Taylor Swift continues to pay dividends for the NFL.
The Swift-NFL saga, which includes her rumored romantic relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and her appearances at two NFL games has created a total equivalent brand value of $122 million, according to data provided to MarketWatch from Apex Marketing, a company that specializes in advertising and branding services.
The equivalent brand value metric measures value across all social media, TV, radio, digital news and print news. The $122 million figure was from Sept. 24, the day before Swift’s first Chiefs game, to Oct. 6. Swift was shown on camera yelling in excitement when Kelce scored a touchdown as the Chiefs dominated the Bears 41-10 that night, and the two were seen leaving the game together in a now-viral clip.
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Swift’s impact on the NFL these last few weeks cannot be overstated, but it can partially be measured. The singer songwriter attended the Chiefs-Jets game last Sunday night, which set season-high viewership numbers, including a huge boost from female fans.
Swift’s new public friendship and rumored relationship with Kelce was also likely related to the 400% increase in Kelce-related NFL jersey sales last month. And his Instagram followers count jumped from 2.7 million to 3.9 million as of Friday, although still much lower than Swift’s impressive 273 million followers on the Meta-owned
META,
platform.
The “New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce” podcast, featuring Kelce and his brother, is No. 1 on Apple’s podcast charts too.
The NFL’s bio on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, recently read “NFL (Taylor’s Version)” alongside a photo of Swift and Travis Kelce’s mom, Donna Kelce, watching a Chiefs game. Kelce said he thinks the NFL may be “overdoing it” with all of the Swift coverage, but the league disagrees.
“We frequently change our bios and profile imagery based on what’s happening in and around our games, as well as culturally,” the NFL wrote in a statement Wednesday. “The Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce news has been a pop cultural moment we’ve leaned into in real time, as it’s an intersection of sport and entertainment, and we’ve seen an incredible amount of positivity around the sport.”
See also: Want to watch every NFL game this season? Here’s how much it will cost you.
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