Global Growth, Passion, Unity, Flag Football: NFL ‘This Is Football Country’ Campaign
Friday, August 16, 2024 at 02:05PM By Barry Janoff
August 16, 2024: Stating it is “continuing to emphasize global growth as a major strategic priority — aiming to establish the NFL as a global sports property,” the league has unveiled its season-long brand multi-media campaign, “This Is Football Country.”
The NFL puts its mantra center stage in the 60-second anchor spot, which the league said “documents the passion behind the sport and its power to unify and inspire.”
It features a roster of its players, as well as representatives from other aspects of the sport, led by the league’s unrelenting Flag Football agenda, which seems to get a least as much support as the actual NFL game itself.
“'This campaign channels a powerful feeling — it's the love and joy that the game brings to communities around the world, no matter who you are, where you are or how you choose to express it," Tim Ellis, NFL CMO, said via the league.
“We wanted to capture the universal joy of this game while conveying the palpable hype that comes with the return of football, and we're opening the season with the biggest Kickoff weekend ever to match that excitement."
“This Is Football Country” will air during NFL games on CBS, NBC, ESPN, ABC, Amazon’s Prime Video and NFL Network; in-stadium, social media and online.
“'This campaign channels a powerful feeling — it's the love and joy that the game brings to communities around the world."
The anchor commercial opens with the Lahainaluna High School football team, which united communities following the devastating Hawaiian fires in August 2023 by completing their shortened season; they later served as honorary captains at Super Bowl LVIII this past February.
Also featured are Makena Cook, flag football player for Team USA and the Los Angeles Rams girls flag team; the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' USA Wheelchair Football League team — a league funded in part through the NFL's Salute to Service initiative; Deestroying, who is seen hosting his YouTube 1ON1 football series in Japan; and Haley Van Voorhis, who made history as the first woman to play in an NCAA football game who was not a kicker as a safety for Virginia’s Shenandoah University Hornets on Sept. 23, 2023.
NFL players in the campaign opener include Stefon Diggs (Houston Texans), Myles Garrett (Cleveland Browns), DeMarcus Lawrence (Dallas Cowboys) and retired Jason Kelce (Philadelphia Eagles) and his wife, Kylie Kelce.
Saquon Barkley also has a humorous role, but in spirit only. A scene shows a family gathered in a living room to watch a NFL game, all wearing New York Giants jerseys. A young girl enters the room wearing an Eagles jersey, must to the dismay of her relatives. “What!?” she says. “I go where Saquon goes.”
Other players are expected to joined during the season as the campaign evolves.
The NFL said film production took place in such locations as Brazil, Hawaii, Florida, Japan, New York and Mexico.
In addition to the lead 60-second film, the campaign will air shorter vignettes through the year “highlighting stories around the world, in cities like Tokyo, islands like Maui or neighborhoods like Greenpoint, Brooklyn.”
“Our role here at the NFL marketing team is to drive viewership and to drive engagement and fandom for the NFL,” Ellis told The Hollywood Reporter. “However, our most important role is to be true football ambassadors.
“And so we don’t think about just professional NFL football. We think about football and what role it plays in our society and how it does truly bring people together. And so what you see throughout this spot is a very authentic portrayal of football in America.”
Lead agency is 72andSunny.
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