Thursday, March 5, 2020

XFL - The Future of Football Advertising

America loves football. The NFL is watched religiously by millions of people from September until February. Once the Super Bowl concludes, it seems like the world stops since there is no more football to watch. To fill that void, WWE CEO Vince McMahon launched the XFL last month – a winter and spring professional football league. Unlike the well established NFL sports league, the XFL can be more open and innovative in how they implement advertising.

Executives at Anheuser-Busch, the maker of the new Bud Light Seltzer was very smart to jump at the opportunity to be the official sponsor of the XFL. Not only was their logo placed on the back of the Dallas Renegades in Week 1, Bud Light Seltzer also gets great exposure on social media. Celebratory shotguns, field goal chugs, and creative team locker room celebrations have caused another source of competition between teams to see who’s best with a Bud Light Seltzer in their hand. St. Louis Battlehawks defensive tackle Jake Payne currently is the king of celebrations, but there are many weeks left in the inaugural season.

The XFL currently serves as a marketing laboratory for more established sport leagues. Depending on the success of this more lenient advertising strategy with sponsorships, it will be interesting to see if the NFL makes this transition within the next couple of years if it proves to be beneficial for the league to stray away from traditional commercial advertising interruptions.

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