Chapter 1
The Quest for Fandom
Challenging market conditions are causing consumer brands to chase the holy grail of fandom harder than ever before.
Price sensitivity is rising
Two-thirds of consumers say price matters more than before and pressured them to make tough choices, including shifting away from premium brands.
Promiscuity is increasing
Particularly among younger consumers. More than 50% of Gen Z-ers with a favourite brand would swap for another brand if they were cheaper or of higher quality.
Brand loyalty is declining
The percentage of consumers loyal to a particular brand fell from 77% to 69% between 2022 and 2024.
Most attempts to nurture fandom revolve around one-off efforts like influencer partnerships, viral drops or collaborations, and sponsorships. High profile examples include:
L’Oreal ‘Worth It Experience’ with TikTok Shop:
300+ creators, live events, and a pop-up in high footfall location Picadilly Circus, London.
Champions League Sponsorship:
AB Inbev is rumored to replace Heineken as the sponsor, in a deal that would increase contract value to over £5 billion.
Barbie Movie Collaborations:
The film’s cultural surge spawned more than 100 partnerships with brands such as Airbnb and Primark.
Cheetos UK's “Cheetle Dust”:
Campaign partnered with fashion influencers like Navinder Nangla to turn its iconic orange dust into streetwear.
Even though these exciting activations often yield impressive short-term results, at Apply Digital we can’t help but wonder: are they just short bursts of relevance, or genuine drivers of sustained fandom?
Having built fandom experiences for some of the world’s leading sports and entertainment organisations, we’re using a very different Fandom Playbook: one with a more systematic approach, focussing on every single fan interaction; especially the seemingly small ones.
Knocking it out of the park
When we have applied this approach to the consumer brands we work with, we’ve seen great results and even in B2B categories the same is true. For global food infrastructure brand AGI, we designed dashboards to monitor crops that replicated the interactive, gamified model as seen in fantasy sports platforms. The massive increase in engagement that AGI experienced is proof that brands can transform anyone into fans, even farmers.
So, what can your brand learn about nurturing fandom from sports teams and organisations? To answer that question in even more detail, we recently conducted exclusive quantitative research spanning four markets (UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands) to complement our own experience in this area.
Build your fanbase
Our team is ready to help you create the fandom-inspired digital experiences customers expect.