Category: Interviews

The 2017 NFL draft is in town. Thousands of football fans and draft pick hopefuls from around the country have taken over the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and the steps in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We’ll talk about Round 1 winners and losers and what this means for the Philadelphia Eagles with MIKE SIELSKI sports columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Then, guest-host Mary Cummings-Jordan talks with ZOE FRAADE-BLANAR and AARON GLAZER, authors of Superfandom: How Our Obsessions Are Changing What We Buy and Who We Are, about why we are so passionate about our sports teams, movies, music artists and collectibles.

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We’re talking about plans this hour. First, a plan to keep you away from your cell phone and your tablet while you’re driving. Also, plans for finding some sunshine in Washington state – where to go and how long it’ll take. And a plan to figure out funding for arts in King County. We thought one plan was dead but now it’s not so.

Superfandom interview wraps the end of the hour. [Listen here]

Defined as a community or subculture united by its obsession with some aspect of pop culture, fandom has also become a driving force for modern marketing.

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For the best reading experience, open this story on a device with Apple News. It may also be available on the publisher’s website.

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The new book “Superfandom,” written by Zoe Fraade-Blanar and Aaron M. Glazer, explores the powerful ways fans can influence business. Sometimes it’s in support of a business, like when a group of instant photography fans revived film after Polaroid ceased production. It can also work against businesses, like when a small group of angry fans of Maker’s Mark revolted online after the liquor company changed its recipe, causing the company to reverse its business decision.

Host Lizzie O’Leary sat down with co-author Fraade-Blanar to discuss the new book.
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Watching football, whether at home or in person at a game, is more fun when using the #mondaynightfootball hashtag. Dressing up as the anime character Jessie from Pokemon practically requires an audience who can say, ‘Whow, how did you get the hair to stay that way?” Very few people would show up to a Star Trek convention with no one else there.

Fandom is inherently social. But our fellow fans do more than just make things interesting. In many situation, they make things possible.

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What do people dressed up in Harry Potter costumes waiting for a book release have in common with the pilgrims to the annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting?

They’re all devoted superfans, and they’re the subject of the new book “Superfandom: How Our Obsessions Are Changing What We Buy and Who We Are.”

“Fandom is a topic that has a lot of baggage. We associate it with crying tweens at a Bieber concert, or elderly eccentrics collecting beanie babies,” says Zoe Fraade-Blanar, who wrote the book with Aaron Glazer.

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These experts say “superfans,” like those who obsess over Harry Potter, are changing how brands approach consumers. “Fans often know the ‘fan object’ better than the owners,” said Zoe Fraad-Blanar, co-author with her business partner and husband Aaron Glazer of the new book “Superfandom: How Our Obsessions are Changing What We Buy and Who We Are.”

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Zoe Fraade-Blanar, faculty member of New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) and Journalism and Chief Design Officer of the crowd sourced toy company Squishable, and Aaron M. Glazer, co-founder and CEO of Squishable, talk about their new book Superfandom: How Our Obsessions are Changing What We Buy and Who We Are (W. W. Norton & Company, 2017). They explain how we are living in “fandom-based economy,” where devoted fans are in charge of what’s bought and sold.

[Listen here]

What do people dressed up in Harry Potter costumes waiting for a book release have in common with the pilgrims to the annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting?

They’re all devoted superfans, and they’re the subject of the new book “Superfandom: How Our Obsessions Are Changing What We Buy and Who We Are.”

“Fandom is a topic that has a lot of baggage. We associate it with crying tweens at a Bieber concert, or elderly eccentrics collecting beanie babies,” says Zoe Fraade-Blanar, who wrote the book with Aaron Glazer.

These devoted fans — the renaissance fair attenders, Star Trek groupies and Beliebers of the world — have always intrigued and bewildered me, because I can’t relate. I don’t root for any sports team. I don’t wait for anyone’s surprise singles to drop. I like some authors and some movies and some TV shows, but the closest I’ve come to obsession is reading up on alternate “Mad Men” theories. [Read more]