Among the Fans


Book Description

There was once a time, not so long ago, where our sporting heroes were treated with veneration. Players were players and their watchers were passive. Heroes lived on pedestals - they weren't public property. This book explores the many ways this dynamic has changed over the years. From the Barmy Army's loud but loyal support of the England cricket team to the jeers that greeted our returning footballers after the World Cup, the relationship between athlete and fan is now quite dramatically different. With his usual gentle wit and subtle intelligence, renowned sports writer Patrick Collins records one year spent observing a range of different sports and their many and varied fans. From a county cricket match at Canterbury - a place that resists change - to a corporate box at Wembley - watch them eat! see them drink! - from dog racing to swimming galas, this is a wonderful and humorous look at the world of sports - and the fans who make it all possible.




Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers


Book Description

Henry Jenkins's pioneering work in the early 1990s promoted the idea that fans are among the most active and socially connected consumers of popular culture. This volume maps the core theoretical and methodological issues in Fan Studies, and also charts the growth of participatory culture on the web.




1312: Among the Ultras


Book Description

You can see them, but you don't know them. Ultras are football fans like no others. A hugely visible and controversial part of the global game, their credo and aesthetic replicated in almost every league everywhere on earth, a global movement of extreme fandom and politics is also one of the largest youth movements in the world. Yet they remain unknown: an anti-establishment force that is transforming both football and politics. In this book, James Montague goes underground to uncover the true face of this dissident force for the first time. 1312: Among the Ultras tells the story of how the movement began and how it grew to become the global phenomenon that now dominates the stadiums from the Balkans and Buenos Aires. With unprecedented insider access, the book investigates how ultras have grown into a fiercely political movement, embracing extremes on both the left and right; fighting against the commercialisation of football and society – and against the attempts to control them by the authorities, who both covet and fear their power.




Fans


Book Description

Explores the social, cultural, and psychological premises and consequences of fan consumption. This book describes the nature and development of whole fan cultures, and focuses on the experience and identity of the individual fan.




Fans Not Customers


Book Description

Most companies plod along doing things as everyone always has. So there are huge opportunities for people trying to break the mould, even in old-fashioned businesses like banking or insurance. Of course it happens all the time in the digital world, but it can happen anywhere - so long as you turn your customers into fans. When that happens your customers - who will sing your praises when your competitors' customers are grumbling all the time - become your greatest allies in marketing and sales. Then you can really go for growth. But to amaze and delight your customers and clients isn't easy, and requires constant work and innovation - this book, generously scattered with examples and case studies drawn from Vernon Hill's own experience shows how it is to be done.




100 Things A's Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die


Book Description

With traditions, records, and team lore, this lively, detailed book explores the personalities, events, and facts every Athletics fan should know. This guide to all things A's covers the team's amazing history including the Connie Mack and Charlie O. Finley dynasties, the "Earthquake Series," and all of their World Series titles. Author Susan Slusser has collected every essential piece of A's knowledge and trivia, including Billy Beane and Moneyball, Catfish Hunter, Stomper, and the "Bash Brothers," as well as must-do activities, and ranks them from 1 to 100, providing an entertaining and easy-to-follow checklist for fans of all ages.




Fanocracy


Book Description

A Wall Street Journal bestseller From the author of New Rules of Marketing & PR, a bold guide to converting customer passion into marketing power. How do some brands attract word-of-mouth buzz and radical devotion around products as everyday as car insurance, b2b software, and underwear? They embody the most powerful marketing force in the world: die-hard fans. In this essential book, leading business growth strategist David Meerman Scott and fandom expert Reiko Scott explore the neuroscience of fandom and interview young entrepreneurs, veteran business owners, startup founders, nonprofits, and companies big and small to pinpoint which practices separate organizations that flourish from those stuck in stagnation. They lay out a road map for converting customers’ ardor into buying power, pulling one-of-a-kind examples from a wide range of organizations, including: · MeUndies, the subscription company that’s revolutionizing underwear · HeadCount, the nonprofit that registers voters at music concerts · Grain Surfboards, the board-building studio that willingly reveals its trade secrets with customers · Hagerty, the classic-car insurance provider with over 600,000 premier club members · HubSpot, the software company that draws 25,000 attendees to its annual conference For anyone who seeks to harness the force of fandom to revolutionize his or her business, Fanocracy shows the way.




Get More Fans: The DIY Guide to the New Music Business


Book Description

How Do I Promote My Music On A Small Budget? How Do I Get My YouTube Videos to Spread? How Do I Turn Casual Fans Into One’s Who Buy From Me? How Do I Get Written About On Blogs? How Do I Increase Turnout At Shows? How Do I Make Fans Using Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr And SoundCloud? With every day that passes, the power the major labels once had dies a little more. The chance to get the same exposure as your favorite musicians gets easier and easier. The hurdles that would only allow you to get popular, if the right people said your music was good enough, are gone. You can now get exposed to thousands of potential fans without investing 1% of what musicians used to by building a fanbase based on listeners love for your music. No more writing letters hoping that A&R writes you back. This book explains how you do it. While many books will tell you obvious information, legal mumbo-jumbo and marketing catchphrases that don’t help you get more fans. Our experience working with real bands - from upstarts like Man Overboard and Transit to legends like The Cure, The Misfits and Animal Collective, has led us to understand the insider tricks and ideas that go into some of the most important groups of our time. We produce records, do licensing deals, negotiate record contracts and get the musicians we work with written about on websites like Pitchfork and Vice. We have worked with bands who started off as nothing and became something. Unlike any other book written on the subject we have compiled the knowledge no one else has been willing to print in fear of obsoleting their own career. We give you thousands of ideas on how to get people to hear your music and turn them into fans who pay to support your music. Whether you are a label owner, musician, manager, booking agent or publicist there is information in this book that will help you do what you do better. Enjoy! For more information see GetMoreFansBook.com




501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read Before They Die


Book Description

Propounding his "small ball theory" of sports literature, George Plimpton proposed that "the smaller the ball, the more formidable the literature." Of course he had the relatively small baseball in mind, because its literature is formidable--vast and varied, instructive, often wildly entertaining, and occasionally brilliant. From this bewildering array of baseball books, Ron Kaplan has chosen 501 of the best, making it easier for fans to find just the books to suit them (or to know what they're missing). From biography, history, fiction, and instruction to books about ballparks, business, and rules, anyone who loves to read about baseball will find in this book a companionable guide, far more fun than a reference work has any right to be.




Tramps Like Us


Book Description

Based on three years of ethnographic research with fans, and informed by the author's own experiences, this is an interdisciplinary study of the ways in which ordinary people form sustained attachments to Bruce Springsteen and his music, rooted in an exploration of the nature of fandom.