The news: Fandom, which reports nearly 350 million monthly unique visitors and 30 billion annual page views, partnered with Audigent and Experian to expand its audience targeting capabilities.

• The collaboration brings more than 2,400 syndicated audience segments from Experian into FanDNA Helix, Fandom’s AI-driven first-party data platform, enabling marketers to apply third-party demographic and behavioral data to fan engagement signals across entertainment and gaming content.
• This upgrade lets brands use Audigent’s infrastructure to activate privacy-compliant, third-party data at scale, tapping into fan interest graphs that reveal the motivations behind content engagement, Fandom says.

The company cites early success with the Helix platform, noting a 50% lift in awareness and a 72% increase in purchase intent for advertisers using its contextual engine.

In an EMARKETER interview, Fandom VP of global platform development and partnerships Sara Livingston described the shift as unlocking “incremental insights marketers didn’t previously have,” allowing advertisers to go beyond standard demos to understand what makes audiences passionate—whether it’s Marvel, Minecraft, or Game of Thrones.

Zooming out: Building deeper connections with fans isn’t limited to Fandom. As seen in Pinterest’s WNBA partnership, anime’s global surge, and Roblox licensing content from the likes of Netflix and Sega, platforms are increasingly leveraging fandoms across content, culture, and community engagement.

Why it matters: This partnership lets brands target using a unique blend of hard data and cultural insight. Fandom, ranked No. 1 in Gen Z reach per Comscore, combines its audience scale with Experian’s segments to unlock cross-platform targeting.

Livingston noted that while marketers often know consumer behaviors, they rarely understand the emotional fandom drivers behind them. Helix uses AI to surface those motivators and apply them across CTV, mobile, and more. For instance, a QSR brand might find that families with preteens gravitate toward “quest” content, guiding creative even in unexpected channels.

Yes, but: Despite its scale and fan-centric mission, Fandom has faced criticism for a cluttered ad experience. Users have complained about intrusive formats—such as pop-ups, autoplay videos, and content-obscuring overlays. Some have also criticized performance slowdowns and occasional security concerns, including malvertising and redirects to questionable sites.

Our take: The Audigent integration brings valuable demographic depth, enabling brands to not only reach audiences but also understand what motivates them—at a time when precise audience segmentation is more important than ever for marketers and agencies.

By tapping into fan motivations, Fandom positions itself at the forefront of interest-based targeting, a model others are likely to follow.