Top Marketers Reveal How Creators, TikTok, Spotify, and Pinterest Are Fueling Modern Fandom
Postat: 19 sep 2026, 04:55
At Variety's Entertainment and Technology Summit in Los Angeles, six leading marketers gathered to discuss how AI and social media platforms have transformed the marketing playbook for entertainment and experiences. The panel, moderated by Variety publisher and co-president Dea Lawrence, featured executives from Archrival, TikTok, Spotify, Pinterest, AMC Global Media, and Lionsgate—and the creator economy emerged as a dominant theme throughout the conversation.
The Rise of Participatory Culture
Entertainment marketers once closely guarded their marketing materials, carefully controlling timing and platform distribution. Today, social media and social video require studios and creatives to let fans offer their own takes on beloved properties—a phenomenon particularly prevalent on TikTok.
"That participatory culture of co-creation is so unique to us, and that's why participants are very engaged in creating," said Dawn Yang, global head of entertainment for TikTok. "We have over 12 million TV and film posts that are posted by our users every day now, and that just gives you the perspective how much content there is around just stories that they love and want to share with everyone."
For brands and marketers looking to tap into this participatory culture, having the right social media assets can make all the difference. Platforms like z2u.com offer a convenient way to Buy TikTok Accounts, giving businesses and creators a head start in building an engaged audience. Whether you're a studio promoting a new release or a brand seeking to connect with younger demographics, a established TikTok presence can accelerate your reach.
Hiring Fans to Create Authentic Content
Briana McElroy, global head of digital marketing for Lionsgate's Motion Picture Group, reinforced Yang's point by sharing her own experience.
"We actually hire fans to make our TikTok content for Lionsgate brand. If you consume it, you'll know it—it's called edits on TikTok," McElroy said. "That's wildly popular, and it's really a lot of kids—17 year olds, 18 year olds, 15 year olds—it's their way of expressing their love for a person or a movie or a musician. They create these incredible visual pieces. The temptation is to try to replicate that on our end. But we thought, why do that? If we're talking about authenticity, the best way to do it is to let the fans themselves do it."
Adding Real Value to Consumers' Lives
Ben Harms, chief growth officer at youth culture marketing agency Archrival, offered a strong perspective on what it takes to win today and in the future.
"The brands that are going to win over the next 10 years are the ones that understand how to truly add value into consumers' lives," Harms said. He pointed to Spotify as a prime example. "While we have so much data and we've optimized and engineered everything, there is this sense that we've sort of lost the magic of the world in a lot of ways. And what we find that's working for brands today is when they're building ecosystems of experiences and human connection that go far beyond attention."
Turning Fandom into Real-World Experiences
Sara Pollack, global head of consumer marketing for Pinterest, explained how today's fans often want to craft elaborate tributes to favorite personalities and titles. On Pinterest, fans hunt for inspiration to express their love.
"It's like they're coming to Pinterest to figure out how to turn that fandom into real world moments and experiences that they share with others that feel rich and fulfilling," Pollack said. She cited a recent partnership with Warner Bros. to promote "Practical Magic 2."
"We saw that there's a ton of Gen Z sourcing happening for really specific things like herbal apothecaries, crystal meanings, tarot readings. This is all really adjacent to the film," Pollack said. "So for Gen-Zers who maybe didn't see the first film, but clearly would be an immediate fan of the second, given what they're already looking for—that was an opportunity for us to come together and actually build a real world pop-up experience."
Rethinking Gen Z: Life Stage Over Birth Year
Jenny Haggard, global head of thought leadership at Spotify, challenged the common marketing practice of treating Gen Z as a single homogeneous group.
"The first mistake we see marketers make is they treat Gen Z as one group," she said. "I don't know about you, but I was a very different person from when I was a teeny bopper dancing to NSYNC in my bedroom than when I was 29 and young professional working and living in New York. What we've learned is that life stage is a better predictor of behavior than birth year."
Haggard also pushed back against the conventional wisdom that young audiences lack patience for long-form content.
"As an industry, it's now common practice to make ads that are six seconds long," she said. "I went into our dashboards and found that a third of older Gen Zs on Spotify are streaming 100% of two-hour-long podcast episodes. So what that tells me is that Gen Z isn't allergic to long-form content; they're allergic to shitty content. To me, it's about creating better content. That is our responsibility as marketers."
Creating Layered Pathways for Fans
Kim Granito, chief marketing officer for AMC Global Media, echoed Haggard's comments that the new world order puts pressure on marketers to be as creative as fans.
"It's our job as marketers to make sure that we are creating on-ramps for them to find and experience entertainment exactly where they want to," Granito said. "There are fans of 'The Walking Dead' [that] has been around for 15 years. There are people that show up for every single spinoff series, but don't necessarily post about it or do things, and there are other fans that dress up as Negan every year at Comic Con and bring their families and friends along. The passion and love that they have for that IP is the same. It's expressed differently."
