18 Oct Decoding the Secret Language of Fandoms
By now, we’ve probably all heard about fandoms. While they’ve driven headlines, action, and culture, these days, they’re swaying financial markets, interrupting presidential elections, and elevating social justice movements. Though fan devotion can range in intensity, at its most extreme, we know fandoms to have an incredible impact – and with the power to elevate or destroy a brand seemingly overnight, fandoms aren’t something that marketers can ignore.
But understanding a fandom isn’t just about knowing what these fans stan. It goes further than that. For brands, it’s about understanding the inner workings of a community and where it all begins: language. Amanda Montell puts it best in her (incredible) book Cultish: “Language is the medium through which ideology is created and disseminated. Without [it], there can be no beliefs, no cults, at all.”
Fandom language has become such a part of the modern vernacular, that we may have encountered it without even thinking about it. But beyond in-the-know slang, what do these words, phrases, and other mediums like memes, actually mean in the context of these fandoms’ cultures?
At Methods+Mastery, getting to the core of conversations and communities is what we do best. That’s why we put together our latest report that dives into four different fandoms – r/WallStreetBets, Strava, The Witcher, and Elon Musk. But it’s not just another report about fandoms. We unpack each group’s unique language and what we can learn from them as marketers, with recommendations for how and if you should engage.
Check out our first knowledge drop on the Secret Language of Fandoms.
Want to talk more about fandoms and how they might impact your brand? Drop us a line: [email protected] [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]