In late 2025, a show launched that hardly anyone had on their radar: Heated Rivalry – a Canadian production about two queer ice hockey players and their years-long, secret relationship. It sounds niche, but it’s quite the opposite. The series quickly became a global breakout hit. What can we learn from this about the immense appeal of entertainment formats – about how they create community and the roles they play in consumers’ lives?
The story begins in 2019 with Rachel Reid’s novel Heated Rivalry from the Game Changers book series: an explicit queer romance set in the ice hockey world. Over the years, a loyal fan base formed around the book on TikTok. When director Jacob Tierney set out to adapt the material, studios rejected it or demanded radical changes: less sex, a different tone, a softened storyline. He refused. It wasn’t until 2025 that this low-budget series was produced without compromise by a Canadian production company.
The result is an emotionally gripping story about two professional ice hockey players – Shane Hollander (played by Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) – whose public rivalry on the ice masks their long-standing, secret and deeply passionate relationship. There is intimacy, real emotional depth, and no sanitization. And that’s exactly why it works. Viewers find what is often missing from the mainstream: relationships on equal footing, vulnerability without machismo, and desire without rigid gender roles.
There was hardly any traditional marketing. HBO Max secured the U.S. rights only weeks before launch – after the show had already generated massive organic buzz on social media. Much of that momentum came from fan edits on TikTok: 30- to 90-second mini-montages, precisely cut, emotional, entertaining, and addictive. User-generated content is virtually endless. Today, the official Heated Rivalry TikTok account has 1.5 million followers and nearly 56 million likes.
This is how fandom ecosystems emerge. The series itself is just the spark. What follows on YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, and fan-fiction platforms is the real cultural life cycle – and the infrastructure in which brands can participate.
The new role of entertainment
Television used to function very differently. Everyone watched at the same time, and the next morning people talked about it – at school, at work, at practice. These shared moments created connection. Today, everyone watches on their own schedule. The collective experience is gone. As a result, viewers actively seek digital spaces where they can find like-minded people. A series alone is no longer enough; community emerges in everything around it.
Entertainment has quietly taken on the role once filled by other institutions. Identity used to be shaped through youth culture, fashion, or music. Today, it is shaped through fandoms – weekly episode drops, watch parties, and fan events. Collective narratives were once built around major sporting events or casting shows. Today, franchise universes like Star Wars, Stranger Things, or Bridgerton provide that connective tissue. The underlying needs haven’t changed, only the way they are fulfilled.
What this means for brands
Brands that understand entertainment franchises as infrastructure don’t ask if they should participate, but how. And there are viable entry points for every budget.
Advertising in the right context: Classic video and display ads are the obvious starting point. It becomes far more interesting when visuals and copy tap directly into the cultural moment. If TikTok is dominated by conversations around a specific episode, brands can enter that exact space – quickly, flexibly, and with manageable budgets. Canada Dry, for example, Shane Hollander’s preferred ginger ale brand, frequently comments on Heated Rivalry reels. This approach requires media teams to recognize cultural windows in real time and creative approvals to happen fast.
Targeting across platforms: Fans don’t stay confined to a streaming platform. They move fluidly across social networks. There, they can be reached with interest-based messaging. Travel brands can target fans interested in filming locations – Ontario Tourism actively promotes trips to the show’s shooting sites. Dating apps can reference themes like “relationships on equal footing,” either directly or indirectly.
Creator partnerships with real fans: Many fan-edit videos with millions of views are created out of genuine passion, not financial incentive. These creators understand exactly what resonates emotionally within the community. Brands benefit from their authenticity and credibility, often at lower cost and with greater impact than traditional influencer marketing.
Watch parties and community events: Official franchise partnerships are often expensive and inaccessible for many brands. Community-driven events, however, work without licenses: watch parties in bars, collaborations with bookstores, fan-fiction readings. Budgets remain manageable, execution is local, and the result signals genuine cultural understanding. The key is not to frame these initiatives as advertising activations, but as real contributions to the community. Audiences can tell the difference.
Indirect approaches instead of expensive product placements: Product placements require time, scale, and significant investment – unrealistic for many non-global brands. Indirect approaches are more flexible. Products that naturally fit a series’ universe can be positioned in a way that makes the connection obvious, without direct licensing or explicit mention. Fans understand the reference regardless.
What really works
Ultimately, only one question matters: does the brand enrich the community, or does it disturb it? That requires restraint and a willingness to invest in initiatives whose success cannot be measured through immediate sales. Over time, however, this is how brands build lasting relationships with highly loyal communities.
Cultural moments demand decision-making in days, not weeks. Miss the window, and the conversation has already moved on. Working with fan creators requires teams that genuinely speak their language and understand what is happening within the community at any given moment. Community spaces cannot be controlled – they can only be supported, observed, and learned from.
And most importantly: strategy, media, and creative must work together. Simultaneously. In real time. Not sequentially. Not in silos.