Oh HELL YEAH. 95% of the time (maybe more?) fandom is astronomically more effective advertising to me than any ad campaign or suggestion algorithm could ever home to be. If there's a good fic for a book/show/movie, what trailer or back cover blurb could possibly compete with the UST/humor/disaster salad that the fic offers?
Same with beautiful fanart. I still remember the art piece that got me into a particular fandom and where I was when I saw it. Whoooooo, nothing could have been so effective.
Would be cool to see research on that, though I imagine it's too messy to be feasible.
Edit: Oh, wait - right. This is precisely why people keep trying to commercialize fanfic, isn't it? So we're totally not imagining its effectiveness at marketing intellectual properties. Other people see it too, they just can't harness it without undermining it. So yeah, someone's definitely missing a trick if they believe fandom only has the potential to their drain income.
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Date: 2022-01-11 00:16 (UTC)Same with beautiful fanart. I still remember the art piece that got me into a particular fandom and where I was when I saw it. Whoooooo, nothing could have been so effective.
Would be cool to see research on that, though I imagine it's too messy to be feasible.
Edit: Oh, wait - right. This is precisely why people keep trying to commercialize fanfic, isn't it? So we're totally not imagining its effectiveness at marketing intellectual properties. Other people see it too, they just can't harness it without undermining it. So yeah, someone's definitely missing a trick if they believe fandom only has the potential to their drain income.