Zhao Youting's engagement. Neither star came near the top 20.
- 2
Columbia was his weakest brand.
On his own Weibo, his Columbia posts drew less engagement than his Dior and Braun posts. His May 2019 Columbia post drew 44,014 engagements, his Dior post a month earlier 85,619, and the comments were about him, not the product.
- 3
The images said Dior.
Of the images about him online, 53% showed formal wear, mostly Dior, and 9% travel. Fewer than 1% had anything to do with Columbia.
- 4
The talk was about his shows.
More than half of what was posted about him concerned his TV series. Outdoors, sport and travel barely appeared. Xiaohongshu was the most negative platform, with users saying they would skip his shows.
- 5
Even his products' buyers didn't mention him.
Of 409 public Tmall reviews on products sold under his name, 10 mentioned him. Columbia's own commerce data, which stays private, told the same story: his fans were not its buyers.
- 6
The benchmark had the same weakness.
Zhao Youting's image was bound to his wife, actress Gao Yuanyuan: half the fans who mentioned him mentioned her. adidas Terrex had already replaced him with Deng Lun in mid-2019.
No renewal, and a new way to choose.
- R1
"We would not recommend Columbia to further extend brand partnership with Huang Xuan in China."
Influence, image and commercial fit all pointed the same way.
- R2
"Douyin has increasingly become the platform for celebrity content consumption and fan base engagement; therefore, those who are early starters and active on Douyin should be preferred for future celebrity collabs."
Neither star had a Douyin account in 2019.
- R3
"Ecommerce platform data should also be carefully analyzed and consulted, to minimize demographics mismatch with the brand's product offerings; this should also be made an on-going practice for future celebrity activations."
The mismatch was visible in the brand's own commerce data before the renewal decision.
- R4
"Textual and image content analysis is essential to illustrate any celebrity or influencer's image and brand affinity. This could also be utilized to support future creative development of the brand."
Half a million images showed what fans associated with him, and it was not the outdoors.
The record, in order.
Every entry is sourced. The tag names the recommendation it follows; untagged entries are context.
- Nov 2019
Huang Xuan's last documented appearance as Columbia's brand ambassador, at its Shanghai winter event.
R1NOWRE[3]
- 2020
Columbia does not renew Huang Xuan's contract. Its next China ambassador arrives in September 2023.
- Feb 2022
China grows by a low-20s percentage in 2021, which Columbia credits to new management "reawakening the brand" and digital investment.
Columbia Q4 2021 earnings call[4]
- Sep 2023
For its 85th anniversary, Columbia launches a brand refresh in China and names actor Jiang Qiming brand ambassador.
Jiemian[5]
- Feb 2024
China grows by a low-30s percentage in 2023 in constant currency, credited to the China-only premium Transit collection, Double 11 e-commerce and its new leadership team.
Columbia Q4 2023 earnings call[6]
- Feb 2025
China grows more than 20% in 2024 in constant currency, credited to "meaningful brand activations, localized product collections, and a robust digital strategy", with Super Brand Days on Tmall and Douyin.
Columbia Q4 2024 earnings call[7]
China growth came back, on product and digital.
Columbia's own published figures; it reports China as a direction, not a number. Columbia credits these years to new management, product and digital commerce, not to a celebrity. We show them as the record that followed our work, not as our results.
Following a celebrity is now a standard unrandom study.
In 2019 a renewal like this took a dedicated research project. Today unrandom follows a celebrity, brand, product or event across Douyin, Xiaohongshu, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and X, scores the content against years of benchmarks, and reads the comments for what fans actually say.
How it works →- Influence score, 0–100
- unrandom Score
- Comment topics and sentiment
- Audience Feedback
- Image clustering
- Visual Narrative
- 1unrandom, Celebrity data analytics: Huang Xuan, December 2019. Public Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu and Tmall data.
- 2ELLE China, Huang Xuan's first public appearance as Columbia's China brand ambassador, 25 September 2018. ellechina.com
- 3NOWRE, Columbia winter event with brand ambassador Huang Xuan, 3 November 2019. nowre.com
- 4Columbia Sportswear, Q4 2021 earnings call, 3 February 2022. fool.com
- 5Jiemian (界面新闻), Columbia's brand refresh with Jiang Qiming (announced 21 September 2023), 2 February 2024. jiemian.com
- 6Columbia Sportswear, Q4 2023 earnings call, 1 February 2024. marketbeat.com
- 7Columbia Sportswear, Q4 2024 earnings call, 4 February 2025. marketbeat.com