The team at the center of NFL media was back in the media capital of the world Sunday night, as the Chiefs strolled into MetLife Stadium to play the Giants — one of seven prime-time games for K.C. this season.
To say the Chiefs have been everywhere in recent years would be an understatement, and that’s without accounting for the Taylor Swift phenomena. The team opened in Brazil with the first YouTube NFL game, followed by playing the Eagles in a game that drew the second-best Sunday afternoon regular-season audience on record. I’m sure NBC will get a decent number for “Sunday Night Football” this week, but a lackluster 22-9 win for the Chiefs over the G-Men won’t be setting any records.
“We’re fortunate to be one of the more dominant ratings vehicles for a dominant sport,” Chiefs President Mark Donovan told me prior to kickoff.
But viewership of content between the lines is one thing. It’s a horse of a different color to take dynasty-level success on the field and push the boundaries of what might be possible for a team off of it. However, that’s exactly what Donovan wants for his club — domestically and internationally. “Our goal is to be the world’s team, and being such a strong ratings driver is what powers that,” he said.
Unlocking that next level of global interest has the Chiefs getting creative with content.
Fool in the reign
The newest cornerstone of the Chiefs’ content efforts has been Foolish Club Studios, with “The Kingdom” docuseries being the first major production (released just before the season). Donovan said Disney and ESPN have been “very pleased with the product.” That included results like trending in the top 10 on OTT platforms during the show’s first week. “Kind of humbling for us,” said Donovan. “It’s going to create even more opportunities for us.”
But there are a number of cooks in the Chiefs content kitchen these days, from Foolish to 65 Toss Power Trap Productions (the Chiefs’ in-house content arm) to individual efforts from Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. And that’s all before you think about NFL Films, Skydance Sports and other companies.
“That’s something we looked at very deeply when we launched Foolish Club Studios,” said Donovan. “… How much could we do? How big could this be? In those discussions we realized we could be so much more than just Chiefs football. … We have multiple projects that we’re working on right now — and we are in the process of talking to the streamers and distributors to air –- that have nothing to do with football and have nothing to do with the Chiefs. And that’s Foolish Club Studios.”
Wealth of nations
The NFL will play its first game in Spain this season, and while the Chiefs aren’t playing in that one, the team added the Iberian Peninsula nation to its roster for the Global Markets Program in the offseason.
“There’s a good fan base there. It can grow,” Donovan said of Spain. “But there’s not a lot of content distribution of NFL product, which is very different from Germany.”
International media deals (within countries) is actually the biggest thing that Donovan is watching right now. Donovan pointed to unique opportunities the team recently took advantage of with Brazilian fans when it played in São Paulo to start the season.
“We did some amazing things around that,” said Donovan. “We partnered with one of the largest pop stars in Brazil [Luísa Sonza] and created a platform for her that really benefitted us at the same time. … When we released her song, which was a remake of one of our songs — a Tech N9ne song called ‘Red Kingdom’ — she did it in a way that really resonated with Brazilian fans. We launched that on our YouTube page, so we were able to get subscribers to come onto our feed. The majority of those people that signed up had never seen an NFL game.”
For the game itself, Donovan said Chiefs “expected more” from what YouTube delivered for the Chargers matchup, but he also didn’t want to discount the fact that it drew around 19 million viewers, per Nielsen.
