(By John Shomby) Taylor Swift and the NFL! Who knew? Whether you watch football or not, you’ve probably seen Swift sightings from Kansas City Chiefs games. Tickets for games – home and away – are selling like crazy. Rumored boyfriend Travis Kelce has had a 400% spike in jersey sales. It’s led to a social media surge for all parties involved.
On October 1, Taylor’s attendance for a game in New York against the Jets drew 27 million viewers. For comparison, the average NFL game viewership in 2022 was 16.7 million. That matchup suddenly became the most-watched Sunday event since the Super Bowl. (Talk about the power of women 18-49!!)
Sure, the NFL could have treated Taylor Swift like any other celebrity who gets a few seconds of screen time during a broadcast, but they have embraced it with all those camera shots and other “sightings.” In the midst of the “Taylor Economy,” they unabashedly seized the moment. Makes me wonder how many moments radio lets go un-seized every day.
I can remember a moment or two myself. When we sent our station-named “Ticket Phantom” out to the streets surrounding the old Boston Garden to give away the small number of tickets we purchased to see the annual U2 St. Patrick’s Day concert, we had prepared for a moment. We told our listeners that our phantom friend would be looking for them ONLY if they had our call letters somewhere on their person and, if he saw them, he would quietly place a pair of U2 tickets in their hands.
The result? More than 10,000 strong gathered in front of the Garden and about 75% of them sporting our call letters. As a cherry on top, our competitor was also on-site doing live reports on a local TV station for most of the early evening with our call letters hovering in the background. The press wrote about it for a week and gathering rules were changed in front of the Garden because of it. We seized the moment. It was very adventurous, and a lot could have gone wrong but we also knew a lot could go right.
Are we still in this mindset? Are we still looking for opportunities? The NFL could have already moved on from Taylor Swift, but they are now celebrating and welcoming a new audience, temporary or not, to the games and to television.
Several points that will help get into that “seize the moment” mindset:
- Pay attention to your surroundings. Don’t look for the obvious pop culture phenomenon. Things happen in your market every day. Be aware.
- Be curious. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. We could have just done a “listen for the U2 song and win tickets” but we did something that we knew would be a bit uncomfortable but a lot of fun.
- Be ready to act. Once you see/hear something that gets your attention, get moving. Don’t overthink. Sometimes you just have to jump in the deep end.
- Think outside the box. We have holidays whose dates and times of year never change. Think of something different to really seize those holiday moments.
- Be Persistent. Not everything you do will work. Don’t be afraid to fail. Keep at it. As a mentor of mine always said – “Swing the Bat”!
Finally, get your staff totally involved. Our U2 idea came from our Production Director, aka The Ticket Phantom himself! Then celebrate the successes with your staff. That keeps them motivated for upcoming “moments”.
So what’s next on YOUR list of moments?
Based in Nashville, TN, John Shomby is the owner and CEO of Country’s Radio Coach. He is focused on coaching and mentoring artists, radio programmers, and on-air talent to help them grow and develop inside the radio station and the industry. Reach John at [email protected] and 757-323-1460. Read John’s Radio Ink archives here.
