Kevin Brown, who founded and sold one of Europe’s largest affiliate networks, Affiliate Window (now Awin.com), and later managed arena tours for acts such as the Australian Pink Floyd Show, identifies a flaw in the creator economy. Too many creators, he argues, are platform-dependent and don’t control their most valuable asset: their direct relationship with fans. As a result, he has seen creators with millions of followers struggle to monetize, while others with smaller, loyal audiences build more durable businesses. 

“There’s no correlation between followers and fandom,” Kevin states. “Ariana Grande has over 370 million Instagram followers, yet her U.S. arena tour was on sale for a week before they had to cancel it because tickets weren’t selling. Then you have U2 with around 20 million followers across all platforms who sell out every venue, every tour.” 

The impact of this distinction becomes clear in the monetization process. Kevin cites MrBeast as an example of a content creator who has built a genuine fandom, extending beyond casual viewership, thereby enabling steady business growth. According to the industry veteran, understanding the difference between casual followers and devoted fans represents a vital business insight.

This core insight has shaped Kevin’s current business, FanCircles. Founded in 2015 after spending two years and $2 million in development, the London-based company provides individually branded superfan apps for music artists, television shows, and celebrities with dedicated followings. The company helps creators build direct relationships with their most devoted supporters, while maintaining complete ownership of their fan information.

The Science of Superfandom

Through years of experience with diverse creators, Kevin has discovered what actually motivates superfans to pay for memberships.

“We got it wrong at the beginning,” he admits. “We started charging at the beginning, at least [first] it was a monthly subscription. But fan clubs aren’t monthly, they’re yearly. And there’s too much pressure on the influencer, on the creator to create content on a monthly basis.”

More surprisingly, FanCircles discovered that exclusive content – the basis of most creator monetization strategies – isn’t the primary driver of paid memberships. “It turns out that content is great, but it’s not the reason people join fan clubs,” Kevin reveals. “People join fan clubs for early access to tickets and for merchandise that they can’t receive anywhere else … or they can get it earlier.”

FanCircles’ research reveals that fans prioritize access to events, exclusive merchandise, early content releases, and a sense of community with other dedicated fans. This understanding informs how the platform assists creators in structuring their offerings to optimize both fan satisfaction and revenue.

The FanCircles Solution

Building on these key insights about what drives true fandom, FanCircles has developed a platform that enables creators to capitalize on these relationships. “You’ll never find a FanCircles app,” Kevin explains. “You’ll find individual apps that are branded to that creator. We very much sit behind the scenes, powering superfan apps for creators.”

The company’s white-label approach ensures that fans feel a direct connection to the creator rather than to an intermediary platform.

A recent FanCircles client with over one million social media followers has launched a fan club, charging $65 per year. “8,000 people joined, bringing in $520,000 within 48 hours of launch,” Kevin says. This conversion of less than 1% of followers into paying superfans demonstrated the potential of targeted engagement with true fans.

Unlike percentage-based platforms, which take a large percentage of creator earnings, FanCircles operates on a flat-fee model. “We don’t take a commission from the revenue generated,” Kevin explains. “We’re a software company that provides the software and the service. All the revenue goes to the artist or to the creator, and we have a flat fee for our platform.”

This pricing structure indicates that FanCircles is primarily designed for established creators with strong fan bases, although the company has recently expanded its offerings to reach a broader range of creators.

Community-Driven Engagement

After years of research, Kevin has discovered that user-generated content often drives more engagement than content produced by creators. “Content is best generated by the fan rather than the influencer, the creator,” he explains. “We let the fans generate the content. They take photos of themselves with the creator. They’ll take pictures of their merchandise they’ve just bought.”

This approach creates self-sustaining communities where fans feel safe expressing their enthusiasm among others who share their passion, differing from general social platforms where niche interests often face ridicule.

Kevin describes how these communities function: “They’ll take pictures or make videos of things that they find funny, and they’ll share them in a community that will appreciate them because that community is dedicated to that particular creator or style.” He cites the ghost stories-focused “Most Haunted” app, developed by his other platform, Access.xyz, as an example where fans can share content that might be mocked on general platforms, but is celebrated within their dedicated community.

“It’s not fueled by hate and anger,” Kevin notes, adding that this positive environment keeps fans engaged and returning to the platform, thus strengthening their connection to both the creator and fellow fans.

Data Ownership

At the core of FanCircles’ value proposition is the principle that creators should own their audience information completely. “It’s all theirs. We keep nothing. It all belongs to the creator,” Kevin says. “That’s ultimately the reason I started FanCircles.”

This approach differs from social platforms and many creator economy tools, which maintain control over audience information and, as Kevin argues, leave creators vulnerable to algorithm changes and platform dependencies.

“What business doesn’t own its own customer? None, apart from the entertainment industry,” Kevin points out. “One change, for example, the threat of TikTok being taken down in the U.S., could ruin people. You would never want your business to be in a position that you have to rely on another platform’s survival to maintain your customer.”

Expanding Access with Push Pass

Recognizing that FanCircles’ high-end model doesn’t work for all creators, Kevin recently developed Push Pass, a more accessible entry point launching in September. “I call it the Mailchimp of notifications,” Kevin explains.

Push Pass enables creators to send messages directly to fans’ mobile wallets, eliminating the need for app downloads. “It’s simply the ability to have a push notification [sent] to your mobile device without having to install an app,” Kevin explains. This means YouTubers can automatically notify followers when publishing new videos or direct them to merchandise sales.

The system works via QR codes or links that add a branded pass to users’ mobile wallets. When creators want to reach their audience, they send notifications through this pass, achieving higher visibility than standard platform notifications.

“Email is long-form content, whereas notifications are short-form content,” Kevin says, explaining the complementary nature of these communication channels. “If you’ve got an email address list which every creator should have and should own themselves, then you can only use that one or two times a month before you overuse that. Notifications are much more instant.”

Push Pass also allows creators to send follow-up notifications about sponsorships mentioned in videos. “If you have a sponsor, you can speak about it in your video and click the link below. But what if you can also push a notification saying, ‘Hey, I mentioned NordVPN, here’s the link.'” Kevin suggests this approach could help creators secure better sponsorship deals by improving conversion rates.

Starting at $24.99 per month for up to 2,000 passholders, Push Pass costs increase based on audience size. This makes it accessible to creators of varying scales while still providing the core benefit of direct audience connection.

Predictions for the Creator Economy

Kevin sees the creator economy becoming more fragmented and niche-focused in the near future, with fewer mega-influencers and more specialized creators building steady businesses through devoted communities.

“I think we’re moving away from the follower count metric as the main or most important metric in the industry,” Kevin observes. He hopes creators will increasingly focus on building genuine connections rather than chasing vanity metrics.

“Things are moving extremely quickly, as they always do, but I don’t think we’ve ever been moving at a quicker pace than now,” Kevin notes about the creator economy. “I’m looking for influencers to tell me how this works and to teach me how it can benefit them.”

The takeaway is clear: those who prioritize deep engagement with true fans will outperform those focused solely on maximizing reach and follower counts. The creators who succeed will be those who build direct, owned channels to their most devoted supporters.

As Kevin concludes, “The influencer space is more fragmented. I’m not sure if we’ll see as many extremely large influencers as micro-influencers. It feels like it’s moving to a more niche, which I think is a great thing.”