Just when you think you have heard enough about the budding relationship between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, there is a new story line. Travis Kelce says the NFL is “overdoing it” in promoting his relationship with Taylor Swift and celebrities are not attending games to be thrown on TV.
We are quite familiar by now with sports leagues and TV networks showing famous attending sporting event and I’m not so sure the celebrities themselves don’t enjoy this exposure. I have written previously that it was my view that Taylor Swift, the master marketer, orchestrated every aspect of this apparent courtship with Travis Kelce as one element of her continuous brand building strategy.
While promoting celebrities at games is a relatively new strategy for the NFL, the NBA has for years showcased celebrities watching court-side at NBA games. It started with the Lakers and “Showtime” where Jack Nicholson, Dyan Cannon and other notable celebrities were featured watching the game from their seats on the floor. In recent times you’ll see the likes of Beyonce, Jay-Z and Drake occupying those front row seats in camera view. There is no question the celebrity factor increases fan interest and in turn TV ratings.
The other factor at work here is our culture’s infatuation with celebrity relationships. It becomes even more intriguing when it combines the biggest star in entertainment with a football hero, representing the ultimate convergence of sports and entertainment.
By hitching their wagon to the hottest act in the entertainment business, Taylor Swift, the NFL is upping its celebrity game and the numbers don’t lie. 2 Million additional female fans (presumably “Swifties”) tuned into the Chiefs-Jets game on Sunday night and the audience grew to 27 Million. TikTok has gone viral with Swifties chiding their boyfriends that Swift put Kelce on the map and their boyfriends firing back that Kelce was already on the map with 2 Super Bowl rings and one of the NFL’s great tight ends of all time.
Viewers could not help notice that the NFL has been shameless in running numerous Kelce commercials during the broadcast and continually turning its cameras on the box where Taylor Swift and her celebrities friends like Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds where watching alongside her. Kelce’s courtship of Swift was even endorsed by NFL TV reporters Erin Andrews and her podcast co-host Charissa Thompson. They reached out to Swift and vouched for Kelce’s character as he pursued her.
The Taylor Swift bounce is undeniable. Kelce’s jersey sales are up a cool 400% since he was linked to Swift and he has gained a whopping 1.3M followers across social media. Kelce media exposure has exploded with all of his past commercials immediately recycled along with numerous other new opportunities. Athletes and entertainers are now becoming media companies unto themselves and Taylor Swift has built a juggernaut of an engine. That engine has the power to dramatically amplify exposure for everything it directs its attention to— in this case Travis Kelce and the NFL.
The NFL might be late to the party but they are milking it for what it’s worth. And the greatest beneficiary of this is Travis Kelce. As Shakespeare says: he “doth protest too much” because we all know deep down inside he is loving every minute of this.
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