WHO RUN THE WORLD? STANS. by Kevin Mernin and! Liam Schaefer “It's their prolific nature that both creates and procures what will later be perceived as the ‘kingdom.’ So, the real truth about Lady Gaga fans lies in this sentiment: They are the kings. They are the queens. They write the history of the kingdom, while I am something of a devoted Jester.” ! Lady Gaga, Manifesto of Little Monsters Little Monsters, Lady Gaga’s rabble of devoted fans, are not the first of their kind. But they are the most visible example of stan culture. Derived from the Eminem song of the same name, the term stan indicates a “stalker fan.” However, rather than a negative, the !designation of stan is a point of pride for members of the community. Stans not only claim a particular diva as their own, as their icon, but they take a genuine stake in that artist’s success. They’re listening to music, monitoring album sales and chart positions, touting critical praise and accolades, scrutinizing interviews and public appearances, memorizing choreography and generating millions of hours worth of tribute content on the internet. They take it upon themselves to proselytize to the unconverted and defend against the ignorant. Their divas are their figure heads, their deities, and as Lady Gaga implies, the divas are really just a conduit for the stans own imagination. In reality the stans are the world-builders - they can do what they want with her body. ! Little Monsters are a testament to the impact STAN: an overzealous and overly devoted and creative output an organized, unified fan of a particular pop diva. group of invested fans can have on shaping ! and promoting a brand, in this instance the EXAMPLES: Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters, personal brand Haus of Gaga. Their support Beyoncé’s BeyHive, Rihanna’ Navy, Britney for her has become so immense, Haus of Spears’ Army, Katy Perry’s Katy Kats, Nicki Gaga created an entire social media site, Minaj’s Barbs and Ken Barbs “Little Monsters” exists to house the creative ! and obsessive output of her stans. Lady Gaga PLAYGROUNDS: ATRL (http://atrl.net): a isn’t the only pop diva to amass a dedicated website for pop music news, charts, videos, and powerful stan following. Beyoncé’s discussions, blogs, and countdowns. Stan- BeyHive recently flexed its spending muscle in Wars (http://stan-wars.com/stanwars/): support of the diva’s self-titled album, making satirical website with information on stan it the best selling album of a female solo artist culture. in 2013. ! !WHAT MAKES A STAN Stan communities are composed mainly of young women and gay men who latch onto a particular diva whose message most resonates with them. Inherent within each community is an underdog persona, regardless of the success of the artist. Musical taste is extremely personal and can frequently be a source of insecurity. As a culture we put a lot of stock in a person’s musical taste and what it says about them. Young girls and gay boys can be particularly sensitive to the proclivity of straight male youths to deride all things pop music. Already drawn to assertive divas as promoters of self-empowerment, these online communities largely provide safe-havens for like- minded individuals to express genuine interest and excitement without fear of any !real judgement. “We can’t underestimate how much gay teens rest their identity on this type of thing. There’s somewhere for them to go now… And they pin a lot of their emotions not just on how well their artist is doing but also their interactions with other people within the group. Even with all the arguing that goes on, when you go into the forums, they heavily trust each other.” ! Andrew, Madonna Stan As Andrew indicates, what we find when we investigate stans is that the core of this subculture is about community building both within individual groups and among the different interacting stan collectives. When combined with the artistic language provided by their divas, this !community building inspires a world of crowdsourced creation. !STANNING AS A VERB Much of a stan’s time is spent on websites like ATRL, Oh No They Didn’t, and their favorite musicians’ fan pages, worshipping their faves and undermining the standoms of others. ATRL’s top daily threads can garner nearly a thousand comments and tens of thousands of views. For some context, Coca-Cola, one of the most talked about brand pages on Facebook, has just as !many comments on each of its Facebook posts. ! ! While stanning on the frontlines of ATRL show dedication to their favorite pop divas, many stans take content creation to a whole new level. In the past few months since the release of Beyoncé’s self-titled fifth studio album, the internet has been a buzz with Bey-inspired creations. Where as a music fan might record a cover of an artists work, a stan pulls from numerous elements within their pop diva’s repertoire to give it their own interpretive spin. There is an understanding and expectation that you can’t beat the original so if you are going to repeat, you must add your own variation or elaboration, whether it be a clever mash-up, juxtaposition, or appropriation. YouTube sensation Todderick Hall’s reimagining of “Grown Woman” as performed by Disney Princesses and Jesse Hill’s unofficial lyric video of “Drunk in Love” told entirely through the pictograph language of emoji are two popular examples of stan content gone viral. Other BeyHive creations include “Dunkin Love” and “In N Out Mission,” two stan parodies that retool Beyoncé songs into odes to fast food brands, and Soundboardt, a digital soundboard highlighting some of the stan-favorite soundbites from the pop star’s latest album. These forms of stanning go beyond obsessive posting and into a realm of creativity !that speak to a stan’s industrious degree of devotion.