The Takeaway for Marketers
The panel made one thing clear: success in today's entertainment landscape requires meeting fans where they are, empowering them to co-create, and building meaningful connections that extend far beyond a single impression. For brands looking to establish or expand their presence on platforms like TikTok, resources such as z2u.com provide a practical solution to Buy TikTok Accounts, helping marketers accelerate their entry into the creator economy and connect with the audiences that matter most.
The Rise of Participatory Culture
Entertainment marketers once closely guarded their marketing materials, carefully controlling timing and platform distribution. Today, social media and social video require studios and creatives to let fans offer their own takes on beloved properties—a phenomenon particularly prevalent on TikTok.
"That participatory culture of co-creation is so unique to us, and that's why participants are very engaged in creating," said Dawn Yang, global head of entertainment for TikTok. "We have over 12 million TV and film posts that are posted by our users every day now, and that just gives you the perspective how much content there is around just stories that they love and want to share with everyone."
For brands and marketers looking to tap into this participatory culture, having the right social media assets can make all the difference. Platforms like z2u.com offer a convenient way to Buy TikTok Accounts, giving businesses and creators a head start in building an engaged audience. Whether you're a studio promoting a new release or a brand seeking to connect with younger demographics, a established TikTok presence can accelerate your reach.
Hiring Fans to Create Authentic Content
Briana McElroy, global head of digital marketing for Lionsgate's Motion Picture Group, reinforced Yang's point by sharing her own experience.
"We actually hire fans to make our TikTok content for Lionsgate brand. If you consume it, you'll know it—it's called edits on TikTok," McElroy said. "That's wildly popular, and it's really a lot of kids—17 year olds, 18 year olds, 15 year olds—it's their way of expressing their love for a person or a movie or a musician. They create these incredible visual pieces. The temptation is to try to replicate that on our end. But we thought, why do that? If we're talking about authenticity, the best way to do it is to let the fans themselves do it."
Adding Real Value to Consumers' Lives
Ben Harms, chief growth officer at youth culture marketing agency Archrival, offered a strong perspective on what it takes to win today and in the future.
"The brands that are going to win over the next 10 years are the ones that understand how to truly add value into consumers' lives," Harms said. He pointed to Spotify as a prime example. "While we have so much data and we've optimized and engineered everything, there is this sense that we've sort of lost the magic of the world in a lot of ways. And what we find that's working for brands today is when they're building ecosystems of experiences and human connection that go far beyond attention."
Turning Fandom into Real-World Experiences
Sara Pollack, global head of consumer marketing for Pinterest, explained how today's fans often want to craft elaborate tributes to favorite personalities and titles. On Pinterest, fans hunt for inspiration to express their love.
"It's like they're coming to Pinterest to figure out how to turn that fandom into real world moments and experiences that they share with others that feel rich and fulfilling," Pollack said. She cited a recent partnership with Warner Bros. to promote "Practical Magic 2."
"We saw that there's a ton of Gen Z sourcing happening for really specific things like herbal apothecaries, crystal meanings, tarot readings. This is all really adjacent to the film," Pollack said. "So for Gen-Zers who maybe didn't see the first film, but clearly would be an immediate fan of the second, given what they're already looking for—that was an opportunity for us to come together and actually build a real world pop-up experience."
Rethinking Gen Z: Life Stage Over Birth Year
Jenny Haggard, global head of thought leadership at Spotify, challenged the common marketing practice of treating Gen Z as a single homogeneous group.
"The first mistake we see marketers make is they treat Gen Z as one group," she said. "I don't know about you, but I was a very different person from when I was a teeny bopper dancing to NSYNC in my bedroom than when I was 29 and young professional working and living in New York. What we've learned is that life stage is a better predictor of behavior than birth year."
Haggard also pushed back against the conventional wisdom that young audiences lack patience for long-form content.
"As an industry, it's now common practice to make ads that are six seconds long," she said. "I went into our dashboards and found that a third of older Gen Zs on Spotify are streaming 100% of two-hour-long podcast episodes. So what that tells me is that Gen Z isn't allergic to long-form content; they're allergic to shitty content. To me, it's about creating better content. That is our responsibility as marketers."
Creating Layered Pathways for Fans
Kim Granito, chief marketing officer for AMC Global Media, echoed Haggard's comments that the new world order puts pressure on marketers to be as creative as fans.
"It's our job as marketers to make sure that we are creating on-ramps for them to find and experience entertainment exactly where they want to," Granito said. "There are fans of 'The Walking Dead' [that] has been around for 15 years. There are people that show up for every single spinoff series, but don't necessarily post about it or do things, and there are other fans that dress up as Negan every year at Comic Con and bring their families and friends along. The passion and love that they have for that IP is the same. It's expressed differently."
The Takeaway for Marketers
The panel made one thing clear: success in today's entertainment landscape requires meeting fans where they are, empowering them to co-create, and building meaningful connections that extend far beyond a single impression. For brands looking to establish or expand their presence on platforms like TikTok, resources such as z2u.com provide a practical solution to Buy TikTok Accounts, helping marketers accelerate their entry into the creator economy and connect with the audiences that matter most.