By ADMIN FC The NFL and associated brands have prospered from the pop star’s attendance at games.
Taylor Swift’s attendance at her first Kansas City Chiefs game on September 24 spawned an unexpected viewership surge among her fans, known as Swifties, and American football buffs.
The “Taylor Swift effect”, which has bestowed the singer with an economic Midas touch, propelling her to the position of one of the world’s highest-earning entertainers, seemed to take on a new life when she and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce started dating six months ago.
Sunday is Super Bowl LVIII, and there will probably be as many Swifties coming to catch a glimpse of Swift as sports fans coming to watch the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers play at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
What is the Taylor Swift effect?
Swift has built an economic power house around her music career. She is wildly popular with a huge fan base, and this has helped build a pseudo-influencer market known as the Taylor Swift effect.
This has not only boosted Swift’s brand value but has also helped bring new fans to the National Football League (NFL) , especially women and girls. Some experts have labelled this newfound fandom the “Swift bump”. This has led to a 20 percent increase in sponsorships. The NFL’s surge in female viewership cuts across different age demographics. Among teenage girls, NFL viewership has increased by 53 percent. Among the 18-24 age demographic, there has been an increase of 24 percent.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell welcomed the surge during a news conference before the Super Bowl. “Obviously, it creates a buzz,” he said. “It creates another group of young fans, particularly young women, that are interested in seeing why is she going to this game, why is she interested in this game besides Travis. She is a football fan.”
Even without the additional female fans, overall viewer numbers are up. According to NBC Sports, the game in which the Chiefs took on the New York Jets in October attracted 27 million people across all platforms, the highest number since February 2023’s Super Bowl LVII, which the Chiefs won.
How much has NFL revenue increased?
According to Apex Marketing, Swift has effectively generated an additional $331.5m in brand value for the Chiefs and NFL.
However, it’s not only the NFL that is profiting from the Taylor Swift effect. Those brands associated with Swift are also benefitting from her influence. Even the San Francisco 49ers are prospering.
Kristin Juszczyk, wife of 49ers’ fullback Kyle Juszczyk, designed a “Kelce jacket” for Swift that gained a huge amount of attention after Swift was spotted in January wearing the jacket, which resembles the Chiefs jersey of her beau.
According to Fanatics, an American manufacturer and online retailer of licensed sportswear, Kelce merchandise saw a 400 percent increase in sales after the first Chiefs game Swift attended.