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CLASSROOM PROJECT
SVA Design for Social Innovation
ROLE
Designer, Facilitator
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TEAM
Sherrie Shao, Nishita Chheda
LOCATION
New York City
Designing a roleplay experience to understand the influence of fan behaviour on culture and business.
Design Research, Facilitation Design, Synthesis
Fan behaviour has great power to influence the way our culture and commerce works. We wanted to design an activity that explains this phenomenon.
BACKGROUND
​In the second semester at DSI SVA, Nishita, Sherrie and I read a book called 'SuperFandom: How our obsessions are changing what we buy and who we are' authored by Aaron M. Glazer and Zoe Fraade-Blanar. The book made us realize how the world is running on a cyclic chain of brands creating fans, fans creating brands and so on. It shed light onto the bigger picture of the fandom culture that is rooting from humans beings' deeper sense of being in community. We saw how important it was to have this knowledge, especially as designers creating services and systems for the world and felt the need to explain our learnings of the book to our classmates in an experiential way.
RESULTS
​Inspired by the main ideas of superfandom and its transformative impact on culture and business, we designed a 40 minute creative facilitation in the form of a roleplaying activity to allow participants to unfold the superfandom phenomenon and fandom-based economy themselves from the mundane details in our lives. Through this facilitation, we showed the power of fandom as well as sparked new ideas of fandom in terms of social change.
THE BEGINNING
After reading the book "Super Fandom", we began by picking out main insights that we wanted to convey through this activity.
To Fan is Human - it is the way we create our identity
"Fandom is an important part of identity building. It allows us to show off our unique individuality while at the same time feeling protected by a larger, supportive group."
Brands shape fans & fans shape brands in return
Fandom emerges from human's innate desire to connect.
"Consumers give their money to a brand. Fans give their energy and time. Consumers care about the product, Fans care about what the product stands for."
"There is a basic human instinct to form communities with other individuals around the things they have in common. Humans have always found excuses to be together."
IDEATION
We explored various interactive methods like quizzes, debates, case studies and concluded that roleplaying would allow the dynamics we want to create.
Roleplaying would allow the group members to experience a new situation and reflect on their own thoughts and behaviours at the same time.
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THE FACILITATION
The roleplaying activity was designed for the group to experience the interdependence and tension between fans and brands.
Number of Participants
23
Total Duration
40 minutes
Activity 1 - About your Fandom
To help participants associate Fandom with their own personal experiences, we asked the class to think about what they think they are fans of and asked them to write down how they express their liking towards it. They shared their responses with each other.
"I'm the biggest fan of Dr. Martens!"
"I love MUJI! My wardrobe is filled with their clothes"
"I own every Marvel comic book and I've seen all the movies!
Activity 2- Brand vs Fan Roleplay
For our main activity, we created a fictional situation about a popular and globally recognized singer - Lola.
We divided the class into two groups -
Lola's Publicity team who is responsible for making professional decisions on her behalf and Lola's Superfans who each have different reasons for admiring and loving her music. Each person got a card which their characteristics and prompts for the roleplay.
Lola's fans respond to her every action. They convey their response to her team by showing the 'heart' or 'heartbreak' card. They make demands.
Lola's publicity team making strategic decisions to gain the fans trust.
Fans debating and persuading others to shift their position on Lola.
Some superfans standing by Lola irrespective of her decisions.
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"Take all my money! I love you Lola!" Overjoyed Fans were immersed in their roles as Lolas's team member was acting as Lola herself.
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DEBRIEFING REFLECTIONS
The emergent behaviour of both groups made them see how their actions are interlinked with the way businesses make decisions. Like-minded fans formed their own clusters, they influenced each other and bonded over their love for Lola.
"It was interesting to have this roleplay about making propaganda through PR and understand what does to us systemically."
"This facilitation allowed me to understand how community impacts not only within, but also outside, in the marketplace."
"When I was standing alone on one side, and the rest of the class was on the other side, it made me doubt my stance on the issue."
BIG THANKS
To Lee Sean, our course instructor for giving us this unique opportunity.
To all our classmates, for always being so enthusiastic and supportive!
And cheers to Nishita and Sherrie for this rollercoaster journey!
Engaging youth in dialogue about politics, power and ethics.
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