Creating Fandom
Here’s a fantastic mash up of The Beatles Paperback Writer and The Monkees I’m a Believer.
While the music industry battles this kind of fan engagement, (I wonder how long this will remain on YouTube), marketers are desperately trying to encourage it. But this level of engagement doesn’t happen unless a brand builds fans, and fandom grows out of meaningful relationships. People often characterize the Blair Witch Project campaign as a big hoax, implying we fooled people into believing it was real, but it was really about our relationship with people who loved the story. It was the discussion boards, and the emails, and the community built around the Blair Witch universe that turned people into fans, and it was the fans who generated all the buzz.
