Your fans are your biggest asset. Do you know what they’re worth?
Understanding sports fandom to unlock value
In an era when sports fan engagement has direct implications on revenue and brand loyalty, understanding and quantifying fandom is crucial for businesses to drive more personalized experiences.
When teams, leagues, and brands understand how their fans and potential partners align, it creates a unique opportunity to maximize value exchanged, fan engagement, and share of wallet. When you know your fans, you can reach them at the right time with the right content, transforming engagement into value for your entire partner ecosystem.
Fandom 101
Fandom is a multifaceted phenomenon that goes beyond mere appreciation or support for a brand, artist, or team. It encompasses deep emotional and social connections, often driving consumer behavior and loyalty.
Fandoms are communities of passionate individuals that rally around a common interest in anything from broad topics (such as music genres, hobbies, or sports) to more narrow topics (such as an individual team, celebrity, or IP).1
People who consider their fandoms important to their identity are more likely than casual consumers to engage with sports and media content—and younger consumers are more likely to say their fandoms are important to their identity, demonstrated in Deloitte’s Digital Media Trends report.
Learning about these fandoms can inform new strategies for reaching consumers, especially considering 50% say they purchased a product or service for the first time because it partnered with their fandom.2 Organizations have an opportunity to tap into these communities to expand brand partnerships, acquire new fans, and strengthen loyalty.
of Americans ages 18 and older consider themselves to be part of a fandom.3
of consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand that personalizes its customer experience.4
Defining characteristics and benefits of fandom
Through Deloitte’s extensive research and practical experience, the following characteristics are key factors:
Our sports fandom solution
Combining fan measurement capabilities with our proprietary data set generates insights into fandom that can power your future potential. Converge by Deloitte can help organizations find new, personalized ways to engage unique fandoms to drive more value for fans and stakeholders.
Personalize experiences across industries
With data at their fingertips, brands across industries can define and offer more personalized experiences for fans. They can also build and optimize new revenue streams and opportunities for investments with stakeholders and sponsors.
Potential benefits of measuring fandom
Strategic monetization and personalization
By understanding what matters most to individual fans and fandoms, companies can tailor products, services, and experiences to fanbases, maximizing revenue.
Differentiate through innovation
A clear method to measure and activate on fandom allows for insights that can lead to innovative strategies, driving stronger ROI on marketing campaigns and campaigns of your partners.
Cross-industry application
A fandom metric can be applied across sectors to provide investment insights and grow partnership value, making it a versatile tool for diverse businesses.
Developing your measurement
The Fandom Metric supports your fan engagement goals with a range of components, from brand equity to subscriptions to ticket sales, to help your organization achieve the following outcomes:
- Reach and increase the depth of first-party data profiles.
- Augment activations with fan engagement and affinity data.
- Optimize strategic initiatives for:
- Driving fan acquisition and loyalty;
- Increasing fan lifetime value and value for partners; and
- Enriching fan intelligence and portfolio management.
Start fueling the future of fandom
Fandom measurement represents a significant opportunity for businesses to harness the power of their fanbases and identify the fans who are most likely to and most interested in engaging with certain content. By evaluating insights across fandoms, you can strengthen support, grow share of voice and wallet, and make more informed investments around personalized campaigns and portfolio management.
Endnotes
1Deloitte, “Harness the power of fandoms to help drive growth and competitive advantage,” Deloitte Insights, accessed February 2025.
2Ibid.
3Ibid.
4Deloitte, “Embrace meaningful personalization to maximize growth,” Deloitte Insights, July 2022.
Leala Shah Crawford
Wenny Katzenstein
