The NFL is thinking far beyond a single Sunday or even a single season. Long-term growth won’t come from appealing only to existing football fans in the U.S., but from converting sports fans around the world into American football fans – and from making those audiences feel seen, included, and connected to the brand.
Category expansion rarely comes with a playbook.
Marketers frequently wrestle with whether to play it safe and optimize for the broadest appeal, or to lean into cultural specificity. There’s no perfect answer. Where to land comes down to understanding your base and balancing that with who you want to reach.
But having connected insights into who your consumers are today, and who you’re building for tomorrow, and the conviction to accept the trade-offs that come with those choices is what separates marketing from legacy-building.
