The NFL wants America and the world to know: This is football country.
The sports league and media juggernaut launched a new brand campaign Friday, one designed to celebrate and unify around the game of football.
The debut spot (you can watch it here) includes a flurry of cameos, including appearances from Jason Kelce (former Philadelphia Eagles star) and his wife Kylie Kelce; DeMarcus Lawrence (Dallas Cowboys); Stefon Diggs (Houston Texans); Myles Garrett (Cleveland Browns); YouTube creator Deestroying; Haley Van Voorhis (the first woman who was not a kicker to play in an NCAA football game); and flag football star Makena Cook.
According to Tim Ellis, the NFL’s CMO, the league wanted to “take the pulse of the nation” and embrace its role as “a uniter,” with football at the center of the effort.
“I think most people would agree that football is the last big tent in America, and that we do have the power to unite and bring people together on a massive scale, and that influence and that power is both a gift and a responsibility,” Ellis tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. “I mean, we see ourselves as a cultural guiding light that is very important during a very divisive period in our country, and particularly this year as we’re headed into a very contentious presidential election, our role as a uniter has never been so important.”
As the season goes on, the NFL will roll out other initiatives like its cause program and NFL Votes campaign, but Ellis says that the overarching theme “will be about bringing people together, really presenting the joy of the game, and how we all come together to play a role there.
“We have this sort of dual strategy, and one part of that strategy is to communicate the joy the game, and then the other part of the strategy is to transcend the game,” he adds.
That was one of the strategies behind the casting for the spot, which includes real-life football players (both tackle and flag) intertwined with the likes of Kelce, who pokes fun at his new job as an analyst on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown.
“The [Prime Video] documentary Kelce was an incredible success, and his wife, Kylie, who’s, again, a big ambassador of football, and she brings a level of authenticity and human emotion that you just can’t get from an actor, right? that’s true stuff, right?” Ellis says.
“We want to unify. We want to make sure everybody who sees the spot feels it and feels that football truly is for everyone,” adds Marissa Solis, senior VP of global brand & consumer marketing for the NFL. “So we’re very careful to think of all of the aspects of football. Clearly, we want to showcase our biggest players, some of the biggest rivalries coming up. That’s the joy of football, like I can’t wait to see, as an example here, the Texans play the Cowboys, so that that’s part of it, but also, how does the game transcend?”
Ellis says that the league has employed a “helmets off” strategy in recent years, part of an effort by the league to get fans to better know their players, who are shielded by helmets while they play.
“We thought that it was important to present the NFL in a more human, authentic way, and so we’ve embarked upon this strategy to put a more human face to the NFL. And key to that was having the players be at the forefront of everything that we do,” Ellis says. “Now over the years that sort of expanded to not just the NFL, but also football in general, so we are really trying to continue to communicate that football is an inclusive sport… We have flag football. We have boys and girls, men and women, playing the game, enjoying the game.”
And the league is also betting that the campaign demonstrates its global ambitions. This year the NFL will host games in Brazil, London and Munich, with plans to host a game in Madrid next year. The brand campaign features football players from around the world, including teams and players in Japan, Mexico, Brazil.
“What’s been really fascinating for us as marketers is, as we go around the world, we aren’t the biggest property in those countries,” Solis says. “So to communicate the sport, we’ve had to go to really the foundation of what football is expressing: The epic-ness of the game, the fact that the game uplifts communities. That’s a message that’s global, right?
“And really, this strategy of helmets off and making the league human, approachable, inclusive, is what is the key to making the sport global,” she adds. “So while yes, tactically, we have to explain the sport, we have to educate on what the sport is like and make sure people are participating and engaging in it at the same time, from a messaging standpoint, it is very much about this sport is epic. This sport unites, and this sport is for everyone.”
“Our role here at the NFL marketing team is to drive viewership and to drive engagement and fandom for the NFL,” Ellis adds. However, our most important role is to be true football ambassadors. And so we don’t think about just professional NFL football. We think about football and what role it plays in our society and how it does truly bring people together. And so what you see throughout this spot is a very authentic portrayal of football in America.”
“We’re constantly looking for these powerful, authentic figures to incorporate into what we think is a beautiful tapestry of this game in America,” he adds.
And, yes, it will also include encouraging Americans to participate in their civic duties with a get out the vote campaign, connected to this November’s election.
“Many of our players and legends were very happy and excited to play a role there. It’s a non-partisan effort, and we see it as an opportunity for us as a very influential company to actually encourage people to exercise their rights, to just get out and vote,” Ellis says. “If there’s anything we can agree on, it’s the importance of voting. It’s just another way that we take our role as a as a uniter to encourage people to come together as a nation, and to get out there and vote this year.”