C A L V I N   I N N E S

Site Navigation — Centred, Editable, Functional Mobile Menu + Dropdowns
Let’s Talk

Consulting and training

Fandom strategy for brands, agencies and IP owners.

I help you work out where real fandom already exists around your brand, whether those communities want you anywhere near them, and what to do about it.

Just need one answer? Book a single hour for £950

Calvin Innes speaking on stage
25 yrsin brand and creative
300+brands worked on
70+keynotes and workshops
30+countries
Authorof Fandom Power

TEDx speaker. Cannes Lions and D&AD juror. Golden Drum Jury President. And a lifetime inside these communities rather than a career studying them from outside. Sneakerhead, ex-skater, gamer, lifelong comics and film nerd.

Fandom Fluency training

Fandom Training to Upskill Teams & Organisations

I teach your team how fan communities actually work, then we run something you're really working on through it, live.

Half day

The Session

£6,500plus VAT

3.5 hours, up to 15 people

Best for
A team that needs to get on the same page quickly, or a leadership group.
Includes
The core thinking, taught with examples from your category, then one live check on something you're about to launch.
You leave with
A workbook for everyone in the room, and a clear read on one piece of your own work.
Enquire about a half day
Full dayRecommended

The Workshop

£12,000plus VAT

Full day, up to 25 people

Best for
A team that needs to leave with decisions rather than notes.
Includes
Everything in the half day, plus a map of your category prepared in advance and working sessions on two live projects.
You leave with
The workbook, plus a written summary of what the room decided and who's doing what.
Enquire about a full day

In person across the UK and Europe, or online. Travel and accommodation at cost. Most workshops land six to eight weeks out.

Pick a topic, or I'll build one

Tap a topic for the full outline.

Workshop topic

Limited Editions

Limited editions fail in a specific way. The scarcity is real on the spreadsheet and fake to the community, and people can tell the difference in about a minute. We look at what makes a drop feel earned rather than manufactured, how scarcity reads differently to collectors, resellers and ordinary buyers, and why a resale market is a signal worth reading rather than a problem to stamp out.

Examples come from sneakers, beauty, food and collectibles, including several that got taken apart publicly. Then we put your own product calendar on the table and work out which launches deserve this treatment and which would do better as a normal release.

What you leave with

  • A test for whether a drop is earned or just constrained supply
  • How to size and price a run without handing it to resellers
  • A view on which of your upcoming launches should never be a limited edition
Enquire about this topic

Runs as a half day or a full day.

Workshop topic

Partnerships and IP

Most collaborations are chosen on reach and signed on availability. Neither of those predicts whether the community accepts it. We cover how to read a potential partner's fandom before you commit, the difference between borrowing an IP and being trusted with it, what licensors actually enforce once the deal is done, and the specific tells that get a collaboration called lazy within an hour of going live.

We look at partnerships that worked and several that didn't, then run one of your live or proposed deals through the same process in the room.

What you leave with

  • A way to assess a partner's fandom before anything gets signed
  • The things that make a collaboration read as believable rather than bought
  • A straight read on the deal you brought into the room
Enquire about this topic

Runs as a half day or a full day.

Workshop topic

Building Community

Every brand says it wants a community. Most mean they want an audience that engages, which is a different thing and a much cheaper one. Communities have internal status, their own language, and people who will defend you when you're not in the room.

We cover what makes people turn up rather than watch, why most brand-owned communities go quiet around month four, the role of ritual and repetition, and the uncomfortable question of whether you should be building one at all or earning a place in somebody else's. Then we look at where your existing audience is already behaving like a community without anyone having planned it.

What you leave with

  • An honest read on whether you have an audience or a community
  • The conditions that make people turn up more than once
  • Where to start, and just as usefully, what to stop doing
Enquire about this topic

Runs as a half day or a full day.

Workshop topic

Fandom Fundamentals

The foundation session. What fandom actually is, why it behaves differently from an audience, and how it became one of the most commercially significant forces in culture.

We cover the psychology underneath it, identity, belonging, status, ritual and participation, how communities form and police themselves, and why treating fandom as a demographic keeps producing work that gets ignored. Examples come from gaming, sport, music, beauty and food, deliberately not just comics. This is the one to book when the team needs a shared language before it can make decisions together.

What you leave with

  • A shared vocabulary your team can use in briefs and in reviews
  • The forces that drive fan behaviour, and what each one looks like commercially
  • A first read on where your brand sits with the communities nearest to it
Enquire about this topic

Runs as a half day or a full day.

Workshop topic

The Kidult Invasion

Adults buying toys is now one of the largest growth areas in the toy market, and one of the least understood by brands outside it. We cover why collecting went mainstream, what adult collectors want that products designed for children never offer, how nostalgia works commercially and the point at which it stops working.

It runs well beyond toys. The same behaviour drives sneakers, vinyl, trading cards, model kits, and a good deal of beauty and food packaging. We look at what it means for your pricing, your packaging, your retail and the design of the object itself.

What you leave with

  • Why adult collectors buy, and what they're actually paying for
  • How to design something that gets kept and displayed rather than used up
  • Where a nostalgia play is real, and where it's a trap
Enquire about this topic

Runs as a half day or a full day.

