“Throughout my career, I’ve been dismayed by the contempt some genre executives have held for fans, routinely underestimating their power to make or break a show. I’ve watched this repeat too many times, across too many shows, to be talking about any single one of them. Yet despite the mounting evidence over the past few years, they continue to dismiss the data, repeating the same miscalculations time and again.
But technology has rewritten the rules, and the power dynamics are shifting. Today’s fans are organized, strategic, and highly data-literate – effectively turning the platforms’ own metrics against them.
As the bets get bigger and the audience grows sharper, it will be fascinating to see how this plays out.”
I posted this on X last night. This morning, I received the following response from my friend Jenny Stiven:
“Could not agree more!! Besides being a fan myself of multiple franchises, it is, literally, my career.
I am gobsmacked at the number of times I still have the argument with execs, agents, distributors about the importance of transparency, relationship building, and just spending the time with fans.
The shift has already happened.
Markiplier’s movie, Obsession, Back Rooms have proven fans hold the power.
The execs holding onto old studio system morés and antiquated decision making rules will be left behind.
The irony here is that my feeling is that the execs take-away from He-Man, Back Rooms, etc., is the wrong one. Instead of understanding the power shift TO fans, they decided that ”old IP” was the problem.”
Venture Pictures asked:
“What do you think was the driving motivator behind these shifts? My own theory is quick profits over nurturing a fanbase as a cash grab and kudus whilst still in a job they may not be in in 1 years time.
Similar to how the music industry was gutted in the 90s to a point with the conveyer belt of artists through agencies. lol.
Do they see long term fans as a liability to remove? Ha”
Jenny’s response:
“In my very humble and small part of the universe opinion, the fan power shift happened because Gen X aged into positions of power, then fanbases grew for the simple reason we have more generations alive than ever before, and of course, the internet.
As my friends know, I could go on forever about the evolution of digital fanbases, but I think your question was about the internal entertainment exec shift?
Yes, money is always at least part of the equation, but unfortunately I believe the bigger reason is presumptive arrogance. I have heard all the “explanations” over the years.
- Fans will always show for this franchise! We don’t need to do more!
- There is an existing fanbase that is spending, let’s cash in, they will buy anything with XXX IP on it!
- Why would we spend money on building a relationship? We just need them for the release/streaming/bingeing window.
And so many more absolutely dismissive conclusions – backed by manipulation of the data. Anyone can read into fan data (there are 1 million approx views! even after 15 years…they will show up for anything Stargate!) the point needed.
There are, however, more and more creators, producers, writers who are nurturing their fanbase, and doing right by their fans. More of us now than the old school.
I wish the Stargate property was with an entity that treasured the fans, not just the IP. There are still people at Amazon who believe in the fanbase, just need to reach them.”
What do you all think? Are fans the fans the equivalents of mindless zombies who will watch whatever the execs tell them to watch?
Finally, check this out. My own action figure, compliments of SGAGatebuilder on X!
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