2009 the fan economy
Bud Caddell Strategist, Undercurrent

Once upon a time,
the internet was
supposed to be the
great homogenizer.

With common information, in
common places, we were all
supposed to become one mass
audience – ripe for the picking.

This was not an original idea.

Fortunately, the world is far
too complex for homogeneity.

The web has made
constructing our identity
through niche communities
more visible, accessible,
and rewarding.

And whatever we hunger,
we can find others like us
offering the means to
satiate that hunger.

Which means the days of the
captive audience are gone.

Welcome to today.
Welcome to standing for
nothing means standing alone.

Welcome to the recession.

Today, we must commit our budgets
to have the greatest measurable
impact on human interaction.

Which means we can’t waste
our diminishing ad budgets on
another awareness play.

Fans are our new economy.

A dollar spent on fans is a dollar
spent on retention, recruitment,
R&D and longevity.

Fans don’t just buy our
products, they convince their
friends to give us a try.

And because we all define our
digital identity around our
fandom, fans are now easier
and more cost effective to find
and engage online.

And engagement begins
simply by listening.

Fans are practiced at voicing
their opinions. Understanding
their desires and their
motivations is absolutely critical.

Make no mistake, 2009 will wipe
the floor with unremarkable ideas.

Customers come and go,
but fans fight for your survival.

2008 provided some fine
examples for how we can
engage with fans in 2009.

Pent-up fan demand for
the McFly lead to lines
around buildings and
pairs going for $2,000
on eBay.

Nevermind pay-as-you-
like, it was the box-set
that was the fan
focused product, and
Radiohead sold over
100,000 at $80 each.

Avril Lavigne puts as
much content as she can
on her YouTube channel.
And it’s estimated she
made a cool $2 million
from her fan’s views.

Mountain Dew created a
game to let their fans
engineer the next flavor
from scratch. The
candidate flavors flew off
the shelves.

Virgin America teamed up with
HBO to offer the Entourage
experience on flights from NYC
to Las Vegas through a new
‘Entourage’ first class ticket.

Joss didn’t let a little thing like a writer’s
strike stop him. Casual observers
watched for free, but fans pushed the
show and soundtrack to #1 on Tunes. i

Tune-in may have been down, but the
advertising drama, Mad Men, had
fans engaging fans, creating their own
content and awareness for the show.

A bridge in his name, a hockey
team’s mascot, humbling Kanye;
Stephen Colbert deftly engages his
fan community, the Colbert Nation.

H&M, Target, and others work with
mega-names in fashion to make high
design more accessible to hungry fan
communities.

The ways to play with fans
are many, but to become a
fan focused organization you
need 3 key ingredients.*
*Garnish as you please.

It’s time to stand
for something; to
use your size
and power for
the advocacy of
an ideal.
A Point of View

A Belief in Infinity
Fandom defies conventions of time, space, and material.
Relationships require more than a single campaign.

Fandom demands pliability,
and cultural significance
requires exposing yourself
to the mechanisms of
culture (e.g. remixing).
Open Source Relationships

In 2009, I challenge you
to become fan focused.
Don’t spend a dime
outside of fan communities.
Not a red cent.

About Me
My name is Bud Caddell. I work as a
Strategist at the New York based digital
think-tank Undercurrent. Find me across
the web at http://budcaddell.com
About This Deck
All sources, stories, and images can be
found at http://bit.ly/fanfocus
The illustrations used were stolen from
the amazing artist Gerd Arntz., more
info at http://bit.ly/gerdarntz
I’d be honored if you stole anything from this deck.