TAYLOR Swift's presence at football games has been a blessing for NFL marketing executives.
And a PR expert has explained how the league can keep its momentum going as the 14-time Grammy winner's blossoming relationship with Travis Kelce suggests she's here to stay.
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Eric Schiffer, chairman of the Los Angeles-based firm Reputation Management Consultants, discussed Swift's impact on the NFL and Super Bowl LVIII with The U.S. Sun.
Schiffer estimated that the Karma singer's involvement in the big game would be "a near billion-dollar contribution because it will bring Gen Z, Millennial, and Gen X women to tune in and to watch longer."
In the end, an average audience of 123.4 million watched Kelce's Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers to claim their third championship in five years on CBS.
In addition to breaking Super Bowl viewership records, the presentation of Super Bowl LVIII approached the numbers of the most-watched American broadcast ever, the Apollo 11 moon landing.
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Sports networks registered boosted TV ratings throughout the season, pointing to a growing appetite for football in the US.
And Schiffer thinks Swift, 34, can greatly help the NFL maintain this peak if the league can keep female fans engaged.
He said the league must "find ways to continue the visibility with female audiences without Taylor present and they revisit the moments with Taylor and repopulate that to audiences that haven’t experienced it."
"There are a lot of women who haven’t tuned in yet but have heard about it," he continued.
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"So there are ways to package those moments and get that out as well."
Schiffer added that Swift's presence also seemingly added another reason for Kelce, 34, to care about the game even though their relationship might have negatively impacted his focus at first.
The PR expert lauded the celebrity couple for the way they adjusted having seen the humongous interest their romance generated.
"One of the things that we saw that was unique this cycle was Travis’ head was in the game in perhaps the best way fans have ever seen," Schiffer said.
Travis and Jason Kelce marvel at Taylor Swift’s beer chug at Super Bowl and claim ‘it’s not her first rodeo’"I also think that the two of them are learning how to manage the relationship in a way that keeps Travis focused.
"In the early stages, he was so bedazzled and occupied with his infatuation with Taylor that it was … there was a magnetic pull and she would be even in the stadium and you could see that his typical kind of fierce focus was off and fans commented on that a lot.
"It’s likely that they’ve talked about it and she may have kind of helped him in his focus by perhaps saying, 'Don't think about me, don’t focus on me, go do your thing.'
"That’s what I mean by being a great, supportive partner and stepping up and, really out of love, wanting to see your partner succeed.
"It felt as if there had been some interplay in that regard."
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Swift traveled from Japan to watch Kelce in action at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 11.
The pop star then joined the Chiefs tight end and his teammates at the Super Bowl afterparty.
