“How Do We Get Julian Back as a Fan”
…will dominate Manchester United’s next earnings call (if they read this article).
After 9 years as a Manchester United fan, I finally hung it up. The club’s poor performances were no longer worth the early Saturday morning wake-ups, another yearly subscription to Peacock, or the same conversations with friends trying to diagnose the club’s problems. It took years to realize I was pouring in far more time, money, and energy than I was getting back.
Loyalty has long been a core pillar of fandom, where sticking with a team for life is the cultural norm. But the pathway for young football fans to pledge their allegiances is changing, largely driven by highlights and fan edits on YouTube and TikTok that surface through algorithms as if by fate. [Yahoo]
Younger fans are increasingly supporting individual athletes over teams, a trend fueled by athletes opening up and sharing more of their personal lives. Shows like Complex’s Hot Ones, Amelia Dimoldenberg’s Chicken Shop Date, and Kevin Hart’s Cold As Balls blew up on YouTube by revealing authentic sides of athletes and celebrities. Many athletes, like Charles Leclerc, Michael Pittman, and Francisco Lindor, among others, run their own YouTube series, cutting media companies out of the middle. However you slice it, one truth stands out: the more fans see behind the curtain, the more they value the connection.
The Cultural Shift
Now if I were from Manchester and decided to ditch allegiances to a club I inherited, I’d probably be disowned by my family. But that’s the reality of a very small percentage of the 1.1 billion fans and followers United claims to have (there’s no way).
The modern fandom landscape has shifted for many reasons, but here are two big ones:
The sheer amount of exposure to things you could possibly be a fan of
Generations growing up in the digital era. Replicating, remixing, and sharing with the hope (and often the expectation) of reaching a limitless audience.
Fandom is identity, community, connection. At its best, it builds relationships and even helps people understand themselves better. At its worst, it’s spoofed and exploited to promote products or services. We see a blurry combination of the two across social media: from engagement farmers on Twitter, to YouTube video essays and reaction clips, to Discord communities. The list goes on. The internet has trained us for co-creation. Not just the superfans. Everyone.
If you work in marketing and advertising, chances are you’ve heard the rules for appealing to younger generations: participation, engagement, and customization. But what happens when we zoom out and look at the competitive landscape of fandom itself? Online, fans have infinite communities to join, and in many of them, they’re the ones driving growth and advocacy. Could we see younger generations rewriting the rules of loyalty, treating fandom less like a lifelong commitment and more like a marketplace of brands competing for their attention?
Realistically, it’s already happening.
Skin in the Game
If there’s one thing we know about fans, it’s that their appetites for things they’re passionate about are insatiable. Another is that having “skin in the game” heightens engagement.
On the emotional buy-in front, Formula 1 and Wrexham FC stand out as innovators. They produce content that fills the value gap through an infectious combination of the unscripted spontaneity of sport and Hollywood drama.
As a fan of Formula 1, you’re immersed in Liberty Media’s content ecosystem, from Netflix’s Drive to Survive series, to F1’s comprehensive social media coverage, to every team on the grid using their drivers (the same ones risking their lives hitting corners at 150+ mph) to double as influencers. Red Bull’s junior team, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, is a prime example.
In Wrexham FC’s case, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney understood a key insight that people wanted ownership and to feel part of a developing story. Their Welcome to Wrexham series made that possible. In just four seasons, the team has gained enough influence and support to achieve promotions in three straight seasons and even face off against European giants like Manchester United and Chelsea FC in U.S. preseason friendlies.
But emotional buy-in isn’t the only way. In the Bundesliga, clubs can't be majority-owned by outside investors like in the Premier League or MLS. Instead, club members (which includes fans) must collectively hold at least 50% + 1 of voting rights, giving them a real say in decisions like ticket prices, signings, and stadium naming rights. The result? Some of the most passionate and loyal fan bases in the world.
Sports betting and crypto also reshape fandom by tying investment directly to engagement. Betting significantly increases viewership duration, social media activity, and attention to games. [Variety] If you’ve played fantasy football, you know the conundrum of watching one of your players torch your childhood team. Different forms of “value” are colliding constantly.
Meanwhile, Web3 communities and DAOs (like LinksDAO) blur the line between fan and stakeholder altogether. When you pool capital with thousands of others to buy into a team, a league, or even a golf course, you’re no longer just watching from the stands. You’re doing the damn thing.
The more ways fans can have skin in the game, the harder it is for them to leave.
Be a Good Host
Fandom inevitably takes on a life of its own. Fans possess the power to do the majority storytelling on their own while boosting engagement across multiple channels. This breeds a serious tension over control, given fans are the activators.
Brands can do their best to lay the ground work and establish a culture, but they must leave space for fans to add their own flavor, to allow them to buy in on their own terms (see The K-Popification of F1). It’s a host-guest relationship. Brands aren’t just responsible for being inclusive, they’re responsible for designing experiences that make fans want to come back.
So why does it matter? Dominating the cultural conversation and having advocates produce organic content at scale is invaluable. But time in the spotlight means nothing if brands can’t go on to convert the attention into fandom. In order to succeed, brands must relinquish some control of the narrative and shift their mindset from owners to hosts.
The “More Than Expected” Playbook
An idea from Will Guidara’s Unreasonable Hospitality has stuck with me, and it comes from the cover. It reads: “UNREASONABLE HOSPITALITY: THE REMARKABLE POWER OF GIVING PEOPLE MORE THAN THEY EXPECT”. There it is. The secret sauce for making lasting impressions and building loyalty. Eat your heart out How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Maya Angelou put it best: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Lucky for brands, sparking feeling at scale doesn’t require endless amounts of money, just an intention and an understanding of their guests.
Here’s the playbook with some examples:
Make Access Effortless // Case Study: Formula 1
Emphasizing access has helped F1 surge among women, who now make up 41 percent of its 750 million global fans. Many discovered the sport not through legacy TV, but through digital spaces they already inhabit. [Teen Vogue]
Build Co-Creation Moments // Case Study: Bandit Running
The Bandit Grand Prix, the world’s first F1 inspired running race, invited runners of all levels to compete alongside the brand’s sponsored athletes. Spectator or racer, if you were in attendance it was nearly impossible not to post about it. [Instagram]
Reward Spend AND Contribution // Case Study: TYB
Ty Haney’s loyalty platform turns consumers into co-creators, rewarding contributions (feedback, sharing, participating) with digital collectibles and coins, deepening emotional and financial ties. [Vogue Business]
Blend Digital and Physical Seamlessly // Case Study: Dime
Dime’s Glory Challenge returns August 30th for its 10th anniversary. Fifty skaters will compete in front of 5,000 spectators packed inside IGA stadium in Montreal QC and go head to head on some of the most creative and wildest ramps, rails, and jumps in skating. Every year, the physical event transforms into a digital cultural moment with coverage from spectators and brand partners fetching millions of views on social media. [YouTube]
The Future of Fandom
Nine years with United taught me this: in today’s fandom market, loyalty isn’t unconditional. For brands, that means loyalty programs and fan engagement strategies can’t just be transactional; they need to give fans real agency. Fans will always give more than they get… until they stop.
The future of fandom belongs to the clubs, teams, and brands that understand if you don’t make people feel like stakeholders, they’ll take their business and passion somewhere else.