Before Covid, one of the experiments we did (for identifying some product features of Onemyle) was creating some social media handles representing neighbourhoods (Voice of Koramangala, Voice of Whitefield, Voice of Strathfield, Voice of Parramatta etc - the latter two refer to neighbourhoods in Sydney) and posting some local news and events of those localities.
The idea was to see how difficult or easy it was to source authentic local news, events and other information on a daily basis and also to assess if the current social media platforms were good enough to build a local community using these test handles.
I was the one posting everyday on these locality handles and one day I was pleasantly surprised by a sudden spike in engagement of a post.
It was a post (see embed below) on a local fan club of the popular Tamil actor Vijay and the Koramangala fan club of the actor was organising an event on the eve of his birthday.
Local fan clubs for movie actors have been around for a long time and they are normally activated closer to a new movie release of the actor or around significant events like birth days. It had not occurred to me at that time that these local fan clubs in a way represent the previous generation approach to 'Influencer Marketing' and they give enormous distribution muscle to carry the message of the star deep into as many neighbourhoods as possible.
Few years later when I was a vacation trip to Andaman with my wife, the taxi driver got talking and in some quirky sequence of conversations ended up describing how he met film actor Rajinikanth in Chennai and ended up setting up a fan club for the actor in Andaman. Given my earlier experience with that fan club post in Koramangala, I was intrigued by what motivates people like him to start a fan club - is it money? Is it some social recognition in the neighbourhood? Is it just the love for the actor? Is it a little bit of all of the above? Starting a Fan Page on Facebook or any social media is one thing. But starting a real world local fan club that onboards members, organises events is a lot more work. The taxi driver smiled and ruled out money. He said running a fan club often involves more spends than earnings. He also said the love for the actor is a factor but is not an overriding factor given that the driver was in his forties with other priorities in life. So, it just came down to social connections and a way of staying in touch with like minded people.
When we ideate on the role of brands and local fan clubs in Onemyle, I am often reminded of these little touch points I have had with local fan clubs of movie actors.
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