There are audiences, and then there are fans. The difference matters more than most brands realize — and if you’re not thinking about it, you’re leaving serious money on the table.
Most of the media and entertainment industry is built around moments. The big game. The album drop. The season premiere. The box office weekend. Marketing budgets get deployed, attention spikes, and then everyone waits for the next moment to do it again.
But here’s what that model misses: fandom doesn’t work on that schedule. Fans are always on. And according to Deloitte’s 2026 Digital Media Trends report, the brands and platforms that treat fandom as a moment-based opportunity rather than a continuous relationship are consistently underestimating the most economically valuable segment in the room (Deloitte, 2026).
For brands targeting Latino audiences, this insight is especially urgent.
The Fandom Economy — and Why It’s Bigger Than You Think
Fans are not casual consumers. According to Deloitte’s research, fans spend 51 more minutes per day — roughly 16 percent more time — with media and entertainment than nonfans (Deloitte, 2026). They subscribe to more streaming services, spend more on them, and are significantly more likely to be gamers. SVOD-subscribing fans spend an average of $71 per month across four services, compared to $56 for nonfans (Deloitte, 2026).
And the off-season — that stretch of time between releases, between seasons, between major events — isn’t dead air. It’s where fandom lives. It’s where community is built, maintained, and deepened. The brands that show up there are the ones that build real relationships. The ones that don’t are starting from scratch every single cycle.
In the U.S., a significant and growing share of those always-on fans are Latino. And understanding what Latino fandom looks like culturally changes everything about how you approach it.
What Latino Fandom Looks Like — and Why Culture Is the Key
Deloitte’s research finds that more than half of fans — 55 percent — say being a fan of a show, artist, or franchise tends to lead them to engage with it across multiple platforms, spanning streaming, social media, merchandise, and live events (Deloitte, 2026). That figure rises to roughly 70 percent among Gen Z and millennial fans.
For Latino audiences, this multiplatform behavior isn’t just a digital habit. It’s a cultural one.
Foundational work in Hispanic consumer research identifies collectivism as one of the most important and most underestimated value orientations among Latino consumers (Korzenny, Chapa, & Korzenny, 2017). For Latino audiences, the family and the group tend to take precedence over the individual — and appeals that include reference groups are often more motivational than appeals to individual interest (Korzenny et al., 2017). Fandom, at its core, is a collectivist act. It is shared experience. It is communal ritual. It is the family gathered around the game, the group chat erupting during the awards show, the community showing up together for the concert.
That cultural lens changes how you think about fan engagement entirely.
Deloitte’s research also reveals that approximately 52 percent of fans say social media is the primary way they discover new content — a figure that jumps to 73 percent among Gen Z fans (Deloitte, 2026). For brands targeting Latino Gen Z and millennial audiences, social media isn’t a support channel. It’s the front door. And nearly half of fans say they’re more likely to engage with content recommended by their fan community (Deloitte, 2026) — which, for collectivist Latino audiences, makes community-driven fandom not a trend to watch but a cultural default to build around.
The off-season is also where content discovery continues. Around 36 percent of fans say they rely on fan communities and companion content between major releases (Deloitte, 2026). Latino fans aren’t waiting for the next season premiere or album. They are building connection continuously — often in spaces brands have completely abandoned.
The Business Case for Treating Latino Fandom as a Year-Round Strategy
Here is where this becomes a strategic imperative.
The current industry model requires significant marketing investment to rebuild momentum with each new release — often targeting audiences that were already engaged somewhere else in the ecosystem (Deloitte, 2026). That’s an inefficient cycle. Fandom-informed strategy would invest in year-round touchpoints and community-building that nurtures engagement between the big moments, not just during them.
For Latino audiences, that kind of year-round investment tends to be associated with something especially valuable: long-term loyalty. Research in Hispanic consumer behavior suggests that Latino consumers tend to stay with brands they know and trust, driven by loyalty, reciprocity, and familiarity (Korzenny et al., 2017). That means the brands that show up consistently — not just during Heritage Month, not just during the Super Bowl, not just during the World Cup — are the ones that tend to build the deepest relationships.
And the scale of this opportunity is significant. According to the Latino GDP Report, the U.S. Latino economy reached $4.1 trillion in 2023, making it the fifth-largest economy in the world (Latino GDP Report, 2025). This is not a niche market. This is the most culturally dynamic and economically powerful growth segment in the American consumer landscape.
Deloitte’s research adds one more dimension worth noting: nearly half of fans say their engagement — measured in both time and money — tends to remain consistent across different phases of life (Deloitte, 2026). The concept of “fandom lifetime value” is emerging from this data — the long-term economic potential of a fan relationship built early and maintained well.
For Latino fans, that lifetime value is amplified by the collectivist cultural orientation we described earlier. When a brand earns a Latino fan, it tends to earn their family, their social circle, their community.
The off-season isn’t dead. It’s where the relationship is built — or abandoned. Brands that understand Latino fandom for what it is — continuous, communal, and deeply rooted in cultural identity — are the ones that will own the next cycle before it even starts.
At Vaquero, we help brands build strategies that connect with Latino audiences not just at the moment, but for the long haul. Let’s build something that lasts.
Works Cited: Deloitte Center for Technology, Media & Telecommunications. “2026 Digital Media Trends: Capturing Always-On Fandom Between Releases and Seasons.” Deloitte Insights, 25 Mar. 2026. | Hispanic Market Guide. Hispanic Market Guide 2025. 2025. | Korzenny, Felipe, Sindy Chapa, and Betty Ann Korzenny. Hispanic Marketing: The Power of the New Latino Consumer. 3rd ed., Routledge, 2017. | Latino GDP Report. U.S. Latino GDP Report 2025. 2025.