What is fandom, where does it come from, what does it mean to be a fan? how fan have been engaging with the stuff they love? And what could marketing learn from the history of fandom?
2. 1893 : Sir Arthur Conan Doyle decided to kill Sherlock Holmes just ten years after its birth...
3. ...an army of mourning fans wearing black armbands took to the streets of London to show him how disappointed they were. ...but they didn’t stop there. They started writing Sherlock Holmes adventures themselves, giving birth to the first co-created product: fan-fiction.
7. ...a shortened version of the word fanatic , and the word did first become popular in reference to an enthusiastic follower of a baseball team. Merriam-Webster Fanatic itself, introduced into English around 1550, means "marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion " It comes from the Modern Latin fanaticus, meaning "insanely but divinely inspired " and inspiration leads to creation...
8. the 5 engagement patterns in fandom from Engagement 1.0 - Ivan Askwith - sxsw 2009 http://www.slideshare.net/ivanaskwith/engagement-10-understanding-fan-interaction-1158313
9. identification fandom is a quick way for fans to express things about themselves and their identity.
10. mastery passionate fans know everything about your brand and your products so they are a natural vehicle for delivering the full meaning and symbolic universe behind your brand.
11. production they like to have a say in the building of the brand and like to create their own version of it
13. appropriation once your product is out into the world, you don’t really own it anymore. Remix and alterations are key to appropriation and endorsement, so make sure your brand is flexible enough to support it.
14. engaging fan bases is not about feeding passive lunies, but about giving them the motivation and the tools to do stuff with your brand
15. how can we implement these 5 engagement patterns in the marketing space?
Editor's Notes
In 1893, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes – a character he had been writing about with great success since 1887’s A STUDY IN SCARLET – in a story called “The Adventure of the Final Problem.” Conan Doyle reportedly felt that the Holmes stories were keeping him from accomplishing more important work, so his solution (ironically) was “The Final Problem.”
something similar happened in 1968 when NBC announced plans to cancel 'Star Trek’
something similar happened in 1968 when NBC announced plans to cancel 'Star Trek’
something similar happened in 1968 when NBC announced plans to cancel 'Star Trek’
Merriam-Webster, the Oxford dictionary and other recognized sources define it as (.. The word originally pertained to a temple or sacred place [Latin fanum, poetic English fane]. The modern sense of "extremely zealous" dates from around 1647; the use of fanatic as a noun dates from 1650.) However, the term "fancy" for an intense liking of something, while being of a different etymology, coincidentally carries a less intense but somewhat similar connotation to "fanatic". The word emerged as an Americanism around 1889.
As you can say “I am a fan of x” you’re saying something rich and distinctive about yourself very quickly. It happens the same with brands, so your role is to facilitate and foster this identification as a first level of co-creation with your consumers.
That’s why your consumers should be the first to know all the details about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Engage them in networks of brand insiders and they will become your most efficient advocates.
Bring your consumers on board when it comes to innovate, provide them with the right tools to play with your brand and re-use it in creative ways, help them make the brand a part of their daily lives.
Well, you still actually own it, but you don’t get to decide exactly how it’s going to be used and what are the meanings that will be associated to it.