VisualGPS Creative Trends Wellness The Aesthetics of Fandom

Brands are focused on social media audiences, but these audiences are turning their cameras back on themselves to document their fandom of products, sports, and cultural phenomena. From the 2007 viral video in which a sobbing teen defends his favorite popstar, "leave Britney alone!",¹ to Swifties filming their reactions to winning Eras tour tickets on TikTok this past summer,² the culture of fandom itself is now a major part of online culture, and mainstream culture in general. A study by Amazon found that 70% of Americans now consider their fandom and fan community a part of their everyday lives,³  a development of particular importance to health and wellness brands, who often want to capture people's daily lives and what makes them happy in their marketing and advertising visuals. 

What separates the "fan" from the "hobbyist" is a display of emotion, enthusiasm, and genuine commitment. Many pharmaceutical ads show how their medications allow people to return to their favorite hobbies, and a wider range of them are becoming visible; however, brands aren't yet capturing this more heightened, now‑essential aspect of American life. Our VisualGPS visual analysis found that amongst the most popular video content used by the Healthcare industry this past year, hobbies were shown five times more than genuine enthusiasm for sports, music, or culture. Showing fandom is a particularly suited to the medium of video, because it allows viewers to see a full spectrum of heightened emotions and the intrigue of movement unfolding before their eyes. In fact, YouTube reports that 80% of users between the ages of 14 and 44 consume video about something they're a fan of every week, and a lot of that even includes fan‑made content.⁴ So consider capturing, on video, the passionate feelings and outward expressions of fandom of all kinds, and how they fit into daily life today.

While certainly some types of fandom can go too far, Americans generally consider fandom an important aspect of personal well‑being. According to our VisualGPS consumer survey, Americans count cultural activities such as listening to music or watching movies amongst the top activities they engage in to maintain their mental health—at least two times more than mindfulness or meditation. However, our visual analysis found that health and wellness brands have the script flipped in their visual choices: They were nearly three times more likely to choose video representing mental health as therapy, meditation, or mindfulness than they were to show entertainment activities. So, consider video which captures people engaging in a range of healthy forms of fandom, no matter how niche they might seem: Worshipping their favorite wrestling hero, singing "their" song at karaoke, recording a podcast that deconstructs a TV show in detail, rejoicing when their sports team scores, or even begging a favorite actress for an autograph. What separates the "fan" from the "hobbiest" is the heightened display of emotion on their face and in their body language, so, above all, be sure to choose video which captures this authentically!

Sources

[1] NPR
[2] ABC News
[3] Amazon Ads
[4] Mashable