"Star Wars," "Dungeons & Dragons," and Pokémon all began as niche obsessions before their fans carried them into pop culture. That path still works, but fans are doing more of the carrying. They adapt the story, remix it, argue about it in comment sections and bring it to audiences its owners never targeted.

"When people see their identity reflected back at them, when they feel connected to a community, when they feel like they have a sense of belonging, their fandom gets deeper, it gets stronger, and it becomes something that they want to share with others," said Fotoulla Damaskos, executive vice president of brand strategy and innovation at National Research Group (NRG).

At a recent New York Advertising Week panel on fandom, speakers from NRG, Paper, and Webtoon, along with singer-songwriter and founder Ylona Garcia, laid out what pulls fans in and how brands can show up without losing their trust.

Belonging is what turns an audience into a fandom

Some 72% of web comic readers agreed that the format brings them together with a shared community, and 64% said it makes them feel part of something bigger, according to NRG's research with Webtoon.

Garcia described how that sense of belonging forms. Reading one of her first stories on the platform, she scrolled into the comment section and found strangers voicing her own reactions.

"It was really cool just to see how a lot of people had the same thoughts that I did, I just didn't type it out because I was too shy," she said. "It made me feel like I wasn't alone."

Identity sharpens all of this. Damaskos said NRG's research consistently finds that younger generations don't see their reality reflected in today's TV and film, so they seek out stories that do. Jason Ve, president of Paper, said he became a devoted fan of the series "Heated Rivalry" because it put an Asian, LGBTQ character at the center of a mainstream show.

"I felt so seen watching the show," he said.

Fans commit when they recognize themselves in a story and in the people around it. Brands should look for communities where that recognition already happens and give fans room to talk to each other, since the conversation is what holds them there.

Fans want the story to keep going

NRG found that when web comic fans finish a story, they don't want the relationship to end, according to Damaskos. They want animated and live-action adaptations, games and merchandise that keep it alive. Aileen Wang, head of marketing at Webtoon Advertising, said the company's titles have reached Netflix's top 10 every quarter for three years, often without viewers realizing where the story started.

Ve sees cross-format demand as an early sign that a fandom is heading mainstream. "Heated Rivalry" began as a book series by Rachel Reid with a loyal readership "long before even Hollywood caught on," he said.

Garcia said relatability is what makes a story strong enough to travel. Her own work shows how that plays out. Garcia, who is Filipino, recorded the theme song for Neon, a Filipino agent Riot Games introduced in Valorant. Fans responded to the representation, and "every comment that I read so far was just really grateful," she said.

Demand for adaptations, games and merch is a signal of a fandom with room to grow. Extensions land when they keep the element fans identified with in the first place, whether that's a character's resilience or a long-awaited bit of representation.

Fans have become the distribution model

The biggest accelerant, Ve said, comes when the audience takes over.

"Something that really spurs fandom is when it's not just created from the IP holder, but the communities do something of their own with it," he said.

Fan-made stories and conversation around "Heated Rivalry" carried the show well past the audience he expected. He assumed most viewers would be queer, but found the majority were women. His advice for brands follows from that.

"You oftentimes can create the stage, but where the magic really happens is how you can pass the remote control to others," Ve said. "Fandoms has a word fan in it, but they're actually the new distribution model."

The proof of success, in his view, is fans still talking about the work and leaving comments six months later.

Wang described the same dynamic at the creator level. On Webtoon, anyone can upload a comic and build a following, and those fans often start drawing comics of their own.

"When you inspire others to create, it kind of creates this virtuous cycle," she said.

A campaign built only for consumption caps its own reach. Brands that leave room for fans to recreate, remix and build on their work turn those fans into the channel, and the right partner can supply the credibility a brand lacks on its own.