! !STAND BY YOUR STAN A pop star’s interaction with her stans begins with the naming of the standom. Little Monsters, the Beyhive, Barbs and Ken Barbs—these names aren’t just clever monikers, they’re community building tools. In the same way a monarch bestows the label of knight to her most trusted subjects, a pop diva labels her standom, creating a band of loyal subjects that are easily !distinguishable from that of another diva. Pop stars like Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga use social media to reward their stans and further foster their devotion. Lady Gaga praised a Little Monster’s YouTube rendition of her song “Born This Way.” Not only did she make that stan’s day, she encouraged all of her stans to interpret and remake versions of her music, making her and her work more accessible. Additionally, her presence on LittleMonsters.com as just another community member makes her more an equal to her stans. Users are instantly connected with her when they sign up, just as if she were another user. Rihanna often responds to stans on Twitter and has a very active Instagram account. This allows her Navy a closer look into her life while building and !reaffirming the image of herself that she wants to put forward. Rihanna’s image isn’t flawless, neither is that of many of her peers (well, except maybe Beyoncé). Her public persona can include a few misstep—after all, who doesn’t love a good comeback? Look at Britney Spears—her career now is fueled by one big comeback narrative. For some stans, an artist’s tendency to misstep contributes to her popularity. “ It can be difficult to stan for [Madonna] sometimes. Beyoncé is well calculated. With Madonna, there’s always a chance for something to go off. She’ll put out albums that have weak messages and musical content. Madonna has more songs that I don’t like than Kylie Minogue and Beyoncé. But, most of her weaknesses go hand in hand with her strengths.” Madonna’s faults give her stans something to defend. If a stans identity is wrapped up in the identity of their pop star, a star without flaws becomes less relatable. It’s hard to connect with and root for someone who appears perfect. A stumble now and then allows an artist and her stans to collectively pick themselves up. It’s that possibility of disappointment that makes her victories all the !more satisfying. !SIX TIPS FOR BUILDING BRAND STANS We asked ourselves, can this type of power be harnessed by any brand, even one without a living, breathing person? Can a brand not only activate a stan community (Pepsi has a long !history of this), but go one step further and create their own version of “Brand Stans”? Creating loyalists and champions is a goal for all brands. However, where loyalists may act as brand ambassadors brand stans could derive part of their identity from the brands they choose and insist on collaboration with those brands. Therefore, a brand should approach their fans like the pop stars do. They need to evolve their consumer relationships to that of Divas and Stans.

Be a Diva Rivalry is Good We mean this in the best possible way. As we said, at the core of stan subcultures Your brand is a bad bitch—act like it. is community building. But what is unique Don’t ask for attention, command it. Think in stan community building is the Beyoncé at the Super Bowl. Look for importance of rival communities. One shock and awe opportunities. A good diva standom’s ability to come together is just as knows, its all about the show. They don’t important for two standom’s apparent do it for themselves, they do it for the fans. rivalry in forming a broader stan culture that Reward loyalty with quality, unforgettable encompass Little Monsters, the BeyHives, experiences. Set a bar and hit every time. the Army, the Navy, etc. For brands, it can As the meme says, “You have as many be just as important to form a loyal band of hours in the day as Beyoncé.” brand stans as it is for the brand’s biggest competitor to do the same. Apple’s fanboys’ devotion is parodied by Samsung, GIFable Moments which in turn highlights their own fanboy GIFs play a critical part in celebrating and following. The fanboy rivalries make clear shading pop stars on sites like ATRL, the contrast in consumer mindsets and Tumblr, and Reddit. They allow stans to allow for distinct group identities to be interpret some aspect of their pop stars formed. identity or work through ridicule or idolization. In turn, pop stars like Lana Imitation is the highest form of flattery Del Rey, Beyoncé, and Britney Spears are The most successful moments in pop music injecting “GIFable moments” into their are those that invite imitations and music video content. Lady Gaga has interpretations. Britney Spears “...Baby taken this one step further by not only One More Time” is still parodied fifteen injecting these moments but providing years later. Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a actual GIF files for fans to easily Ring on It)” has been repeated, re- download. Brands could follow suit with imagined, and repurposed, all over the content containing very strong visuals world, arguably more than any other song capable of portraying a message without in history. If you give your brand stans the use of words. This content thus iconic moments to play with, they will take becomes easily appropriated by them to places you never imagined. You’re consumers into their online conversations. job is to highlight and encourage. Sponsored content Brand Stan Think Tanks With the move toward sponsored content We’ve already proven that stans are a as a form of advertising, brands have a new prolific bunch. Why not harness that opportunity to create a personality without creativity, that wit, and that cultural hiring an actual person, however most do knowledge to contribute meaningfully to not push this avenue to its full potential. A the conversation both within a brand’s own brand may tweet links to sponsored community and the greater pop cultural content or post on their Facebook. conversation. Look at Google’s Creative However, when attempting to grow your Labs: they aren’t just a group of Google brand personality, brands should consider employees, but a group of Google aggregating their sponsored content and/ enthusiasts who spend their days building a or media they find compelling to a website Google world for their own community of or application. This can be a means to Googlers. Essentially, they are a Brand Stan create a richer brand universe and identify Think Tank. With the freedom to use the their point of view by conveying what they product as they see it, they are able to think is important and relevant to their imagine a language, a world, and a future stans, and contributing to the community’s with their product at the center. conversation over all.

Brands work tirelessly to activate brand ambassadors. Perhaps stans provide a blueprint for a new way of activating consumers to go beyond passively consuming products and emotionally !investing in the success of the brands with which they chose to surround themselves. !And if all else fails, feel free to reinvent your brand constantly. It worked for Madonna. ! !—————————————————————————————————————————— Sources: Stan Interviews Day-in-the-Life ARTL Stan-Wars TheStanConfessions Oh No They Didn’t MuuMuse !”Scratching the Celebrity Itch,” The New York Times !—————————————————————————————————————————— Kevin Mernin and Liam Schaefer are second year brand strategists at VCU Brandcenter. Contact Kevin: [email protected], kevinmernin.com Contact Liam: [email protected], haveaschaeferday.com