The Problem
Fandom had historically underinvested in several high-potential content verticals. While areas like Anime showed early signs of success, the company lacked the institutional insight and cultural fluency needed to build a cohesive growth strategy. Uncertainty around the total addressable audience for niche content, combined with limited tooling for identifying adjacent opportunities—such as Korean Pop (K-pop) and Webtoons—hindered Fandom’s ability to expand into these emerging spaces.
The Solution
To resolve this issue, a new vertical in the Fandom Community Team was created. The “Anime Vertical” was created to oversee investment in the Anime content niche as well as connected content verticals. A full-funnel, multichannel sentiment and market research framework was developed to identify growth opportunities and gauge user sentiment across the Asian media audience on the platform. This system would aid in the development of bespoke community support and content campaigns, directly targeting sentiment improvement as well as increased user engagement.
Additionally, sub-segmentation strategies were implemented to ensure related genres—such as Asian gaming and anime music—were accurately categorized, monitored, and supported with tailored content and community initiatives.
Impact
The Asian media vertical on Fandom saw explosive growth due to the custom campaigns and consistent community outreach. Total users surged to more than nine figures, and the total yearly portfolio value for Asian media grew from sub-five figures to eight figures in less than 18 months. The content model deployed across anime was identified as performing so well that it was translated into a repeatable “playbook” for Community Development and integrated into a larger platform-wide effort.
