Following Zoe Scaman’s thought-provoking Little Grey Cells breakfast briefing on ‘The New Frontier of Fandom,’ in January 2025, Chris Healey shares his key takeouts from the session and suggests how brand should approach the phenomenon of fandom with your marketing team.
Customer-Centricity: The Key to Riding the Right Waves
It isn’t about pushing harder—it’s about listening better. Fan groups are organic, natural and powerful, like the sea. The most impactful brands don’t try to manufacture fandom; they recognise where a swell is already forming and choose the right waves to ride.
Customer-centricity remains the single most powerful tool in a marketer’s arsenal. Knowing your market in detail—really understanding where people connect, discuss, and obsess—allows you to spot the pockets of fandom that truly matter.
There are areas of the internet where passion quietly builds, and when the conditions are right, those ripples turn into cultural waves. Great marketers don’t create these moments—they recognise and amplify the right ones.
At The New Frontier of Fandom, Zoe Scaman had the room hanging on her every word. With a mix of stunning statistics and deep insights, she painted a picture of solitude in the 21st century and how online communities and fandoms are filling the gaps left by traditional social structures.
We could have listened to her for hours.
Following her talk, the round table discussions sparked an exciting exchange of ideas. There was broad agreement that:
- Authenticity is key.
- You can’t force-build a fan group.
- But you can design products and marketing with emotional leverage—maximising the chance of organic fandom taking hold.
The key takeaway? Fan communities don’t emerge because brands tell them to—they emerge when people find something that resonates deeply enough to bring them together.
This perspective aligns perfectly with the Mx Programme approach—where we don’t just study marketing strategies, we challenge, debate, and uncover the real human dynamics behind them.
1. The Dangers of Forcing the Tide
Trying to manufacture fandom is like standing in the ocean and demanding the waves move where you want.
At best, nothing happens. At worst, you create a backlash—a negative wave that pushes people away.
This is what happens when brands:
- Try to fake authenticity with performative marketing.
- Attempt to manufacture hype without substance.
- Force community-building rather than earning it.
As Zoe Scaman pointed out, fan groups can’t be built by brands—only discovered, respected, and nurtured.
2. Dropping Pebbles: Emotional Leverage & the Power of Ripples
Brands can drop elements of marketing and product positioning in ways that create emotional ripples.
This means:
- Designing products that evoke deep emotional responses—not just functional appeal.
- Using marketing to reinforce meaning rather than dictate it.
- Understanding where cultural and category tides are already moving and aligning accordingly.
Not every ripple turns into a wave. But if you drop the right elements in the right waters, you increase the chances of something bigger forming.
3. Spotting the Right Waves & Surfing the Swell
Once a wave of fandom starts forming, the worst thing a brand can do is try to control it. Zoe offered numerous examples of brands facing a public backlash to their attempts to control fandom So, to continue the aquatic metaphor, the best thing thing brands can do is learn to the cultural waves.
However, as our table discussions revealed, not every wave is worth riding. The challenge isn’t just spotting movement—it’s about knowing which waves align with your brand’s DNA. Jump on the wrong wave, and you’ll wipe out fast.
Riding fandom waves the right way means:
- Spotting where micro-communities are emerging—and choosing the appropriate ones to engage with.
- Rewarding and celebrating them genuinely, without over-commercialising their passion.
- Letting them evolve naturally—without corporate interference.
- Appreciate them: listen to them and never let them feel taken for granted.
The brands that get this right act as custodians of the wave, not engineers of the ocean.
Mx – Marketing Expertise
This is exactly the kind of conversation we thrive on in the Mx Programme. Instead of handing marketers prepackaged rules, we explore, debate, and challenge how real brands find and ride the right waves of fandom.
Because at the end of the day—marketing isn’t about commanding the sea. It’s about understanding it.
If your team is looking to sharpen its thinking and build a shared vision based on marketing best practice, The MX Programme offers engaging workshops designed to help businesses navigate the real tides of marketing.
Contact chris@shoot4themoon.co.uk to learn more about how the Mx programme can leverage your marketing team’s expertise in 3 x 3hr workshop sessions.
