Taylor and Travis: Love Story or PR Stunt?
Image courtesy: Pinterest
I truly appreciate a good story, especially a good romance. The football player with a crush on a pop star…come on. If there isn’t already a Young Adult book with that premise, someone should get on that ASAP. When news of Travis Kelce’s crush on Taylor Swift came across my feed, I LOVED it. However, when their relationship started escalating quickly, it seemed just a little too good to be true. On her album, “Reputation,” Swift famously sings, “Call it what you want.” Well, Taylor, I think I’m calling this one a PR stunt.
To be fair, I don’t think this relationship is 100% disingenuous–I’m sure their relationship started from a place of authenticity. The romantic part of me hopes that most of their relationship still is authentic. However, the PR-major part of me insists I look at the relationship from a business perspective, which is the perspective I will present to you here.
First, let’s take a look at the benefits Kelce is reaping from this pairing. Kelce was undisputably a massive public figure before he and Swift were together, especially in the NFL community. However, since buzz around the pair began to gather (which, for purposes of statistics, I have pinpointed as mid-September 2023, when Kelce addressed the rumors on a podcast), Kelce has gained massive recognition. As of December 2023, Kelce had appeared in a whopping 375 commercials so far this NFL season (SBJ). Although these commercials were filmed before Traylor (Travis and Taylor) went public, according to the Wall Street Journal, “some of his sponsors tweaked their media plans to capitalize on the giant spotlight that followed the couple starting in September.” In my (not so) professional opinion, Kelce’s sponsors weren’t the only ones to capitalize on this spotlight. Has Swift capitalized as directly off of this attention as Kelce has appeared to? No, but it surely didn’t hurt her to gain buzz from a demographic outside her usual audience (i.e. men) using the NFL coverage. Take a look at the graphic below detailing a simple side-by-side statistic of Google searches for “Travis Kelce” in red and “Taylor Swift” in blue. There is a clear spike at– you guessed it– mid-September, when Traylor took the spotlight. I admittedly don’t know much about Kelce and Swift’s respective media plans, but this kind of spike can’t be bad for business. Something else to consider is that Swift just announced her new album on February 4 at the Grammy’s. Convenient timing, right?
Image courtesy: Alex Keezer- Google Analytics
Besides the lovebirds, there might be a third stakeholder in this couple– the NFL. While it seems a little farfetched to claim the NFL has arranged this relationship, anyone can see the benefits to the NFL. For instance, the Chiefs-Bills playoff game broke a record for the most-watched NFL divisional round game of all time with 56 million viewers. Only a week later, the Chiefs-Ravens game broke a record for AFC title game viewership with 55 million viewers. The common denominator here is the Chiefs and Swift. Think about it– the powerhouse football team draws in the standard NFL demographic and Swift draws in her own, the former having limited overlap with the latter. After hearing those statistics myself, it is a bit easier to imagine the couple receiving a little encouragement from the formidable football league.
So, does Miss Americana finally have her Mr. Americana, or did the couple both take notes from “Mastermind” and fool the whole country? That, you’ll have to decide for yourself.
Strike Out,
Alex Keezer
Editor: Caroline Kostuch
Athens