Brands backing Kansas City Chiefs’ player Travis Kelce, like Pfizer and Campbell’s Soup, are also getting big boosts in engagement from Kelce’s possible relationship with pop star Taylor Swift.
Interest in the NFL star picked up following rumors he was dating Swift, and skyrocketed on Sept. 24, when Swift was seen cheering for the Chiefs alongside Kelce’s mother at Arrowhead Stadium.
This halo effect has also benefited the brands that Kelce endorses, according to EDO, which measures audience engagement by looking at search queries for a company after it airs a TV ad.
Pfizer launched a campaign starring Kelce on Sept. 22 encouraging people to get the updated COVID-19 booster shot. There was a 32% increase in searches about Pfizer when that ad ran after Swift’s Sept. 25 appearance, compared to before.
EDO also found that Pfizer ads with Kelce drove 27% more search activity than Pfizer ads that did not feature him.
Pfizer did not respond to a request for comment.
A Campbell’s Soup ad starring Kelce and his brother and fellow NFL player Jason Kelce, which launched in August, saw a more modest 4% increase in searches, according to EDO’s data.
Marci Raible, VP of integrated marketing at Campbell’s, said that since the Swift-Kelce rumors, the brand has seen a 600% increase in people engaging with its non-paid media, like its website and Instagram posts.
“The interest and recent fan base Travis seems to be building has certainly offered a halo to existing content performance as intrigued consumers seek out any — and all — information about him,” Raible said.
Also, a Kelce-led TV ad from Experian posted on YouTube on Oct. 1 has already received more than 800,000 views, while a Kelce-less Experian TV ad promoting the same product has only accumulated 189,000 views.
Experian did not comment about the campaign.
To be sure, Kelce has long been well-known among NFL fans, and he has appeared in ads for State Farm, DirecTV, and Lowe’s even before he swung into Swift’s orbit.
Kelce’s own social following, where he posts about the brands he endorses, has also increased significantly over the past week. He gained more than half a million Instagram followers between Sept. 25 and 28, according to data from SocialBlade. And sales of his merchandise on Fanatics’ websites spiked by 400% after Swift attended the first game.
Swift’s attendance has also been a boon for broadcasters airing the already-popular NFL games. The Oct. 1 game Swift attended at MetLife Stadium where the Chiefs played the New York Jets averaged 27 million viewers, according to NBCUniversal, up 22% from last year’s Week 4 game.
Read the full article here