The Power of “Stan Culture” in Advertising
The summer of 2023 can be summarized in two words: star power. With two record breaking tours from Beyonce and Taylor Swift, the United States economy boomed with an estimated $4.1 billion coming from Swift’s Eras Tour alone, according to The Washington Post. The tours even inspired brand new legislation to be passed around the monopoly of sites like Ticketmaster, along with toxic reselling culture.
But with the massive popularity surge around both pop star’s names, people wondered how much advertising went into these events themselves, and how much press coverage and buzz was generated by the fans, or their even more diehard audience known as “stans”.
Before I dive into the amount of work “stans” pour into securing the success of their favorite artists, it is worth dissecting what “stan culture” is. While the origins of the word “stan” are highly debated, it is easy to find a connection to the song Stan by Eminem. The song is about an obsessed superfan, and his dedication (and eventual violent fixation) with the rapper. Though the song paints the character of Stan very negatively, today's idea of “stans” is quite the opposite, simply meaning an extremely passionate fan.
Diehard fans of Swift called “Swifties” even made their own manifesto calling to unionize over the amount of advertising they do, free of charge, for their idol. In June 2023, a group called the Taylor Swift Fan Union (TSFU) went viral on social media with their manifesto and attempt to join the United Musicians and Allied Workers. They cited the following five decrees in their proposal:
“Fan Work is Real Work”: Swifties do the majority of marketing for Swift in exchange for zero compensation, yet have no bargaining power over the direction of the “celebrity they created.”
“The Need For Workplace Safety”: Fans requested that they have a say in who Swift dates after rumors began of her dating The 1975 frontman, Matty Healy, who they described as a “alt right extremist.”
“A Seat at the Table”: Union members are looking to have “seasonal meetings” with Swift and her team to come to “collective agreements on matters relating to her future musical output, social life, touring schedule, commercial endorsements, and fan availability.”
“From Fan-Fictions to Fan Realities”: Fans are arguing that they are the best people to offer creative suggestions for Swift moving forward in her career.
“The Need for Reparations”: TSFU workers are looking to be compensated for their previous hard work and promotional labor including a “fair share of revenue for album sales, streams, merchandise, and concert tickets.”
At the end of their manifesto, the Taylor Swift Fan Union writes, “the TSFU looks to become the first formally recognized fan union in history - revolutionizing labor relations between fanworkers and the celebrities they’ve labored to create.”
Image Courtesy: TSFU
Whilst the TSFU’s demands most certainly exceed reasonable expectations for how much input they can have in the direction of Swift’s career, they do bring forth good questions. How powerful is stan culture in advertising? Can a dedicated fanbase really equate to the artist having to spend less on advertising dollars?
Although it’s not explicitly called “fan advertising,” fans have been working almost like creative teams for years. From content like “fancams” (edited short form videos of famous celebrities) which are oftentimes left in a star’s comment section, to mock tour posters, album covers, and stage designs. Stans are able to come together over social media and use their creative skills to bring their dreams to life.
A very good example of fans using a unique creative approach to spread their love for an artist are Swifties and friendship bracelets. Derived from rave culture, Swifties spend their freetime leading up to a show making tens if not hundreds of acrylic-bead friendship bracelets to trade at her shows or other Swift-related events. Afterwards, fans, stans, and even other celebrities post their haul of bracelets from the friends they made at the show. This act does not only advertise how fun and unique a Taylor Swift show is compared to other artists, but also advertises the community and fandom that surrounds Swift. Fans engage in activities like creating posters and bracelets for their idols as a way to showcase their talents and creative direction ideas, but also as a form of devotion. Creating this kind of content isn’t about soliciting attention from their favorite artist or their teams, it’s about expanding upon an intellectual property that they love and deeply inspires them.
Other diehard fan bases besides Taylor Swift’s “Swifties” have gone to great lengths to promote their favorite artists such as Beyonce’s “Beyhive”, Nicki Minaj’s “Barbs” and Britney Spears’s “B-Army.” Recently, it has been estimated that with little to no promo for Spears’s tell-all autobiography, The Woman in Me, fans have still managed to outsell Spare, the record breaking autobiography by Prince Harry, in preorders alone. Less than twenty four hours after its release, The Woman in Me became the highest selling celebrity memoir of all time. Similarly, Minaj’s upcoming album Pink Friday 2 has already become the top selling female rap album of 2023 despite it being set to release on December 8, 2023.
As for Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour and corresponding movie which debuts December 1, 2023, the Beyhive was out in full force to support their favorite artist. Beyonce’s 56-stop world tour brought in over an estimated $579 million, according to Forbes. As Beyonce’s fans anxiously await the tour's theater release, some have recently taken it upon themselves to stitch together fan recorded footage of the shows and create their own documentary. After news of this project began to gain traction on social media platforms like X (formerly known as Twitter), Parkwood Entertainment, which is owned by Beyonce, removed it from social media citing copyright infringement, and urging fans to wait patiently until December. Even though this project is no longer streamable, several fans acknowledged that watching the fan-made documentary made them even more excited to see the real film in theaters. The fan-made video truly reignited the Beyhive’s excitement and got them buzzing about what’s to come in December.
As internet fandom continues to evolve and grow more powerful over time, it’s time for advertisers to sit down and immerse themselves with stan culture. Not only to understand their pull over niche target audience, but also to learn how to utilize community and social media as stans have been able to so well. These are fan bases that love to dream and expand upon the work of their favorite stars, because of the environments that these celebrities foster. Artists can encourage fans to unleash their creative visions to others who are just like them, it’s an act of devotion. It’s worth paying attention to these communities now because the young kid who spends all day creating mock-up art for the next “Taylor’s Version” album release, could be the newest creative in your agency.
Mary Corbin