Fandoms Are Taking Hollywood’s Marketing Jobs

Are fandoms still places where groups can talk about their favorite media, or are they just super-undercover marketing strategies used by streaming platforms? People are questioning whether some of the discussions, edits, and fan-made projects within fandom spaces are being used by marketing companies as secret business tactics.

Many streaming services, apps, and stores have social media accounts where they participate in fandom-related trends or even create trends that fandoms later adopt. When official companies join online fandom discussions, some people find it fake because these companies are only participating to get people interested in whatever they’re selling so they can make more money. With so many brands using social media to sell something, it calls into question how authentic fandom culture is nowadays.

Fandom Culture

Fandom describes a group of people who enjoy the same piece of media and form communities, often online, to talk about it. Fans within these communities make original social media videos, edits, fan art, and other creative projects to show their love for the media they enjoy. There are also usually inside jokes that only people in the fandom understand, which bring members closer together. Fans also create written works that explore ideas not fully developed in the original media, including headcanons, personal theories, and fan fiction.

These projects eventually spread to other fandoms through people with similar interests. This also happens at real-life events like conventions, where people often dress as characters from the media they enjoy, a practice known as cosplay. These in-person events can introduce media to new audiences, too. Once a piece of media becomes extremely popular because fans are sharing their love for it, marketing teams can easily use that popularity to attract even more followers.

Social Media Marketing Strategies

Marketing teams are catching up with the times and trying to appeal to younger audiences. These audiences tend to participate in popular social media trends, so brands join those trends to appear more like the people they’re trying to attract. Some people think brand participation in fandom spaces is funny, while others think it feels phony.

Many fandoms and their members don’t want their concepts and creative ideas turned into advertising. However, brands use online trends to lure new customers toward whatever they’re trying to sell. Some people think using art and other projects created out of love for a piece of media as advertising for brands is unethical. Unfortunately, brands aren’t the only ones using creative projects to promote media.

Free Marketing

Fandom culture as a whole is inherently free marketing for the companies that produced the original media. I’ve personally seen edits on TikTok of shows or movies I haven’t watched, but the edits were so good that they made me add those shows or movies to my watchlist. This technically counts as marketing.

Fan-made edits, conversations, and art can quickly interest people online, therefore acting as advertisements for certain types of media. This is a more acceptable way to introduce media to different people online and in person because it isn’t done for profit. Fan-made projects might count as promotions for certain types of media, but they’re created with love and care, not for the purpose of making money.

Creativity or Advertising?

Some people believe that fandoms are unintentionally doing the same thing as major brands: advertising. However, when you look closely, the difference between online fandom culture and brands copying that culture is clear. Free marketing created by fans is made for the purpose of sharing something an individual loves with a larger community. Social media marketing from major brands is often seen as soulless because the brands appear to engage with fandoms only to make money.

Fandom spaces shouldn’t be reduced to marketing tools for major brands. The fandoms themselves can still be genuine communities built around creativity and shared interests, but consumers should remain wary of the brand accounts trying to enter those spaces.