Celebrity appearances have become a staple of Super Bowl ads, and more teams in football and other sports may be looking at the ‘Taylor Swift effect’ on the Kansas City Chiefs as inspiration for partnerships with non-sports celebrities, says Eun Kang, Ph.D., associate professor of Marketing at Bryant University.
Apex Marketing Group recently estimated that Swift had produced more than $331 million in brand value for the Chiefs in one five-month period alone since she began dating the team’s top tight end, Travis Kelce, in the summer of 2023. The figure included the value of digital content, online news, and social media.
“It’s a really good synergy,” says Kang, who designed and is now teaching Bryant’s new Sports Marketing class. “Now, younger generations are more likely to watch the Super Bowl and, because of her, they are more likely to cheer for the team. At the same time, Chiefs fans are more likely to support her music, as well.”
For the Chiefs, the impact is a pleasant byproduct of their player’s very visible romantic relationship with one of the biggest pop music stars in the world; however, it also demonstrates the potential for more transactional relationships between teams and celebrities.
“They’re all in the same arena now,” says Kang, pointing to the increasingly blurry lines between sports stars and entertainment celebrities, all of whom are now highly engaged in building their personal brands.
“We are competing with all possible types of entertainment – concerts, festivals, plays, and movies. Sometimes we see sports as one field and entertainment as another, but it's ... all blurred.”
“The younger generation is more likely to attach to celebrities compared to older generations,” Kang adds. “When I studied advertising many years ago, a big distinction between Asian and American culture was that Asian culture used lots of celebrities in marketing products. When I first came to the U.S., I didn't really see many celebrities. Now I see a lot of big figures in commercials, in football and the Super Bowl in particular, but sports advertising in general.”
In class, Kang stresses to her sports marketing students that they won’t just be jousting with other sports teams for fans or ticket sales after graduation.
“We are competing with all possible types of entertainment – concerts, festivals, plays, and movies,” she says. “We are fighting for consumers’ time and money. Sometimes we see sports as one field and entertainment as another, but it's not like that these days. It's all blurred.”
Links between sports teams and non-sports celebrities are not new. In baseball, inviting celebrities to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at games is a longstanding tradition, for example, and the halftime musical performance at the Super Bowl has become a singular media event.
Explicit endorsements have been rarer, but Kang says that may soon change.
“Athletes really are celebrities now, especially through social media accounts where they disclose their personal life and make direct connections to fans."
“Athletes really are celebrities now, especially through social media accounts where they disclose their personal life and make direct connections to fans,” she says.
Of course, teams need to be careful to vet potential celebrity sponsors, not only for troublesome activities in their personal lives, but for their sports bona fides, Kang says.
“Authenticity and fit between the two entities are very important aspects for sports sponsorships,” she says. “Even though there is a little bit more of a blurred line, we have to remember that the celebrity is representing the team. Does that person even know about the team, or the sport, or truly support the team? Sports fans all think they’re experts, so they’ll know if the relationship is not authentic.”
