For a long time, marketers focused their attention on creating and growing a customer base. Then, they wanted to create and grow communities. Now, with media and attention fragmented, the next focus will be on creating and developing fandom.
“Fandom is the language that people talk when they get really excited. It’s the symbols that they share; it’s the hidden jokes that only they get. It’s the way that people participate around things that they love,” said Andrea Isaac, managing partner at Havas Play North America. “We [want to] understand what codes they talk, what things they love and what gets them really excited.”
Creating and/or tapping into fandom fueled Havas’ recent acquisition of a majority stake in Archrival, a youth-culture and experiential activation agency. The nearly 30-year-old agency will be folded into the holding company’s Havas Play division, deepening its capabilities in sports marketing, creator engagement, experiential activation and community-led brand-building.
“The brands we work with are demonstrating a need to [have partners] that understand how to create participation among consumers,” Isaac said. “With Archrival, we will have a much more connected model that can help brands show up in culture in ways that are much more authentic and meaningful.”
To get a bead on where things are headed, it’s important to understand how things were and how things changed. For a long time, marketers looked at their consumers in terms of demographics. They determined likely customers based on age, income, where they lived and so on.
“Early on, a lot of marketing was focused on awareness and reach, and the challenge was often simply getting in front of people,” said Eileen Flynn, chief strategy officer at Archrival. “We thought of people in terms of audiences. And from that, we went on and understood how they were viewing channels and consuming content across those channels.”
With the rise of digital, media became more fragmented, and it became harder to get a message in front of the right consumers at scale. At the same time, the internet, particularly social media, opened new opportunities for people to engage with one another. They started gathering around shared interests and hobbies to form small but valued communities.
“People are increasingly organizing themselves around interests, rather than demographics,” Flynn said. “Those are the places where identity is formed. They’re the places where influence is created and ultimately where decisions are shaped.”
“People are not organizing their lives around channels anymore, but around passions, communities and culture,” Isaac added. “And so, consumers don’t just want to consume brands anymore. They want to engage with them and contribute to them and really belong to something larger than themselves.”
Consumers creating content
Perhaps not surprisingly, the rise of fandom correlates with the emergence of content creation by consumers. Fans are no longer following a brand or interacting with it on Facebook or Twitter. They’re taking the connection a step further through TikTok Reels and Instagram Stories.
“The difference between a community and fandom is often the depth of engagement,” Flynn said. “Where communities create connection, fandom [encourages] contribution where people don’t just consume content; they’re actually creating it.”
Such dedication and commitment create an opportunity for marketers to turn mere customers into brand advocates, in which the brand becomes part of their identity by reflecting shared values and creating a deeper emotional connection. For brands to build true fandoms, they need to give their most passionate consumers ways to express their dedication and connection.
“It’s not just simply reaching people who have a shared interest,” Flynn said. “It’s creating ways for people to actively participate and feel a sense of ownership in the experience.”
However, giving up ownership means giving up control. While many brands have come to terms with not being able to shape the narrative, fandom, with its deep emotional connection, can lead to louder, more frequent criticism. Think about how passionate sports fans are when their team is winning, and how vocal they are when that team is losing.
“One of the most important things for brands to understand is that fandom isn’t the absence of criticism,” Flynn said. “In many cases, it’s the opposite: the most passionate communities are often the most vocal because they care deeply about the outcome.”
As a result, brands looking to create or manage fandoms will have to be even more discerning about what those fans are saying, and what, if anything, needs to be done about it.
“The challenge is learning how to distinguish between noise and meaningful feedback,” Flynn said. “Not every criticism should drive action, but brands should pay close attention when passionate communities are consistently telling them something.”
And brands will have to respond in ways that their fan communities understand as authentic, not just marketing tactics, Isaac said. That is even more true in the age of artificial intelligence, when every statement, image and interaction is being placed under the microscope of authenticity and “humanness.”
“The moment a brand starts manufacturing fan behavior or selectively amplifying something simply because it's useful from a marketing perspective, communities tend to recognize that pretty quickly,” she said. “Brands that can prove that they are authentic will win, and I think talking about fandoms and creating experiences allow brands to showcase that [authenticity].”
