The Fandom Phenomenon: How consumers, creators, and advertisers benefit from podcast fandom
How do you capture your audience’s attention? You can text them, email them, pay to reach them on social and search, or even fly a blimp over their house—but real influence starts with trust.
There’s no singular source of truth for potential customers, but if there were, it would sound a lot like Wondery. As Amazon’s premier podcast studio and network, Wondery is home to some of the most trusted and influential hosts in the industry, including Dax Shepard, Jason and Travis Kelce, and Keke Palmer.
Shows like Armchair Expert, New Heights, and Baby, This Is Keke Palmer consistently top charts and garner numerous awards recognition, including NAACP Image Awards, GLAAD Awards, the Variety Creative Impact in Podcasting Award, Webbys, Gracies, and The Ambies.
With listenership and advertiser interest continuing to grow across this emerging channel, one must ask: What is it about podcasts that keeps consumers coming back for more? Wondery’s latest research study, The Fandom Phenomenon, sought to uncover just that.
Marketingbrew.com / Wondery, Amazon
Gatekeeping the Gatekeepers: An Exploratory Study of Transformative Games Fandom & TikTok Algorithms
Within fandoms, gatekeeping practices such as delineating authentic from fake fans filter out certain identities. While the types of fans excluded vary by fandom, mainstream digital games culture–and the hegemonic, masculine groups within it–frequently leverage gatekeeping tactics like harassment to silence or churn others (i.e., women) from participating. While there has been considerable scholarship documenting gatekeeping in online digital games there has been less examination of this occurring within video game fandom. We conducted an exploratory study to investigate gatekeeping in response to TikTok videos about Call of Duty's masculine operator Ghost. We found more comments qualifying as celebratory fun than gatekeeping. We argue that social media spaces by virtue of their recommendation algorithms are productive sites for reimagining games counter to affirmational readings within relatively niche communities.
Sage Journals / Jessica E. Tompkins, Ashley ML Guajardo (née Brown)
From celebrity advocacy to fandom advocacy: Harness the power of participatory fandom culture
On February 4, 1962, internationally renowned actor and comedian Danny Thomas founded the nonprofit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Utilizing his celebrity status and extensive connections within the entertainment industry, Danny organized fundraising events and enlisted the support of fellow celebrities to raise public awareness and financial resources for the hospital’s mission of treating pediatric cancer and other life-threatening diseases (Stjude.org, 2023). Over time, the hospital has evolved into the world’s leading pediatric cancer research facility and currently ranks as America’s third largest healthcare charity. It has maintained continuous collaboration with more than 200 celebrity partners and supporters (Looktothestars.org, 2023). Danny Thomas’s work with St. Jude stands as one of the earliest and most well-documented instances of highly successful collaborations between a celebrity and a nonprofit in the modern era.
Science Direct / PR Relations Review - Baobao Song, Minhee Choi
