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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.