NEW YORK.- The American football league was already the richest in the world, but the arrival of the singer Taylor Swift to their stadiums to cheer on their partner, a star player from Kansas City, has given them an unprecedented publicity boost.
Since September 24, the artist has been in the stands to cheer on her boyfriend Travis Kelce, a star player for the Kansas City Chiefs, who will play in Las Vegas on Sunday in the Super Bowlthe championship final against the San Francisco 49ers.
Swift has never spoken or given an interview, television networks have shown her on average less than 30 seconds per game and rarely mentioned her, but her mere presence has been enough to produce palpable effects in the accounts of the National Football League ( NFL).
“The easiest way to measure it is on social media,” explains Joe Favorito, consultant and professor at Columbia University.
The emergence of the most popular singer of the moment has given the NFL in general, and the Chiefs in particular, additional media exposure that is equivalent to “millions” of dollars of advertising, according to the sports marketing specialist.
According to the specialized portals Semrush and Similarweb, visits to the Chiefs’ official website have grown by 40% since September.
And although it is not possible to formally establish a cause-and-effect relationship, Kansas City’s first playoff game in late January registered a record audience.
The Taylor Swift effect is a fact:
“If ratings go up, so do advertising sales,” says Ashley Brantman, co-director of sponsorship consultancy Jack 39.
“It brings a new audience,” especially “to the ‘Swifties,'” Taylor Swift’s fan club, “to see Taylor’s boyfriend, but also what she’s wearing,” he says.
In a sign that the NFL is keeping up, it recently signed a collaboration deal with designer Kristin Juszczyk, best known until now as the wife of 49ers player Kyle Juszczyk.
His stock skyrocketed after he designed a down jacket for Swift that was reminiscent of the Kelce jersey the singer wore to a game.
The 29-year-old designer will create a clothing line with a more fashionable style than traditional t-shirts and caps, thus expanding the NFL’s merchandising offering to other audiences.
“I used to be one of those people who thought the NFL couldn’t keep growing,” admits Ashley Brantman, referring to the league that attracted some 115 million viewers in the last Super Bowl, an all-time record.
But Swift just demonstrated that “a new group of fans, mostly women, has entered the ecosystem,” he says.
“In a way, it’s connected Taylor fans to NFL fans,” enthused NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in late November.
Source: AFP
