The world exploded over the weekend as Taylor Swift was very publicly seen at the Kansas City Chiefs V Chicago Bears NFL match.
Now Taylor attending the match alone would have been headline triggering enough, but what really set the fire burning was that we all essentially got to watch her on a date with Tight End Travis Kelce.
There have been rumors brewing that these two were speaking, but up until this point it was lacking credibility. The narrative or media around Taylor marries her off to any man she even looks in the direction of. But this was the proof. There she was, sat next to his mother in a box having the time of her life!
So why does this matter? Why should a lowly PR bod like myself be writing about this?
Within the US Google Trends shows that searches for ‘travis kelce’ up 913% in the past month with around 376K searches taking place just this week. Within the UK searches have shown a similar trend for ‘travis kelce’ being 672% in the past month. The Daily Mail reported that Travis Kelce jerseys have spiked a 400% in sales – at $175 each. Every single major outlet has been hammering out multiple stories a day, painting their own narrative, based on a few small interactions we were all privy to. Not only is this news, but this shows the power of love.
Some cynics are claiming this as a PR stunt, but truly I don’t think it is. Taylor simply does not need the attention and Travis is a catch, if you pardon the pun. The powerhouse that is Taylor Swift has been dominating on an international scale, heck, even universal, there are probably aliens knocking about singing New Romantics.
People are up in arms claiming she’s stealing the show and shunning her for daring to attend a football match. Critics are angry that a female popstar dared to enter the world of sport and have a goodtime whilst doing so. Even debate in the Hatch office has been sparked from both genders about her intentions and in some cases even relegating her to using him for her next album. Points have been made about how her stealing the attention is unfair on him, despite women being relegated to ‘girlfriend and wife of XYZ’ for years regardless of their own prowess for years.
Regardless of your opinion, what can’t be denied is the opportunity here for brands and the NFL.
After years of secret relationships people are EATING this up, and as they should, and there lies the golden moment for brands.
The NFL have so much attention on their sport from an audience that they traditionally wouldn’t connect with, teenage girls. They’ve switched up their social channels away from the hard sporting clips to interviews with Travis, TikTok trends and more digestible content that can be consumed by those unfamiliar with the sport. Now, they need to be careful they don’t isolate their core audience with this, with fans outraged the official NFL account changing their bio to ‘Taylor was here’, but they have a huge chance to grow their legacy, they just have to make sure they retain it at the same time.
In terms of the brands there can only be one winner here.. Quick to jump on the trend in an incredible way was KidSuper Studios, who were the lucky brand Travis wore on his way to the stadium that day. They renamed the outfit from ‘Bedroom Painting’ to ‘1989 Bedroom Painting’ paying homage to Taylors album as soon as he was snapped wearing it.
It’s always a fine line trying to play to the Swifties interests as they smell blood quicker than a shark. However, this one went down well with the jacket now sold out in all sizes and the pants nearly all gone too.
Now is the time for brands to look for (somewhat) genuine connections to Taylor, Travis and even their fledgling relationship to capitalise on the attention and excitement us Swifties are feeling.
This is our Superbowl, and it will never go out of style.
