Social-First Fandoms: The New Model for Brand Loyalty

In August, Chipotle put a 16-year-old creator’s go-to order on its app and website as the Salish Matter Order. She had mentioned it in her videos so often that the brand decided to make it official.

Brands across social media are making similar moves, building fan communities of their own instead of sponsoring someone else’s. This is what a social-first fandom looks like, and it is changing what brand loyalty means.

What Is a Social-First Fandom?

A social-first fandom forms when people start following a brand for what it publishes, not just what it sells.

The content might be a show, a mascot or a creator the brand works with. What holds that audience together is emotional connection.

A BoF Insights and McKinsey survey of more than 2,000 luxury clients in the US and China found that emotional connection is the top driver of brand desirability in both markets. It ranked above craftsmanship, heritage and logo recognition. 

Fandom goes a step further: the audience likes the brand and is invested in where it goes next.

From Sponsoring Fandoms to Building Them

Brands have always relied on the fan bases built by sports teams, events and creators to reach people. Formula 1 is a good example: sponsors line up to put their names on cars and tracks because the sport’s fans are already devoted.

Social-first brands are taking a different route: instead of promoting through someone else’s audience, they put out their own shows, characters, jokes and creator-led content.

There are two especially effective ways to do this: give people a format they recognise, or give them a character they want to follow.

Build a Format People Want to Return To

Crumbl and Spotify are two brands fans love, and both built something people come back to again and again:

Crumbl’s Weekly Flavor Drop

Crumbl rotates its cookie menu every week and reveals the new lineup on social. The setup is always the same, but the flavors change, so fans have a reason to check in each week. Many of them film their own taste tests, which keeps the conversation going without Crumbl having to produce it.

Spotify Wrapped

Wrapped turns listening data into a personal recap once a year. The format is the same every December, but the content is different for every user, so people can’t wait to post their results on Instagram Stories and compare them with friends. The audience does the marketing because the format gives them something to say about themselves.

Give the Brand a Character People Want to Follow

Duolingo and Dunkin’ took very different routes to the same result: a mascot with a personality fans follow and talk about:

Duolingo’s Duo

Duo was supposed to do one thing: remind people to practise every day. Then users turned his pushy notifications into a running joke about a cheerful, slightly threatening bird, and Duolingo leaned into it.

From there, the joke became a character with a backstory. In February 2025, Duolingo announced Duo’s death in a run of mournful posts, complete with a funeral. Two weeks later, he came back, with the brand crediting users who had kept up their lessons for bringing him back.

By then, Duo had become a character people followed for his own story, with the language lessons woven into it.

Dunkin’ and the Spider Donut

Dunkin’ built a character out of its Spider Donut. In October 2024, “Spidey D” announced he had taken over the brand’s accounts and began posting in all lowercase, with spelling mistakes on purpose. In a week, 28 posts brought more than 2.5 million engagements, and his sweatshirts sold out within an hour. 

Let Creators Shape the Brand, Too

Some brands are inviting creators to do more than post about a product, and these two are good examples:

Chipotle Turned a Fan Habit Into a Product

Salish Matter is a teen creator who has been ordering the same Kid’s Cheese Quesadilla in her videos for years. On August 19, Chipotle turned that order into the Salish Matter Order, available for a limited time in the Chipotle app and on its website. It was the first time the brand built a creator’s order around a kids’ meal.

ASOS Brought an Outside Voice Inside

Farron Clark’s following took off after a video about an ASOS jacket went viral and the jacket sold out. She worked in marketing before becoming a creator, and ASOS has now named her its Marketing Insider, a role in which she helps shape the direction of ASOS Magazine. The title returns as a quarterly digital magazine on Substack, with a limited-edition print run alongside it.

Disney Put Creator Culture on the Red Carpet

Disney’s Created in LA brought more than 350 creators to Hollywood and Burbank over two days in September. It opened on September 17 with the first red carpet premiere of creator videos in the El Capitan Theatre’s 100-year history.

The first screenings were The Technoblade Movie and Zach King’s handmade Star Wars spoof, Cardboard Wars. The second day moved to the Walt Disney Studios lot.

What the Best Fandoms Have in Common

The budgets and ideas differ, but a few things repeat:

• Fans take part: Chipotle fans posted their own orders, and Disney’s event was built around videos made by creators. People care more about taking part than about a perfect finish.
• Trust comes built in: Salish, Farron and the creators at Created in LA each came with an audience that already believed in them. The brands tapped into that trust instead of paying for reach.
• The brand loosens control: Chipotle, ASOS and Disney each gave something up, whether the script, the editorial angle or the spotlight. That willingness is a big part of why fans believe in it.

What It Means for Brands Going Forward

Three lessons run through every example above. The best raw material is already out there: Salish’s order, Farron’s jacket and Duo’s menacing reminders all began as something fans were already doing or joking about. 

A fandom also needs a shape people can count on, like Crumbl’s weekly drop or Duo’s consistent personality. And the brand has to leave room for fans to post, remix and argue.

If you’re building toward something like this, the hardest part is finding the right creator and keeping the relationship going after the first post. Influencer marketing services like Socially Powerful help with both, matching brands with creators whose audiences already love them and supporting those partnerships long term.