Where 'fan science' meets brain science

"How would we determine the biggest fan of something?"

This question was posed a few months ago at Brainsights as a thought puzzle. Often, we'll have mini-breakouts or WTF ('What to Fathom') sessions, where a challenge is raised, and we use the collective brain power of the staff to surround and tackle it.

To put shape to the question of determining the biggest fan, we used music as the example case. Our head of community, Steve Stroupes, was a disc jockey in a past life, and so has spent a lot of time thinking about how music gets inside of people. In the booth, he'd feel his way through a set, reading the crowd to get a sense of what track to play next. But 'feeling' and 'reading' 'to get a sense' are all gut- or intuition-based methods that, while important, don't provide meaningful data to help us know the impact of music on its audience. Fast forward a handful of years, and here he was faced with the same challenge: "How can we know someone is a fan of some piece of music?"

So, we set out to build a preliminary framework, and collect some data to test that framework. Steve's write up, 'Your Brain on LCD', is a fascinating exploration into 'Fan Science' using brain science. And there are implications for creators, brands, properties and talent alike: Identifying super fans with science, we can compare these to casual fans to understand the different markers between the groups and where there may be opportunities to convert the casual to the super. It's early days for us yet, but in the coming months, we'll be testing this framework on sports teams, athletes, TV shows and others. If you're exploring this space, we'd love to chat and explore ways to collaborate. PM me or leave a comment and let me know.