Elevating brands through experiences: Why does fan experience matter?!
As consumers evolve, the bar for brand expectations continues to rise. Today, fans expect the most. They want to be delighted, engaged, and excited — to feel connected to their brands on a deeper level. If you're able to cultivate an emotional connection with a fan, they'll be loyal for their lifetime.
What is fan experience?!
The concept of fan experience is founded on one simple human truth — people love being delighted. While this is not new news by any means, it's why fan experience marketing is so impactful. We are naturally wired to crave sources of excitement in our lives. And with this fan-first strategy, your brand becomes that source of positive emotions.
An emotional connection isn't comparable to a paid ad click or sponsored post share.
Fan experience allows your brand to go beyond traditional media and connect with consumers through memorable, real-life experiences. And by doing so, brands can unlock long-term fandom — a consumer status higher than "fan". Fandom is what every brand aspires to foster. The average duration of long-term fandom is currently nine years. And that time has nowhere to go but up as brand requirements continue to rise.
Take the fact that 83% of customers expect personalized experiences from their favorite brand. Now pair that with the reality that 86% of emotionally engaged consumers want brands to reciprocate their loyalty in two-way interactions. Fans have been clear, and it's up to brands to deliver. Fan experience is a strategy for meeting these high expectations — giving brands a new way to connect with their fanbase through impactful experiences.
Why does fan experience matter?!
Unfortunately, lots of brands aren't delivering. Today, 70% of people say they can't remember the last time a brand did anything that excited them. Which is why brands need to bridge the online-to-real-life gap and cultivate deeper relationships.
Even if most brands aren't delivering — the potential for success is still huge.
When fans feel an emotional connection, their lifetime value as a consumer increases by 300%. Fan experience marketing creates moments of excitement, engagement, and emotional connection — because they all foster loyalty. And loyalty is everything.
Loyalty converts sales. When a fan is loyal, they're willing to advocate, spend, and stay connected — everything a brand needs to excel. Strong connections lead to organic conversations, and at the end of the day word of mouth marketing generates 5x more sales than paid media.
Cultivating relationships with your existing fanbase to turn them into loyalists will only help your brand in the long run. Fan experience does exactly what it's named to do — focus on delivering exciting experiences so both the brand and fan benefit together.
What do fan experience solutions look like?!
"Delivering delight" seems simple but requires strategy and tools for proper execution. Fan Experience Management (FXM) exists to help brands solve their fan experience marketing initiatives. FXM makes life easier for brands by bridging the online-to-real-life gap through the personalized experiences we know fans crave. Finally enabling brands to truly surprise and delight their fanbase.
A successful fan experience excites a brand's most loyal customers in both the digital and physical worlds. It can come in many shapes and sizes, with much room for creativity and fun. After all, the goal is to deliver a delightful experience.
Whether it's secret menu items for customers who use a specific hashtag, or limited edition merch that arrives unexpectedly on a creator's doorstep, or an exclusive invitation-only pop-up for a brand's most loyal fans — you've seen the product of FXM solutions in action.
When used strategically, these tools allow brands to maximize their organic audience value. Because fans have told us exactly what they want in return for their cash and loyalty. And FXM is the industry-leading solution in delivering the delightful experiences people love.
