The effects of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift’s rumored relationship on NFL broadcasts have been, well… Swift. And advertisers are ready for it.
With the global popstar attending her second game in a row to watch Kansas City Chiefs star (and rumored new boo) Travis Kelce, NBC’s recent Sunday Night Football broadcast was filled with a bevy of Swift and Kelce-related ads and promos, including a Swift Capital One commercial, a Pfizer ad featuring Kelce and even a spot for The Voice where host Carson Daly used so many Swift puns that viewers might’ve said, “You Need to Calm Down.”
But despite the overindexing in Swift/Kelce representation, the move paid off big for marketers.
Fox’s Week 3 matchup between the Chiefs and the Chicago Bears, the first game Swift attended to watch Kelce, brought in 24.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched telecast of the week. NBC’s Sunday Night Football broadcast during Week 4 brought in an even bigger audience for the Chiefs vs. New York Jets, and that’s not even counting Swift’s famous friends, such as Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, who also attended.
According to Nielsen, the Sunday Night Football broadcast reached 24.83 million viewers on NBC alone and a 12.9 household rating.
When including Peacock, NBC said the program reached an average of 27 million viewers—up 22% from last year’s Week 4 game, also featuring the Chiefs—and peaked at 29.4 million viewers. The network said the game was the most-watched Sunday show since Super Bowl LVII on Fox in February.
NBC noted in a statement that Nielsen Fast National figures (not including out of home metrics) showed viewership among teen girls (12-17) spiked 53% over the season-to-date average of Sunday Night Football, while women 18-24 was up 24% and women 35+ increased 34%. Overall, there was a viewership increase of more than two million female viewers.
Meanwhile, Samba TV found that 18.2M U.S. households watched NBC/Peacock during the L+0D window (live or on the same day), exceeding any other SNF broadcast this season by more than 2 million household tune-ins.
Beyond audience growth, this “Swift Effect” also boosts ad engagement.
TV Advertising (Taylor’s Version)
Even before Swift “put Kelce on the map,” as TikTok memes say, Travis Kelce was already a prolific “Overly Direct” spokesperson for DirecTV, Nike, State Farm, McDonald’s and more. But, according to measurement platform EDO, Kelce’s ad effectiveness is getting an additional boost since the rumored relationship with Swift went public on Sept. 24, the date of the Bears vs. Chiefs game.
The Swift Effect is real.
—Kevin Krim, CEO, EDO
EDO reports that a Pfizer creative featuring Travis Kelce, which also aired Sunday, was already 27% more effective at driving engagement for Pfizer than Pfizer ads not featuring Travis Kelce. But after Swift attended the Chiefs and Bears game, viewers who saw the creative were 32% more likely to engage with Pfizer online.
Meanwhile, ad effectiveness for Campbell’s ads featuring Kelce was up 4% after vs. before Swift attended the game.
“The Swift Effect is real. Taylor Swift’s high-profile appearances at recent Chiefs games have been a boon for network ratings and for advertisers—bringing an entirely new audience to the NFL,” Kevin Krim, CEO of EDO, told Adweek in a statement. “Brands that have featured Chiefs star Travis Kelce in ads, such as Pfizer and Campbell’s, are also reaping the benefits of this newfound relationship.”
Besides ad engagement, Kelce jersey sales are up 400% since the Swift news broke, and the NFL star has added more than 1 million followers on Instagram. According to Business Insider, Kelce could double his current sponsorship deal intake from around $5 million to $10 million.
And the effects are still ongoing.
Social Style
Measurement and analytics company Comscore told Adweek the Traylor (Travis+Taylor) relationship has transformed social metrics for the NFL.
According to Comscore, posts in the last 30 days that mentioned both Taylor Swift and the NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs or football in general generated 34.9 million actions and 687 million video views across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter). Additionally, the NFL has been the top page for overall engagement on posts mentioning Taylor Swift, with 12.2 million actions and 92.6 million video views across those social platforms.
Over 10% of engagement on all posts mentioning Taylor Swift have been on the NFL’s owned pages.
The ‘Swift Effect’ Forever and Always
Though it’s unknown if Swift is attending Kelce’s next game in Minnesota, which is being broadcast on CBS, a source familiar with the network’s ad sales told Adweek that “Taylor Swift has added even further to the previously very high interest in the NFL.”
And even if Kelce and Swift’s relationship fizzles out, experts told Adweek the sports marketing Love Story will continue.
“The impact has already been a game-changer for the sports advertising industry,” Rob DeSalvo, CRO at Undertone, by Perion, told Adweek. “While fans hope the relationship won’t ‘go down in flames,’ the attention received from this will continue to serve as a case study for ad strategies to come.”
