[Namsan Stroll] The Era of 'Doing' Content: Experience Designers Take Center Stage

BTS Theater Events and Pro Baseball Fandom Culture
Fan "Attachment Capital" Is Reshaping the Content Industry
From Consumption to Experience, From Storytelling to "Story-living"

BTS, which has drawn public attention with its successful comeback, is preparing an album experience event using theater spaces as part of its comeback project. Beyond live concert broadcasts, they will offer karaoke-style screenings where fans can sing along and enjoy the new album, a pop-up space featuring traditional Korean games, and a venue for media art utilizing album visuals. This reflects a shift in how people enjoy music. The professional baseball season, which has just begun, is also part of this change. In professional baseball, where women in their 20s and 30s account for over 60% of the audience, fan culture has become central, with experiential content that lets fans enjoy the excitement on-site and their identity as supporters. Even after the performances and games end, the content continues. Goods such as light sticks, photo cards, and uniforms, as well as videos and memories from the venue, are shared on social media. The grammar of content is changing, shaped by those who participate, respond, and enjoy.

At the center of this change are the fans. The Korea Creative Content Agency has presented the keyword "attachment capital" as one of the prospects for the content industry in 2026. It is analyzed that "the social, cultural, and economic value generated from the accumulation of emotional bonds, trust, and support for one’s 'favorite' will become the most important asset in the content industry." Here, capital refers not only to the financial capital typically imagined, but also to intangible assets based on relationships and interactions, such as "human capital" and "social capital." Attachment capital is reshaping the landscape of the content industry through fans’ time, participation, and spending. Representative examples include expanding community platforms into fan participation-based reward platforms, combining fan-created content with AI commerce in IP business, reflecting fan responses in planning and proceeding with IP production and investment accordingly, or sharing profits based on the level of fan engagement.

Fan affection now extends beyond "the heart" to structural changes in the content industry. This is why "content experience" through engagement and participation is becoming increasingly important, as it enhances the value of content, moves markets, and strengthens revenue generation. The core concept of the "experience economy" by business scholars Pine and Gilmore, which identified that economic value is evolving from consumption to experience, is also relevant in the content field. The content itself is just a means; the emotional satisfaction and memories gained through it are the ultimate value. Fans pay for memories and feelings, and experiences create differentiated premiums. When experience is added, willingness to pay also increases.

Allowing fans to step inside the content frame and experience it with all five senses is usually designed through three main methods: space, participation, and customization. Fans experience content through spaces like pop-up stores that realize the world of the content, participatory consumption where they can intervene in the content creation process, and services optimized and tailored for them. The potential of interactive content, such as "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch," where viewers determine the protagonist’s choices and experience multiple endings, is also significant. This is because fans can embed their own experiences into content through decisions and actions, rather than just being passive viewers.

Competition to capture user attention amid overflowing content is becoming increasingly fierce. Now, we have entered an era where the kind of experience provided matters more than how well something is made. The ability to design enjoyable and meaningful experiences that encourage people to stay, act, and communicate will determine the success of content. From simply watching and listening to "doing," from storytelling to "story-living."

Song Jin, Director of Content Industry Policy Research Center, Korea Creative Content Agency

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.