What Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce can teach marketers

Amid all the cheering, canoodling and Instagram flirting, the global popstar’s high-wattage romance with Super Bowl champion Travis Kelce has some useful insights and takeaways for brands. The Swift crossover gives NFL sport marketers an opportunity to attract new fans with different motivations. A good example is when the NFL changed its X bio to ‘NFL (Taylor’s version)’ — a nod to Swiftie in-group identity and humour. New fans who are drawn in by such appeals may become more serious about the sport later.

What happens when you unite the biggest pop star in the world and a two-time Super Bowl champion? A whole lot of excitement, as the romance of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce has shown. But amid all the cheering, canoodling and Instagram flirting, the situation lends some useful insights into marketing. Here are five lessons that experiential marketers can consider:

Embrace audience expansion

Swift has given the NFL a unique opportunity to expand its appeal to a demographic — young women — that may not have been interested in American football before. Swifties, as Swift’s fans are known, are eager to see the pop icon embrace being in love. So whenever she visits a stadium to cheer on Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Kelce, a media frenzy follows.

While serious football fans want the focus to stay on football, the NFL is smart enough to capitalise on this opportunity. After all, Swift is a mega-popular star: She has more charted songs (212), top-10 hits (42) and No. 1 song debuts (five) on the Billboard Top 100 than any other female musician in history.

The Chiefs remain known for their winning ways and star power, and they’re still drawing — and satisfying — their traditional fans. Yet, Swift’s presence has brought a more playful tone to the games. The ordinarily serious Chiefs coach Andy Reid has taken to joking about the pair (“I set them up”), while memes about Swift having to leave the stadium in a popcorn machine are a next-level combination of participatory pop culture, celebrity and sports.

Audience expansion is an effective tactic for businesses, as long as marketers don’t alienate old fans by opening up to new ones. And so far, this is paying off for the NFL: Ratings soar when Swift attends a game and Kelce jersey sales have also skyrocketed. This new interest in the sport is welcome, especially since NFL television ratings among 18- to 35-year-olds had previously shown some decline.

Capitalise on fans’ motivations

An entertainment or sports marketer’s wildest dream is to be able to bring in all sorts of fans and deliver on their personal reasons for being there. That’s why marketers are wise to think about ‘psychographics’ in addition to demographic appeals. This means that instead of just segmenting audiences by demographic — such as younger women or college students — marketers tailor their appeals to lifestyles, interests, activities and the way consumers think.

The Swift crossover gives NFL sport marketers an opportunity to attract new fans with different motivations. A good example is when the NFL changed its X bio to ‘NFL (Taylor’s version)’ — a nod to Swiftie in-group identity and humour. New fans who are drawn in by such appeals may become more serious about the sport later.

Let consumers feel like they belong

The NFL and the Chiefs now have a unique opportunity to leverage sudden interest from a group of people not known for being fans. But to convert them into regular viewers, they’ll need to make sure the newcomers feel a sense of belonging.

A subtle example of this sort of outreach happened when the Chiefs used social media to welcome Swift — and by extension, her loyal fans — to ‘Chiefs Kingdom’. Similarly, the league has also made it abundantly clear that Swifties are welcome in the stands, even if a small yet loud cohort of NFL fans would rather they stay away. This open-mindedness is good for business.

Leverage human co–branding

In this age of social media, human branding has never been more important. Having a strong personal brand is associated with more endorsements, Google searches, merchandise sales and ticket sales. So, Swift and Kelce are reaping the benefits of human co-branding.

Don’t just think locally

A final insight for brands and marketers is to not be constrained by geography. With digital commerce and social media, researchers have become increasingly interested in ‘faraway fans’ who travel long distances to events.

The Swift-Kelce relationship and the NFL’s highlighting of it is one example of why it is important not to be hemmed in by geography. As one cardboard sign at a Chiefs game in Kansas City in December 2023 proclaimed, “I travelled here to see Taylor Swift!”

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