The steady march of digital technology has ushered in a direct-to-consumer environment characterized by greater choice and user control. Today, entertainment offerings simply cannot thrive without the economic, social, and emotional power of fans.

For many consumer entertainment and media businesses, avid or loyal fans — who typically represent 10 to 20 percent of a franchise’s user base — can drive 80 percent or more of that franchise’s overall business value.

Fans cannot get enough of the content they love. They binge on it. They share it. They talk and post about it. They create more of it. Avid fans will seek out content-fueled interactions across a diversity of experiences, provided those interactions ignite and fuel their emotional connection with, say, a sports team, a film, or a video game.

For many fans, the quality of these experiences is further amplified when it translates into social connections; fan-to-fan relationships; and active communities united by shared passions, values, and interests.

Over the past few decades, fandom itself has gone from being about a passion for a particular story or set of characters to a kind of self-sustaining identity.