The geeks are back in town

The famous ‘tron guy’ Jay Maynard – image from here

I’m a geek. A big one. I play computer games, read comics and often find myself slavering over the latest technology like Gollum over the One Ring. That used to mean I was in a minority, but no more. Geeks have gone mainstream.

The big blockbuster movies? They’re all about comic book superheroes or based on fantasy novels. The highest-rated (and funniest!) shows on TV? Check out the Big Bang Theory, whose characters are uber-nerds to the Nth degree.

Some even suggest that geekery (Geekism? Geekishness?) has now gone so far into the mainstream that it’s not even right to consider it ‘geeky’ anymore (check out this article in Wired, where US comedian Patton Oswalt argues that it’s gone too far).

Geeks are certainly not all the dateless wonders you see on TV and film, but enough of us are to ensure there’s quite a lot of geek cash out there that’s not getting spent on wives and girlfriends (or boyfriends, for that matter).

New tech will always appeal to the geek market, but if you’re a marketer for any brand you might want to seriously consider how to get us geeks, nerds and fanboys to buy your products. We’re here, we have money to spend and we’re not going anywhere.

(Unless Tron: Legacy is on in 3D down the road, in which case we’ll all be there).