Applebee’s joins advertisers hoping a post-Taylor Swift NFL can convert viewers into buyers

Viewing audiences soared during last year’s NFL season. The NFL said it recorded the most-watched playoffs ever (38.5 million viewers, up 9.5% on 2022), the highest-ever average audience for Championship Sunday games (up 11% to 56.1 million), as well as viewership increases for its Wild Card Round (up 8% to 31.2 million) and Divisional Round (up 7% to 40 million).

Crucially, the number of young women watching the NFL rose at the same time — a phenomenon attributed at least in part to the frequent presence of Swift at Kansas City Chiefs games. (For those who’ve been stuck on desert islands this past year, she’s been dating Chiefs player Travis Kelce.) According to Marketwatch, female viewership rose 53% in the 12-17 age group, 24% among 18-24-year-olds and 34% for those over 35 during last year’s football season.

That led some advertisers, such as L’Oréal, to buy Super Bowl ad slots for the first time ever. Eight months on, advertisers hope at least some of the viewers that followed Swift into the world of the NFL will stick around.

“She did have an effect last season, and she broadened what was already a very broad audience,” said Joel Yashinsky, chief marketing officer of Applebee’s. “It just showed how impactful the NFL can be across all sorts of different backgrounds and demographics.”

A sponsor of Sunday Night Football on NBC since 2019, Applebee’s signed up to become a primary partner of the NFL back in April. According to Yashinsky, who did not provide exact spending figures, the casual dining brand’s campaign activity will play out across linear and streaming TV — including games shown by Amazon, Peacock and Netflix — as well as on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and X, beginning this week.

Applebee’s activity includes 15- and 60-second TV spots featuring high-profile NFL players including Brock Purdy, and it also encompasses a short content series shot for YouTube — an addition created with the NFL’s newly younger audiences in mind.

“When I started at Applebee’s seven years ago, we were by a broad margin, linear focus,” said Yashinsky. “That has shifted. We have become big believers in finding and creating social content that will work on TikTok, on YouTube, on X, on Instagram and Facebook and Snapchat.”

Applebee’s is not the only brand hoping the NFL’s broader viewing base can provide a benefit. At specialist NFL talent and production agency Athletes First, head of media sales Daniel Gyves told Digiday, “It’s a trend that we’ve absolutely seen in our conversations with advertisers.”

Athletes First’s production arm, Goat Farm, is shifting the content it produces in order to catch those broader audiences, and, in turn, the attention of advertisers. It’s added The Warner House, a podcast hosted by San Francisco 49ers player Fred Warner and his wife Sydney, to its content slate, as part of an effort to shift toward “a more female, focused audience and content that resonates with them,” according to Gyves.

In another example, insurance brand State Farm will be running ads during the NFL season across linear, streaming, digital and social channels. Its CTV approach incorporates a partnership with Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football for co-branded commercials and halftime features.

In a statement shared with Digiday, State Farm’s chief marketing, sales and agency officer Kristyn Cook said the insurer’s NFL connection would help it reach audiences. “State Farm is always moving at the pace of culture, to stand out in a crowded marketplace,” she said.

CTV’s also proving a route into the NFL for newcomer brands — which is unsurprising, given younger consumers likely to have been fired up by Swift’s association with the sport last season are likelier to watch games via a streaming service.

Fireball, a Canadian whiskey brand owned by distiller Sazerac, is set to launch a campaign aiming to bring the spirit to American consumers. As well as a push on TikTok and linear, its TV plan incorporates ESPN and Peacock.

“By focusing on CTV platforms like Peacock, YouTube and ESPN’s streaming services, Fireball aims to increase its visibility and connect with a diverse and engaged audience,” Danny Suich, global brand director at Fireball, told Digiday in an email. “These platforms offer precise targeting and high engagement, aligning with Fireball’s goal of boosting brand recall and building stronger connections with fans — both established and new — who are increasingly turning to streaming services for their content.”

Gyves said he expects last year’s influx of younger viewers to stick around for the coming season. “My 10-year-old daughter at home got into this because of Taylor Swift and so now she knows who Travis Kelce is and she can name a whole bunch of players,” he said. “The toothpaste isn’t going back in the tube.”