Kansas City Stars, with the help of Taylor Swift, are advertising champions

The Kansas City Chiefs enter Sunday's Super Bowl having already won — when it comes to commercials.

Over the past year, star players Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, along with Coach Andy Reid, have been inescapable from TV viewers. Flip the channels and you might see Mr. Kelce baring his arm for a Pfizer Covid-19 shot, Mr. Mahomes shouting in support of a State Farm promotion or Mr. Reid longing for some chicken nuggies.

During this National Football League season, companies placed Mr. Mahomes in 19 ad spots, Mr. Kelce in 10 and Mr. Reid in four. The estimated amount spent to air the ads on television was $178 million for Mr. Mahomes, $120 million for Mr. Kelce and $69 million for Mr. Reid, according to iSpot.tv, an advertising measurement company. These are the highest figures for all sports figures. Because there were several commercials in which at least two of the three appeared, there is some overlap in the dollar totals.

“Brands have invested in making sure the Chiefs-themed ads are hard to miss,” said Cassandra Arora, iSpot's chief marketing officer, who estimates spending on an ad based on the market rate for how much companies should pay to broadcast commercials on TV. . Basically, the more spend an ad has, the more viewers will see it.

By comparison, Deion Sanders, the former NFL star who coaches the University of Colorado football team, and Nick Saban, the recently retired University of Alabama football coach, each appeared in ads worth about $20 million during the same period. San Francisco running back Christian McCaffrey appeared in ads spending $46 million, while 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy appeared in one ad — for Toyota – worth just $67,000.

A few factors explain the three Chiefs' marketing blitz: consistent success, insurance company marketing budgets and, of course, Taylor Swift.

Companies took advantage of Mr. Mahomes' prodigious talent beginning in his sophomore season in 2018, in which he threw for 50 touchdowns. He showed off his hair in an ad for Head and Shoulders; stood next to Aaron Rodgers, then a quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, in a State Farm commercial; And promoted Amazon Web Services' streamlined football analytics. In 2022, after winning a Super Bowl and a Most Valuable Player Award, ad spend for the 21 commercials featuring Mr. Mahomes $164 million, more than basketball stars LeBron James and Stephen Curry combined.

Mr. Kelce appeared in a few lower-profile commercials, and Mr. Reid occasionally joined Mr. Mahomes in ad spots. But a second Super Bowl win last year and a celebrity relationship changed things in a big way, especially for Mr. Kelce.

Since the start of the 2023 NFL season, when Mr. Kelce began his high-profile relationship with Ms. Swift, the global music superstar, the Chiefs have reached a new level of ubiquity. Thanks in large part to Ms. Swift's appearances at games in Kansas City, more women are watching the NFL — and the Chiefs in particular, said Kim Whitler, a business professor at the University of Virginia's business school.

“There's an incredible new interest in these players, and part of that is they're bringing in a new group of people who were never interested in the NFL,” Ms. Whitler said.

Their commercial appearances increased accordingly. Mr. Reid appeared in four commercials in the 2023 season, compared to just one the season before. Mr. Kelce made the same number of ads as in 2022 — six — but his spending increase, from $895,000 to $120 million, was the largest. (It's unclear if any of the three will appear in a Super Bowl ad this year.)

They were handsomely compensated. Mr. Mahomes earns about $20 million from his endorsement deals, according to Forbes, on top of more than 50 million dollars paid to him annually by the Chiefs. Mr. Kelce reportedly makes $5 million from his deals, in addition to the roughly $14 million a year he gets to play football. It is not known how much Mr. Reid earns from his commercial gigs, although his annual coaching salary is estimated at at least $10 million.

The places were diverse. In addition to his Pfizer spot, Mr. Kelce appeared in ads for Campbell's Soup, Subway, State Farm, Lowe's and the credit reporting company Experian.

Mr. Kelce's star was well established in football and growing outside of it, spurred by his second Super Bowl victory last February and his hosting of “Saturday Night Live” the following month. Companies already had Mr. Kelce on their shortlist of celebrities who could drive engagement with their brands, said Jason Damata, a media consultant. But after he started dating Ms. Swift, Mr. Kelce crossed the line.

“When he hit the zeitgeist, they were ready to focus their investments and reap the cultural and business rewards,” Mr. Damata said of companies that partnered with Mr. Kelce.

The investment in the Chiefs began in 2019 when Mr. Mahomes joined Mr. Rodgers, a longtime State Farm pitchman. Major insurance companies like State Farm, GEICO and Progressive collectively spend billions of dollars annually on advertising. In 2022, State Farm spent $125 million, or more than two-thirds of its estimated ad spend during the NFL season, on commercials featuring Kansas City players; this season, State Farm put in $130 million, or just over 70 percent of its expenses during the season.

Linda Lee, the chief marketing officer of the food and beverage division at Campbell's, said her company began considering a partnership with Mr. Kelce after last year's Super Bowl, in which he faced off against his brother Jason and the Philadelphia Eagles.

But she couldn't have predicted that shooting an ad featuring the Kelce brothers, along with their mother, before the 2023 season would be followed by such a rapid rise in fame for Travis. Since releasing the ad, Ms. Lee says, the company has seen four times the engagement on TikTok with its Chunky products.

“There was a bit of luck in the selection of this family,” Ms Lee said.