Once upon a time, the internet was supposed to be a great homogenizer. With common information, in common places, we were all supposed to become one mass audience – ripe for the picking. Right.
21. 2008 provided some fine
examples for how we can
engage with fans in 2009.
22. Pent-up fan demand for
the McFly lead to lines
around buildings and
pairs going for $2,000
on eBay.
23. 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.
24. 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.
25. Mountain Dew created a
game to let their fans
engineer the next flavor
from scratch. The
candidate flavors flew off
the shelves.
26. 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.
27. 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
28. 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.
29. A bridge in his name, a hockey
team’s mascot, humbling Kanye;
Stephen Colbert deftly engages his
fan community, the Colbert Nation.
30. H&M, Target, and others work with
mega-names in fashion to make high
design more accessible to hungry fan
communities.
31. The ways to play with fans
are many, but to become a
fan focused organization you
need 3 key ingredients.*
*Garnish as you please.
32. It’s time to stand
for something; to
use your size
and power for
the advocacy of
an ideal.
A Point of View
33. A Belief in Infinity
Fandom defies conventions of time, space, and material.
Relationships require more than a single campaign.
34. Fandom demands pliability,
and cultural significance
requires exposing yourself
to the mechanisms of
culture (e.g. remixing).
Open Source Relationships
35. In 2009, I challenge you
to become fan focused.
Don’t spend a dime
outside of fan communities.
Not a red cent.
36. 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.