In this year’s NFL Draft, some of the league’s top prospects were asked some unfamiliar questions.
“What is a skort?” asked the interviewer. Travis Hunter made his best guess.
“What’s a primer?” she continued. Shemar Stewart wasn’t entirely sure.
The question was part of a social media video asking players about products aimed at women. The video was created by Betches, a media company targeting young female viewers, and received 1.5 million views on Instagram. While this may not be traditional NFL content, it resonates and reinforces the league’s efforts to engage young women through partnerships with female-focused media.
The league partnered with Vetch’s last December and in August completed a partnership with The Gist, a sports site and newsletter focused on female fans. The NFL has long seen women as key to its efforts to broaden the league’s appeal, a move that gained further momentum after Taylor Swift’s highly publicized relationship with her now-fiancé, Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs.
“We want to connect with this audience, so authentic and real storytelling is absolutely important,” said Marissa Solis, NFL senior vice president of global brand and consumer marketing. “So instead of doing targeted advertising where you don’t really have a connection, we give them access to (Betches and The Gist), but they’re telling the story with their unique perspective and they’re there, front and center. And I think that connection is something you can’t do with paid advertising.”
Both media outlets will have access to notable NFL events such as the Super Bowl, draft and combine to create articles and content for the platform, along with additional content from the league. For example, Betches launched a Tailgate Tour series as part of the partnership, and The Gist debuted a free game to predict the weekly winner.
All of these partnerships seek to grow and appeal to the league’s large female fan base, which is often underrepresented or overlooked. An Ipsos poll conducted in September found that 41% of American women are NFL fans.
That brings big business potential, and the NFL will focus on a media outlet that already has deep connections with women.
“We put women at the center of everything we do. It’s not an afterthought, it’s not like putting a W on the end of ESPN,” said Jaycee DeHoop, who co-founded The Gist with Ellen Hyslop and Roslyn McLarty in 2017. “More data and research on women shows how underserved this is and a huge audience and fan base.”
In addition to traditional game reports and on-field commentary, a big part of the strategy to appeal to women, and a broader new generation of NFL fans, is human-centered content. Through an approach the NFL aptly calls “take off the helmet,” the league and its partners are focusing on content about the players themselves and using more personal storytelling to build stronger connections.
According to Solis, this approach “opened up a lot of potential for emotional, human-centered storytelling that really appeals to female fans,” and that’s a niche that Betches and The Gist will help fill.
“There’s a clear white space, and we know how to speak to the casual fan. They care about the culture, they care about the people behind these players, and we speak in an authentic tone that they can relate to,” said Randy Wint, senior vice president of revenue partnerships at Vetch’s.
“Rather than pushing a marketing narrative that you think someone might pay attention to on Sunday, having a relationship with someone will get them to lean in,” Wint continued. The NFL is “not just looking for that song…We really work together to build fandom over time.”
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
___
Associated Press coverage of women workers and state government receives funding from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP standard Please see below for our philanthropic efforts, list of supporters and areas funded. AP.org.