Workshop topic

Sport and Esports

Sport is the oldest fandom there is and the one most often handled with the least fandom thinking. We cover the difference between fans of a sport and fans of a team, why player loyalty now travels across clubs and codes, what esports communities expect that traditional sponsors routinely get wrong, and how rights holders, clubs and sponsors each sit differently with the same set of fans.

Then we look at your position specifically. Where you are in that structure, what you're entitled to buy, and what you have to earn.

What you leave with

  • Where your brand sits between rights holder, club and fan
  • Why sponsorship visibility and fandom credibility are different goals
  • What transfers from traditional sport into esports, and what doesn't
Enquire about this topic

Runs as a half day or a full day.

Something else? I'll build a session around your specific needs. Tell me what you need

Dove, Unilever EU

What a session actually produces

Unilever brought me in to run a session on limited editions for Dove, across their EU business.

Limited editions in beauty had been safe and stale for years, scent based and seasonal. The session led to braver thinking: culturally relevant, unexpected partnerships leaning into entertainment, fashion, longevity and food, and a shift towards building the world around a limited edition rather than just the product on shelf.

The workshop was interactive, energising and commercially useful.

Alissa MartensDove Masterbrand Lead EU, Unilever

“Challenged the way we think about brands, communities, and the future of influence.”

The Golden Drum, International Festival of Creativity

Project work

Or bring me onto the project itself

Two weeks to two years. Every project starts with the same question: where does real fandom already exist around you, and does it want you there? The answer is rarely the one people expect.

One decision2 to 3 weeks

A partnership on the table

You've got a deal in front of you and a deadline. I look at what the community will make of it, what it costs you if it lands badly, and what I'd change before you sign.

Best for: brands with a signature hovering over a collaboration.

One campaign4 to 8 weeks

A campaign or PR project

Working alongside an agency team already on the job. Fandom strategy and creative direction, so the work is fluent in the culture rather than decorated with it.

Best for: teams launching into a fandom who can't afford to get it wrong.

One pitchDays to weeks

Agency pitch support

You're pitching into a fandom category and the cultural read has to be right. I work inside the pitch team, on the insight, the community strategy and the details that make a client believe you actually know these people.

Best for: agencies who need senior fandom thinking on tap, at pitch speed.

Work at scale

26
ecosystems European

Finding the opportunities in a category

For a global sportswear brand. Twenty six sports and their communities, mapped to show where the brand could realistically go and how to get in.

22
countries Global, multi-year

Mapping a global fandom ecosystem

For a global motorsport organisation. Built on hundreds of interviews with university and research partners, turned into a data stack the organisation owns and keeps using.

200
IPs UK first, built to travel

Mapping a fandom market

For a global technology platform. Two hundred properties and several hundred fan communities, structured so the same model runs in other markets.

The receipts. Regularly brought in by agencies and brands, including Jung von Matt on the global MINI pitch and Unilever on fandom engagement and limited editions.

  1. 1A thirty minute callI'll tell you straight away whether I can help.
  2. 2A scope and a priceWithin a few days. No fifty page proposal.
  3. 3A start dateAnd we get on with it.
Book a scoping call

Most projects are under NDA, so examples don't name names. Happy to go deeper on a call.

Ongoing counsel

An embedded fandom brain, on retainer

Standing access to senior fandom thinking for your pitches and client work. Two sessions a month plus my inbox in between, so you get an answer in hours rather than waiting for a meeting. Twelve month term.

£3,500per month, plus VAT

Ask about a retainer

Fair questions

Things people ask before they book

Anything else, ask on the scoping call.

Is this another inspiring day that changes nothing?

That's the risk with any training day, and it's a fair thing to ask. Two things stop it happening here. We spend part of the session on work you're actually doing, not hypothetical examples. And the last part is about who owns this internally afterwards and what gets checked before anything is signed off. You leave with a process, not a feeling.

We already have an agency for this.

Good, and keep them. I'm not pitching for their work. Your agency has to believe in the idea they've sold you, which makes them the wrong people to ask whether it'll survive contact with the community. I've got no stake in which way that answer goes.

Can you do this in our market?

Yes. Workshops run across the UK and Europe in person, and anywhere online. Project work has run across 22 countries. If English isn't the working language of the room, tell me early and we'll plan for it.

How far ahead do we need to book?

Workshops usually land six to eight weeks out, because the category work happens before the day rather than on it. I hold a deliberately small number of project slots so the work stays mine rather than being handed on. If your timing is tight, say so on the call and I'll tell you honestly whether it's possible.

What if we only need one answer?

Book a single hour instead. One question, live, for £950 plus VAT. See Book a Session

Where to start

Tell me about your team

Thirty minutes, and you'll leave knowing whether I can help and what it would take.

Book a scoping call Enquire about training

Earlier than that? Get the weekly newsletter

Rather check a collaboration yourself? See Fandom Pre-Flight

Work with CalvinTraining from £6,500. Projects scoped on a call.

Enquire about training Book a scoping call