Last year, the NFL and the Kansas City Chiefs, in particular, learned the power and impact of reaching out to a brand-new demographic. Once the news broke that Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was dating the pop star, the Chiefs almost immediately gained millions of new fans.
Some like to joke that the new ‘Swiftie’ fans weren’t watching the game because they cared about it but because they wanted to see the occasional Taylor Swift fan cam. While there is certainly some truth to this, it makes one wonder how many people became NFL fans after they were exposed to it for the first time.
The Kansas City Chiefs Gained Millions of New Fans
The Kansas City Chiefs were already one of the biggest brands in the NFL last year. The team was the reigning Super Bowl Champions and had one of the most exciting quarterbacks in the game. However, the team was elevated to new heights when Taylor Swift entered the picutre. For some perspective, after the news that Kelce and Swift were dating broke, the TV ratings for Kansas City Chiefs games rose between 9-15% more than before.
That may not sound like a lot, but when you’re looking at numbers like 20 million viewers, an extra 10% is an additional two million viewers. For advertisers, that is a much larger potential audience, opening up a new demographic for them to target.
Hallmark is Teaming Up With the NFL
In a move that nobody would have thought possible just a year ago, Hallmark Channel, the channel known for its chick flicks and cheesy films that sometimes appear to tell the same story with the same actors, just in different roles, has decided to team up with the NFL, particularly the Kansas City Chiefs. While the film is unlikely to feature any actual NFL football players, the film “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story” will begin filming next month and will utilize Arrowhead Stadium, and the name ‘Chiefs’ as part of the movie.
Darren Abbot, Hallmark’s Chief Brand Officer, shared the following about why they decided to go after the Chiefs in particular for this project:
“With Hallmark and the Kansas City Chiefs both homegrown, rooted in values, tradition and community, there is a special alchemy between these two iconic organizations…By blending the warmth of Hallmark storytelling with the excitement of professional football, we are thrilled to give audiences a front-row seat to this community’s spirit, rich traditions and passionate fans that define Kansas City, all wrapped up in the comforting and uplifting Hallmark way.”
In other words, reading between the lines, millions of regular Hallmark viewers are now interested in the NFL and in the Chiefs (Taylor Swift) in particular. Hallmark saw an opportunity to cash in on it, and the NFL saw an opportunity to get the NFL brand in front of new viewers.
The movie will be released as part of Hallmark’s 15th annual Countdown to Christmas event that they have every year. According to Hallmark, more than 50% of the channel’s viewers also watched sports while Countdown to Christmas aired in 2023.
It’s a classical win-win.
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