FanCulture: The Evolution of Influence

A short film exploring the role fans could, and should, play in brands and marketing. Featuring expert opinion and insight from academics, marketeers and the fans themselves, this documentary looks at how a brand can identify their fans and, more importantly, harness their passion.

Amplify’s very own head of insight, Bexy Cameron, talks about FanCulture in even more depth, giving an exploration into the role fans could, and should, play in brands and marketing.

My life seems to revolve around fans, influencers and brand ambassadors. It all started when I was head of creative at MySpace and we were trying to ascertain what was at the essence of this colossal and global platform that actually made it interesting, gave it heart and a human side. The answer was simple, not the brand which was failing, definitely not the product that was disappointing, it was the passion, excitement and power of the fans.

Fans are of great interest to academics, the media, brands and marketers; not only dissected, theorised, observed and documented but there is also huge commercial value on harnessing and leveraging their power and influence. And for me fans are fascinating to the point that I have dedicated both my professional and now academic life to this topic.

The Evolution of Fan Strategies

When considering fans; their drivers, habits, structures and communities, it is clear why these cultures are very appealing to brands. Fan are loyal consumers, they can be creative and vocal and now have increasingly more platforms on which to ‘Follow’, ’Like’ and love the object of their fandom.

Influencer marketing, involving fans and in turn brand ambassadors, is still in its pre-paradigm phase, while it has been organic since before the Ramones wore Converse at the doors of CBGBS, in the past brand and marketers were hesitant about utilizing this strategy - without the quantification of return on investment a substantial amount of faith would be needed to believe in an individual’s effect on others.

Historically endorsement was a tactic solely for celebrities, whose ‘worth’, reach and influence could be measured by television appearances, column inches and album sales; memories of a young lycra clad Paula Abdul contradictorily (and contractually) claiming ‘Nobody tells me what to wear’ while in an advert and endorsement campaign for LA Gear. But with changes in the digital age it has become progressively easier to quantify and measure both reach & digital footprint, bringing the power and influence of the ‘average’ individual into the brand endorsement sphere.

The Rise of Fans in the Digital Age

The rise of fans and brand ambassadors in marketing schemes has come about not only because of shifts in the digital age, but a shift in perspective on advertising as a whole; research papers proclaiming peer to peer marketing as a powerful force, word of mouth (WOM) is considered a strong tool, combined with popular texts such as Malcolm Gladwell’s theory on ‘the tipping point’ these and other factors have caused marketers to think outside of regular strategies such as ‘Above the line’ billboard and TV, or digital marketing. Intelligent marketing strategies strength lies not in whether an individual has merely seen or heard a message - it is about relating and having a connection to it. But in a space that is so crowded with advertising noise, click through banners, YouTube stings, event and festival branding, marketers are ever on the quest for new ways to ‘cut through’ and penetrate their target audience in a more meaningful and emotional ways. For example; Nike's billboards proclaiming ‘Just Do It’ has never really resonated with me, but their under the radar strategy of empowering women to jog in urban communities at night through running crews is a local and physical manifestation of this message which I find compelling.

The Dilution of Fandom

But while fans are of increasingly more importance to brand strategies, the term ‘fan’ has been somewhat diluted. Significant reasons for this being the emergence of both social networking sites and marketing companies that promise the ‘creation’ and ‘manufacturing’ of fans for marketing strategies. On Facebook brands have put a large importance on ‘likes’, which is perhaps a false signification that a ‘like’ equates to fandom, further more to this there are companies working to the business model of paying people to ‘like’ brand pages. Which seems to contradict the constituent ingredients of fandom.