The rise of the lean-through superfan Post-Covid trends of UGC creation and entertainment

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20,000 foot view:  The Covid-driven entertainment boom is over, with ‘in real life’ activities taking back ground from the        of additional time freed by lockdown measures. The attention crunch is compounded by a cost-of-living crisis, driving consumers to make savvy choices about how much they spend, and on what. Entertainment companies must thus become better attuned to the changing behaviours of fans. Fortunately, some key trends hold true: the greater the fandom, the more they engage, and the more they spend. 

Key insights 

• The increased availability of creative and promotional tools was exacerbated by lockdown measures that gave consumers and creators alike more time to experiment with and learn how to use them 
• During the pandemic,        of independent artists spent more time writing or making music,        used more time for marketing, and        released more music 
• Many consumers picked up instruments, and still more now engage with creative behaviour on social, with        using it to create (e.g., music, videos, filters), rising to        of       
• While only        of consumers, as of        2022, were learning to play an instrument,        spend between one and five hours per week creating / producing content, meaning that the addressable audience is more than double for broader content creation
• A crisis of measurement is happening as creative behaviour becomes more common, illustrated by the Morbius flop, which assumed consumer buzz would translate into box office success 
       of consumers interact with friends about a TV show or film they are watching, while        stream music they have heard in TV shows / films, indicating greater fandom
• Year-on-year, consumers have upped their monthly attendance of concerts, from        in        2020 and        2021 to        in        2022, with lockdown habits fading despite rising costs 
• Purchases of fan merchandise from favoured artists also increased from        in        2020 and        2021 to        in        2022 
• Only        of games video viewers did not spend anything on games, compared to the consumer average of        and they were also more likely to spend on in-game items 
• The more creative consumers are, the more likely they are to spend;        of high-content creators spend more than        on subscriptions to other creators’ platforms, compared to        of all consumers
• With the growing importance of fandom and creation as indicators of sentiment and spend, we are seeing, at their convergence, the rise of the lean-through superfan

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Instagram, Morbius , OnlyFans, Patreon, Shorts, TikTok, Twitch