The National Football League (NFL) was already the richest in the world, but the arrival of singer Taylor Swift in its landscape, in a relationship with a star player from Kansas City, offered it a marketing boost on which it has already capitalized.
Since September 24, the artist has appeared 12 times at games for her companion, the tight end (tight end) of the Kansas City Chiefs, Travis Kelce, who is playing the Super Bowl, the championship final, on Sunday in Las Vegas, against the San Francisco 49ers.
Taylor Swift never spoke there, never gave an interview, and the broadcasters only showed her, on average, less than 30 seconds per match on screen, rarely mentioning her. But the interaction has already been enough to produce palpable effects on the NFL’s accounts.
“The easiest way to measure it is social media engagement,” says Joe Favorito, a consultant and professor at Columbia University.
The emergence of the most popular singer of the moment offered, to the NFL in general and to the Chiefs in particular, additional media exposure which is equivalent to “millions” of dollars in advertising, for the sports marketing specialist.
According to the specialized sites Semrush and Similarweb, the official Chiefs website has seen its traffic jump by more than 40% since September.
And even if it is not possible to formally establish a causal link, Kansas City broke an audience record for its first playoff game at the end of January.
“New audience”
“If the audience increases, so do the sales of advertising space,” recalls Ashley Brantman, co-head of the sponsorship consultancy agency Jack 39.
“It attracts a new audience,” she continues, notably “the ‘Swifties’,” admirers of Taylor Swift, “to see Taylor’s boyfriend, but also what she’s wearing and who’s in the dressing room with her.”
A sign that the NFL is not losing anything from the sequence, it has just signed a partnership a few days ago with designer Kristin Juszczyk, best known until now for being the wife of San Francisco 49ers player Kyle Juszczyk.
Her popularity skyrocketed after she designed a down jacket for Taylor Swift reminiscent of Travis Kelce’s jersey, which the singer wore during a match.
The 29-year-old designer will design a clothing line with a more stylish fashion than traditional jerseys or caps and thus expand the offer of NFL merchandise to other audiences.
“I was one of those who thought that the NFL could not continue to grow,” admits Ashley Brantman, about the championship which brought together some 115 million viewers at the last Super Bowl, an absolute record for all programs combined.
“But I think this [Taylor Swift] has just shown that there is still a consumer to attract,” argues Ashley Brantman. “A new group of fans has entered the ecosystem, especially women, including young people. »
“It connected Taylor fans and NFL fans, in a way,” NFL director Roger Goodell enthused at the end of November. “It’s great for the league to have this attention. »
The bets are open
The romance between the singer with 14 Grammys and the player with two championship rings also plays out outside the United States for an NFL that has dreamed of expansion for decades.
“It certainly opened doors for the team and for the league, more abroad than in the United States,” according to Joe Favorito, particularly “with fans who knew nothing about the NFL or had some knowledge of it limited”.
Another population attracted by the phenomenon, punters, for whom specialized sites have rolled out the red carpet.
They offered to place money on dozens of possibilities during Sunday’s game, from the color of Taylor Swift’s lipstick to whether she ate a hot dog.
The star has to rush back from Tokyo after a final concert in Japan on Saturday to attend the match.
“This Super Bowl will bring in the most bets since our creation,” 25 years ago, Adam Burns, from the BetOnline.ag site, told AFP.
” The rise in power [naturelle] of the NFL plays a lot, but there’s no doubt that Swift contributed too.
There remains the risk of seeing pure American football aficionados turn away from their sport, tired of its “peopolization”.
“No one is going to skip the Super Bowl because of Taylor Swift,” Joe Favorito wants to believe. “At this point, everyone has accepted it. »