I could have written ‘fragmented’ and ‘frictionless’ too. It seems the current era of media is brought to us by the letter F – bye bye ‘Era of P’, we still remember you Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol, pandemic production and Paddington.
Here’s a final P, progression, and that’s the thing, isn’t it? Things are always changing. A change we’re experiencing now in media is in what we used to think builds loyalty – reach, frequency, celebrity influencer endorsements, and if you had the budget a few TV spots. But Gen Alpha have got other ideas, and they’re making it difficult! So, while many still think in funnels, the kids of today are constructing their fan identity across dozens of platforms and oftentimes creating as many unofficial moments as there are official ones (because official ones are boring).
If your core strategy is still built on a couple of channels and a funnel, you’re at risk. The next generation of audiences won’t wait for you to catch up with their habits – they’re already making their own rules of entertainment, marketing and media. Case in point? Italian Brainrot.
You see, fandom isn’t just something they watch, it’s something they do. The fundamental shift isn’t just a generational preference, it’s structural, because our youngest audiences are now able to participate with media. They have literal studios in their phones and the means to distribute. This fluidity of fandom also adds meaning to why phrases like “She’s giving main character energy” have entered teen vernacular – because kids are growing up in the midst of media, able to control it.
And this, dear reader, completely disrupts traditional fan pathways that franchise IP owners and broadcasters have relied on for decades.
It isn’t just about TV and movies neither, it’s the same in gaming. Whether it is Hamilton performances staged by theatre groups inside Roblox, Minecraft skits TikTok or fashion on Fortnite, fandom today is as much about contribution as consumption.
There is a clear implication: if you think you’re still in charge of the story, of the audience/fan relationship, if you think you can control your IP’s narrative tightly then you’re misinformed. Fans want to be acknowledged, heard, not simply broadcast to. They send signals across communities, and too many brands are focussing on strict protection and hyper-growth to understand that those tactics may push fans away.
For those that acknowledge a transmedia strategy as being fundamental to fandom, being everywhere isn’t enough if you don’t BELONG there. It’s where many broadcasters often fall flat: they copy-paste content onto other platforms thinking it will engage, and often it doesn’t. Even some of the biggest creators have struggled to translate their content to work on streamers. “Your-Amazon-strategy-can’t-be-your-YouTube-strategy-with-different-dimensions” has been a bruising lesson. It’s key to understand how each platform has its own logic, culture and expectations.
The framework can be explained relatively simply: platform presence > purpose > participation. (THE Ps ARE BACK!) Most kids media brands have figured out presence, but may struggle to deliver on purpose with content, and are nervous about participation. Whilst brand safety is important, how it is managed is changing.
‘Breadcrumbing’ – the new fan journey
Forget the linear audience journey. Gen Alpha doesn’t like straight lines, infact they love to drift. One TikTok clip could spark a lifetime of engagement, but only if there’s more to discover. Young audiences might first encounter a brand through a Roblox experience, or YouTube short, and only later find the master content.
Disney has understood this for years, thinking in terms of entry portals designed for discovery and how to move fans around their flywheel of experiences – the difference was that Disney owned each node, each creative touchpoint in the ecosystem. But now with UGC and multiple platforms it’s no longer the case for most IP owners and studios.
If you are the steward of a kids IP it requires thinking in constellations (or flywheel if that’s your favoured term), and not linear funnels. No matter where your audience starts their fan journey there should be a pathway around the ecosystem, whether they’re meme sharers or YouTube marathoners. But this comes with an uncomfortable truth – social audiences are rented not owned, so having at least partial ownership of the ecosystem mitigates against an algorithm change making your fans unreachable. A million followers could fade into the distance overnight. It doesn’t mean abandoning TikTok, Fortnite or YouTube, though it makes sense not to rely too heavily on them and have a proprietary part to your ecosystem as your centre of gravity for fans.
The long-term rewards for those building direct community relationships in this way are deeper insights, resilient loyalty, and diversified monetisation opportunities while protecting against too much social platform dependency.
Getting comfortable with a bit of chaos
This shift is one of the most troublesome in kids media: loosening of control. Gen Alpha expects to participate and play, but they can be chaotic. They don’t always wait for you to create more content; they’ll make their own. A teen designing F1 racing outfits in Roblox isn’t committing piracy, she’s expressing fandom on her terms. Sometimes it’s genius, sometimes it gets weird. However, IPs that allow an amount of creative freedom rather than policing it often find their success amplified. Those that have been able to cede a little creative control earn their place in the hearts and minds of younger fans, and that’s fabulous.
So, to finish with a final flurry of Fs, the fluidity of fandom is your new foundation of franchise strategy.
