ABOUT THIS ENTRY
The idea for FanSided began in 2007 when two brothers realized that as fans, they wanted to be able to contribute to the coverage of their beloved sports teams - in this case the Kansas City Chiefs.
FanSided today is one of the fastest-growing networks of fandom-focused sports, entertainment and lifestyle sites on the internet - consisting of over 300+ localized sites dedicated to bringing together fans to share their common passions.
How does this represent “Excellence in Engagement”?
As an industry we are constantly ideating on the newest and best ways to engage fans, because let’s face it without fans there would be no sports. Fans are the backbone of the entire industry - dictating nearly every action a brand takes because fan loyalty, fan attention and fanbusiness is what all of these organizations are ultimately looking to attain.
FanSided approaches fan engagement in a completely different way than most brands because they were built on the fan experience. FanSided was created by fans to fill a need that they noticed was lacking, making fan engagement not just a strategy for the brand, but their origin story. Putting the fan first is in the brand’s DNA, and it shines in every project that they take on.
By having the fan experience at their center, FanSided proves to the industry that fans are more than capable of identifying what they want and need from a sports experience - proving that the best way to engage an audience is to actually be a part of it.
Objective: The idea for FanSided began in 2007 when two brothers realized that as fans, they wanted to be able to contribute to the coverage of their beloved sports teams - in this case the Kansas City Chiefs. They created a website dedicated to covering the team, writing content that they knew fans would want because they themselves were fans. The reaction from the fanbase was so positive that they decided to expand this idea of fan-centric content to other fandoms - thus creating FanSided.
FanSided today is one of the fastest-growing networks of fandom-focused sports, entertainment and lifestyle sites on the internet - consisting of over 300+ localized sites dedicated to bringing together fans to share their common passions.
As a company built by fans for fans, FanSided’s main website (and all other sub-sites) are created with the fan experience at the center, with the main goal of providing every fandom with interesting, insightful and entertaining content.
Strategy & Execution: FanSided aims to ensure that every fandom has access to entertaining, insightful content around their interest - whether that be sports teams, TV shows, movies, travel, or food - & that every experience they have on FanSided’s sites is relevant to them as a member of that specific fandom.
In order to achieve this, FanSided has created 300+ hyper-localized sites dedicated to specific fandoms. To name a few, they have sites such as Pop Picante (dedicated to Latin pop culture), Dork Side of the Force (dedicated to Star Wars), Arrowhead Addict (dedicated to the Kansas City Chiefs), Phin Phanatic (dedicated to the Miami Dolphins) and more.
The strategy behind each site is to create content specific to that fandom - enabling fans to fully immerse themselves in that specific culture. By having the content created by localized teams, who are fans themselves of the various niches explored, FanSided ensures that the content being provided is what fans are looking for - including analysis of games, updates on players, discussions on specific show themes and/or characters, etc. It is this dedication to the fan that has positioned FanSided as one of the top destinations for fan-centric, localized content within the US.
Results: As mentioned above, FanSided’s goal is to provide each unique fandom with their own digital experience catered to their needs and interests. FanSided has continued to work towards this goal through impressive content expansion, meaningful partnerships and audience engagement and growth.
Over the last year, FanSided has expanded greatly, creating various new entertainment focused sites (as a part of FanSided Entertainment) to better serve entertainment-focused fandoms, as well as LatinX-focused sites to better serve the Latino community within the U.S.
Additionally, FanSided has recently created a new vertical in partnership with the Special Olympics, entitled Why We Play which is focused on the Para- and Special Olympics which aims to support athletes and fans with disabilities by sharing their unique stories and related content.
FanSided’s unique approach to fan engagement has led it be one of the most popular site networks within sports with over 42.9M unique visitors per month according to ComScore (as of January 2022).
Celebrate in Las Vegas
Join us for the 4th Hashtag Sports Awards™ presented by Budweiser on the evening of July 12, 2022 at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas as we celebrate finalists and reveal the winners of this year's awards live during the show.
