How brands can learn to tap into the power of fandoms

Cultivating a loyal fan base is every brand’s dream. So why not take a page out of the book of companies that have made fandom the foundation of their business? 

Earlier this month at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW, executives from Weverse, Crunchyroll, and Wattpad/Webtoon spoke about how their companies cultivate and serve their diehard fandoms—and how you can apply that approach to your customers.

For Joon Choi, president of Weverse, a platform bridging fans to artists, fandom always starts with authenticity, particularly with the artists on the platform. He recognized that “special” and “happy” experience of being in a fandom. So if an artist isn’t authentically connected to their fanbase, then a platform like Weverse just isn’t for them. And that idea, he said, goes for companies trying to connect with their consumers.

Aron Levitz, president of Wattpad Webtoon Studios and co-president of Wattpad, noted that part of defining yourself as a brand is figuring out who you are in different channels.

“Have you ever looked at Build-a-Bear’s Instagram? It is not what you think it is. Go read it. It is unhinged,” he said. “But they decided that in that channel they can talk about themselves in a different way than they ever would in a store.”

The key is to be true to a persona and be ready to experiment to get to that persona, especially on social media where there’s a constant churn of content. “You can think like a tech company and do some A/B testing to really understand what could your brand be,” Levitz said.

For Gita Rebbapragada, chief operating officer of anime streaming service Crunchyroll, it’s about identifying the nuances within your fanbase.

“When [you] think about a specific fandom as a monolith, you will fail,” she said. “The beauty of being focused around one specific fandom is the diversity in it.”

She also mentioned that fans are highly adept at sniffing out inauthentic ploys for monetization from a company. But that there are indeed opportunities to engage with fans in a financial way if it’s “well-aligned” with the community.

“A lot of times we think of monetizing a fan base as kind of an uncomfortable thing to talk about,” Rebbapragada said. “[But] if you love a story or a game, you want to engage with it in so many different ways. And a company or a brand that gives you a cool product that you want to have in your home or put on your shelf or wear, that is creating value for the person that loves that particular thing. It’s really about understanding what the motivations are.”

Watch the full panel below:

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