shouting loudly

Spider-man Fan Marketing: No Geeks Need Apply

The Spider-Man Movie Network is looking for a male and female to be the “Face of the Fan” for its online Spider-man 3 promotions online. It’s a savvy move to turn to the internet for help when marketing properties with a huge, existing fan base—see Nancy Baym’s blog, Online Fandom, for some great examples—and it’s also wise to give fans the info they need to increase their chances of being selected. It may be less wise to fling insulting stereotypes at that fan base without any apparent subtlety.

The above link leads to examples of “low quality” and “high quality” submissions. The “high quality” example offers text on the screen to point out how well you can hear and see the host, how she follows the script and keeps under the time limit, how she is “enthusiastic” and “charismatic” and “self-confident,” etc. The “low quality” example points out how the host does the opposite: how he deviates from the script to talk about his parents, how he is “insecure,” how he has “no charisma!” It also uses him as an example to warn submitters, “focus on you, not your toys!” Perhaps it should come as no surprise by this point that the positive submission is offered by a well-dressed Black woman and the negative submission is offered by an overweight White guy in glasses and a sweatshirt.

It’s commendable that the people behind this promotion are interested in presenting a non-stereotypical “face” for Spider-man fandom, though the extra disparagement on the side seems likely to alienate some fans. This may actually be intentional: as certain fan practices that used to be considered “geeky” are lately considered more the norm, marketers may be finding it necessary to separate the stereotypical un-hip fans from the profitable fans of the 21st century. I can see why you’d want the latter to host your viral marketing podcasts, but I was surprised to see such a division so blatantly drawn in this example. After all, plenty of self-proclaimed geeks make up that target audience.