The NFL and Its Influence on Germany
The world looks towards Las Vegas on Sunday, and Super Bowl 58: The Chiefs versus the 49ers, the rematch from Super Bowl 54, and the centrepiece of the world’s most prestigious single sporting event - one that cannot be beaten in terms of shiny spotlight and media magnitude.
It has become impossible to escape the Super Bowl, regardless of your regard for the sport; not even in Europe, where people follow football of a different kind. This annual event has become a global, socially connecting ritual from the couch to the corporate box. And at $5000 for an average ticket or $7 million for a commercial, it seems money is immaterial.
The global script of the National Football League has emerged way beyond the Super Bowl, too, thanks to the many strong, sustainable and smart marketing efforts the NFL has invested in over the past decade, and especially in Europe.
In a saturated and highly competitive sports market such as Germany, today more than 18 million care about the NFL's multi-entertainment platform, with 3.6 million of them identifying themselves as true fans. A central play for the rise of the NFL overseas is built upon its domestic availability on free TV.
Premium content meets prime time - and has made the NFL the second most watched sport on TV in the country.
That’s incredible for a league that has its home turf on a different continent. Or maybe that’s a piece of the magic formula right there. The NFL doesn’t only export a strong product on first and second screen, it grants access to a distinct and desirable culture of American sports and entertainment; one played by superstars and in supersize.
Following its international growth, the NFL has granted domestic marketing rights in Europe to its various teams under the umbrella of the NFL Global Markets Program. For Germany, that’s the Kansas City Chiefs led by Mahomes, Kelce and Taylor Swift, the New England Patriots, the Carolina Panthers, the Atlanta Falcons and, last but not least, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers - former Super Bowl Champions and the last sporting home of the goat Tom Brady.
To grow fandom and hype, the NFL is now sending teams to perform in Europe too. In 2023, the Chiefs played their German home game in Frankfurt against the Miami Dolphins. The hype was real: Three million ticket requests for 48, 000 seats. Beyond touchdowns and tackles in a local stadium once a season, the NFL and its teams have invested in dedicated content and social channels to engage deeper with its German audience, battling for new fans and fresh engagement as a base for additional revenues driven by merchandise and sponsorship deals.
But this field of play doesn’t only open new doors for commercial growth, it also demands a new marketing playbook for the league and its franchise brands. While the majority of enthusiasts for the NFL in Germany don’t die hard for just one team, there’s the opportunity for each team in Germany to build its brand beyond the buzz created around the league and to create its own brand community bottom-up. For this, it must identify its global and local identity as a brand, and reflect and represent a specific culture which a fluid and lifestyle-savvy audience can identify with.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers - a franchise with a rich history, born and raised in Florida - is one team that didn't get to play in Frankfurt last year, but already left its mark by winning the first ever NFL Germany Game in 2022. The self-named 'Krewe' from Tampa set themselves up to share their cultural roots with NFL fans in Germany, embarking ahead of the Frankfurt Games with a CGI pirate ship as the original ship from their stadium in Tampa. It sailed across the Main river and the screens of more than 500,000 pairs of eyes on Instagram in the days leading up to the game, accompanied by customised merch, a watch party in a tailored Bucs bar and localised content formats.
While such activation programs may sound or feel simple at first, they are emblematic of what true international brand building of a NFL team must contain in order build long-term success - unique cultural symbols and moments that stick. To explore this approach, NFL teams ought not reference a competition with teams from other sport leagues, such as the Bundesliga, but rather be confident in their own native ability as a US brand to build bridges between sports, music, lifestyle, fashion or social.
From grassroots to greatness, from communities to commercial partners, from flag football to the Super Bowl, the field of play for marketing in Germany offers many opportunities to grow meaning beyond the sport itself. It will be exciting to watch what the NFL and its teams will display both on and off the pitch in the years to come. Different team colours, temporary sporting success and stardom, regional roots or standardised promotional programs won’t be enough to create a lasting legacy with fans abroad. Brand preference at a team level can only grow sustainably through cultural meaning and relevance.
