“Travis’s inclusion in this iconic commercial further solidifies his status as a pop culture figure beyond football, showcasing his versatility and appeal to a wide audience,” said Melissa Duhaime, PepsiCo’s director of sports marketing.
Meanwhile, Lowe’s first introduced Kelce as a member of its Lowe’s Home Team in 2021 alongside fellow NFL stars Christian McCaffrey and Kelvin Beachum to help prod homeowners into home improvement projects. As Kelce’s public profile increased, the brand gave him more room to ad-lib in his segments; it also invested in his New Heights podcast before the NFL Draft in Kansas City in 2023. Kelce’s Super Bowl 58 appearance then allowed Lowe’s to use his likeness for its Super Bowl Deal Days promotions.
Once the brand that was responsible for Kelce’s first seven-figure endorsement deal, according to Eanes, Lowe’s has also followed Kelce from making home improvements to helping contractors work on his multiple houses.
“It is a metaphor for the lifecycle journey of our customer,” said Jennifer Wilson, CMO of Lowe’s. “Travis is intended to embody our customer, and they may start off as renters or first-time homeowners, where they’re buying smaller things along the way, and then they might take on a big project, then they might move into their second home, or buy a second or third home, and that relationship matures and grows.”
It’s helped that Lowe’s, like Pepsi, is a friend of the family. Lowe’s first signed on as an NFL sponsor in 2019 and knows its way around football players at various points in their professional careers—adding the Houston Texans’ C.J. Stroud and the New England Patriots’ Drake Maye to their Home Team this year. Also, like Pepsi, the company knows how to make time for increasingly popular athletes when they have less of it to give.
“For Lowe’s and Pepsi, as an NFL player, you still want to respect the brands that respect you and the league,” Eanes said. “Lowe’s and Pepsi are brands that have amazing teams that work with them and have amazing people within those organizations that have basically bent over backward to make sure that Travis can be in their campaigns, make it easy for him, and also genuinely fill a need.”
Knowing your teammates
Kelce and Eanes’ more personalized approach to partnerships means there’s still room in the huddle for brands willing to get to know them better.
As the director of brand experience and morning foods for General Mills, part of Mindy Murray’s job—and that of her teammates and agency partners—is to know how much people are obsessing about Count Chocula and Cookie Crisp, among other brands.
Back in December, when Kelce and his brother ranked their favorite cereals on the podcast and included Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Reese’s Puffs in their Top 3, Murray’s team made some calls and had a pitch for the Kelces: How would you like your own cereal?