fans: our song

April 20th, 2009 • posts i've written

How do we separate out the positive evaluation of the “poacher” among academics and the negative assessment of “infringers” within the media industry? Both terms read the relationship in antagonistic or destructive rather than constructive terms. Instead, the Convergence Culture Consortium encourages a new model which emphasizes fans’ emotional capital, a term borrowed from a talk by Coca-Cola CEO Steven Heyer. We might think of emotional capital as the affective investments consumers make in favored cultural materials. For example, when a young couple says, “They are playing our song,” the “our” in that sentence is important: it describes an emotional relationship to the music which grew out of their unique memories and interpretations. For most people, the song remains in the background; for them, the song takes on special significance in their lives. The song becomes their emotional capital.

- Sam Ford with Jenkins, H., McCracken, G., Shahani, P., Askwith, I., Long, G., & Vedrashko, I. (2006) Fanning the Audience’s Flames: Ten Ways to Embrace and Cultivate Fan Communities.

Part of my week of posts dedicated to fans and the future of digital marketing. Tell your friends.

Related posts:

1. fans: lead users
2. fans: will they go along for the ride?
3. fans: the new consumers

Tags: digital marketing, emotional capital, Fandom, fans, henry jenkins, quote

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