Fandom: Where Sports Meets Culture 24/7
Sports fandom has gone way beyond the stadium. Today’s fans are living it 24/7 – bingeing highlights on TikTok, following players across leagues and teams, rocking jerseys like high fashion, trading cards like NFTs, and even turning to podcasts and betting apps to stay connected.
In this session, Justin Sternberg from Fanatics Advertising will unpack how sports have become one of the biggest engines of pop culture and what that means for brands. From LeBron to Messi Mania to Caitlin Clark breaking the internet, fans are following players like influencers and treating jerseys, gear, and merch as cultural currency. As Pop Culture consistently evolves, there has always been one constant – fandom.
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