building a fan brand: driving loyalty on social and beyond

© Blue State Digital | Proprietary and Confidential 1

Building a Fan Brand!Driving Loyalty on Social and Beyond!#SMWLA!September 22, 2014

© Blue State Digital | Proprietary and Confidential

Eat up, drink up, let’s chat.

1. What’s a fan brand?!2. When is it a good idea?!3. How do you do it?!4. Let’s work together.!!

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Colin Stewart and Megan Hoelle!Blue State Digital

Building a Fan Brand #SMWLA

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What’s a fan brand?


Focuses on engagement, not sales!Keeps ’em warm between purchases!!

Is fun on its own merits!Revolves around real people

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A fan brand:


It pays off in lots of ways.Strengthens brand affinity!Reaches new audiences!Generates sales leads!Creates ad opportunities!Collects user-generated content!Sweet Ninja Turtle costumes



A good fan brand looks like this…Authenticity!A community of real people…

Passion!celebrating the things they love…

Value!with meaningful experiences…

Fun!and lots of personality.



…not this.Remember when Walmart tried to clone MySpace? It didn’t end well.


And now Fiat is trying really, really hard to be “internetty.” It’s also not working out.


Ultimately, you have to respect your audience and give them something real.



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When to create one?


A few questions to ask yourselfIs there an existing community to tap into?!Is there positive brand sentiment to build on?!Is there a connection to strategic objectives?!Is there fodder for content and experiences?



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How do you do it?

© Blue State Digital | Proprietary and Confidential© Blue State Digital | Proprietary and Confidential

Ford Social: Turning fan stories into brand evangelism.

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Ford Social was built to bring fiercely loyal fans together. !And it was another way for Ford to talk about their cars and trucks.

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Fan brands are all about telling stories: !Your brand story, in the voice of those who care about you.

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People submitted their stories and identified with the brand through badges. !We were able to target them based on their interests.

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It wasn’t all about submitting stories…!We engaged with the fans in all kinds of ways.

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© Blue State Digital | Proprietary and Confidential© Blue State Digital | Proprietary and Confidential 17

Green Bay Packers: Unite fans around the world.


Ticket sales? Not an issue: every game has been sold out since 1960.!But what are other ways to find revenue?


So we thought about the fans who couldn’t watch from Lambeau.!How about recruiting bars from all 50 states to be official “Packers Everywhere” bars? Over 2,000 bars to be exact.


We took what we learned from political campaigns:!We helped fans feel like they were part of something bigger.


Fans could find their local game-watching spot through the site and app.!We built a community where they could share stories and photos.


Lots of photos!


High fives and hollering – happy and invested Packers fans!

Results:240,000 fans signed up!

For the email list alone, and many more engaged

through social.

Results: 750,000

searches!People searched for bars where they could watch

the games.

Results: 2,000 Bars recruited!

One in every state, and more globally, from Quito to

Paris.


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Let’s work together.


A quick exercise. (Make sure you stretch.)1) Take a familiar product.!!

2) Answer three questions.!!

3) Come up with a creative concept.!


{ Is this a good candidate for a fan brand?!Which strategic objectives would it support?!Which social platforms to prioritize?


Ask us anything.

[email protected]

building a fan brand: driving loyalty on social and beyond

Marketing