The curious case of fans, fanboys and bloggers

This post is in relation to an incident that happened at a launch event organised by a Chinese brand. The company inviting too many fans without foresight resulted in shouting by disgruntled fans who had to fight for entry, ending up without a place to sit or the usual ‘free goodies’ bag. This company did the unthinkable by using police stationed at the event and getting the angry ‘fans’ escorted out of the venue. Lot of bloggers started saying that fans should not be invited to such events and that they ‘ruin’ the vibe. Fans were angry that they did not get the ‘goodies’ bag either. I put the blame entirely on the company and event organisers!

The obsession of ‘getting trending’

There is a pattern here. On the day of launch, there will be couple of contests on twitter and the brand’s own public forum. Winners will be awarded some ‘goodies’. This is to get the brand or event or product listed among trending topics on Twitter (which is a big thing) and make every one talk about it. This obsession towards getting trending for a single day is reaching new heights. Earlier, the events used to be for limited number of bloggers, fanboys and mainstream media. And these events were conducted in various cities (either on same day or spread over a week). But with obsession for ‘lets get trended’, brands are going with large auditoriums that can seat hundreds or thousands of spectators. Each of those attending the event will be posting excited tweets on Twitter and photos/posts on Facebook. The bigger the crowd is, the more the buzz is.

In short, the target is to make as much trending done in matter of hours to get that pull and curiosity from mango people.

Is that a fan or a fanboy?

The meaning of the term fan is now completely misunderstood. Tranditional fans are what we call fanboys today. These geeks are extremely loyal to the brand and their products. They create a festive atmosphere when they go to a product launch or fan events. Getting a seat or a bag filled with mugs and mascots is the least bit of his/her concern. Meeting other fans and those who work for that brand/company is what excites them. These guys are ready to offer the seat to others when someone else is in need.

A true fan does not wait for the brand to send ‘free tickets and passes’ to attend an event. 

These loyal fans does not take criticism of their brand lightly and they (most of the time) show aggressive behaviour towards those who try to talk bad about the brand. They hunt in packs in public forums! This aggressive behaviour is the reason why they are called ‘fanboy’. In reality, they are passionate fans who stand by the company/brand they endorse in every situation!

Today’s so called fans (especially fans of these brands coming from China) are mostly contest trolls who would stick to one brand as long as the products meet their budget. These modern fans wouldn’t think twice to jump ship and move to another brand. To be frank, they are not ‘fans’. The right term for them is ‘brand followers’. The so called ‘fans’ that created ruckus at the launch event today are such ‘brand followers’ who were attending the event due to some contests or to get free stuff. Calling that ‘fans ruined the event’ is downright disrespectful to real fans.

Bloggers should stop acting like high society brats

The worst part of today is bloggers acting as if they are born with golden pen and shouting at the brands to stop inviting fans to the events. Please note that, for a brand, a fan is as important as a brand follower and a brand follower is as important as a blogger. We are not Gods and we all used to be eagerly waiting to get recognised by brands at some point of time.

Just because you blog, got reserved seat and a device for review does not give you any right to tell the brand whom to invite and whom to block. I call this e-racism.

You can say that you will skip a event where fans are invited. It is as understandable you do not want to be part aof  large crowd. You  do not have a right to say that bloggers are above fans and that bloggers should have a dedicated event.

I had been to OnePlus event (Oneplus two launch event in Bangalore) last year. While I was let in like a VIP (thanks to the blogger tag) and got unrestricted access to the phone, the fans were standing in a long queue outside and some of them couldn’t get shelter from rain. God knows how long they waited outside in cold and damp conditions just to get few minutes with the phone.

I have seen instances where bloggers would shout out like anything if they do not get a review unit. If you have the right to do this, don’t you think that those who created ruckus are right to get angry at the company?

Blame the brand, not those who attend the event

A brand is far far bigger than you and me and they know better then you and me. Not pointing finger at the brand for lack of proper planning is disappointing in my view. Next time, when you see something like this, you better shout at the organisers instead of shouting at those who are eager to get in and seated. What this company did today was extremely disrespectful to those who were invited. What kind of company invites 50,000 fans when the capacity is 3,000 (including bloggers, mainstream media) and say “we didn’t expect you all to come”.

These brands should either limit the number of attendees, stick to fanboys/bloggers/media and create a festive atmosphere else invite all kinds of followers and organize in a proper manner with strict ‘no’ for free goodies.