Fundamentals of Fan Engagement (How Lando Norris’s Team Gets It Right)

This post was originally published on my Medium page on 12/7/22.

More than ever before, Fandom has become a marketing buzzword. The only problem is that most organisations aren’t very good at 1) understanding it, and 2) putting fandom strategies into action.

While fan engagement is primarily about making money for brands, it’s also important to understand what fans are hoping to get from these experiences rather than just assuming they’ll be happy with whatever they’re given. Time and time again I see sports and entertainment organisations with so much potential fail at the absolute basics because they simply don’t understand fandom and fan motivation.

At the end of the day, (celebrity) fans want two things:

1. To not feel exploited, or like organisations just want their money

2. To engage with their favourite celebrities

Fans want to feel like they could be noticed; like there is a real potential for attention. We see that in fans lining up to get autographs and selfies at events, in social media replies and comments, in fans spending hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars for VIP access and meet-and-greets.

It’s not feasible for these parasocial relationships to be *actually* realised, but what brands can do is *manufacture* that proximity, increasing sentiment, engagement, and ultimately, spend. It’s not about actual access, but the illusion of it.

Someone who is absolutely smashing this is McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris via his marketing team at wearegrip.

How are they effectively creating this proximity (without requiring their fans to spend a cent)?

- A Twitter fan community “created” by Lando where fans feel their posts have a higher chance of being noticed

- A branded — yet casual — marketing account to increase engagement with fans

- A LinkedIn profile for broad reach outside the usual celebrity social spaces, creating a more robust identity and increased access to a wider range of fans

Plus, Lando’s esports organisation — Quadrant — also furthers this fan engagement journey through connections to more people in his orbit.

None of these touchpoints require significant (or any!) involvement from Lando, but they allow fans to feel as if they have access, if not to him, then to people who themselves have access to him. They’re very simple steps, but the fact I’m writing this post celebrating their work rather than it being the norm is proof that the broader industry has a long, long way to go.