High-flying Eagles enthusiast a reminder of NFL’s ongoing marketing to female fans

January 16, 2018 1:45 AM
  • John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports
January 16, 2018 1:45 AM
  • John L. Smith, CDC Gaming Reports

Decked out from cap to sneakers in Philadelphia Eagles fan ware, there was no mistaking the woman’s favorite NFL team as she slid into the middle seat on a Saturday morning Southwest flight from Albuquerque to Las Vegas.

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Even her necklace was a tribute to her “Birds,” and she was more than willing to share her opinion about their chances in the afternoon’s playoff game against the Atlanta Falcons. In no time she’d struck up a conversation with the three NFL fans in the seat in front of her, and peppered her views with enough salty language to make sailors blush. But the fact is, everyone within earshot also appeared to be buzzing about the playoffs.

A Bud Light by Gallup, a bloody Mary over Flagstaff, and she was ready to return a kickoff herself. It was all so exciting, she said, and Eagles quarterback Nick Foles was being unfairly maligned by the press and other naysayers, his statistics notwithstanding. They were finding ways to win, a team of destiny, and yada, yada, yada. I declined to mention that Foles’ critics don’t throw interceptions or fumble snaps from center.

Not many years before, it would have been the kind of conversation you’d likely hear spoken only by the NFL’s endless army of male fans. The league was a chauvinistic throwback. With few exceptions, the only women NFL viewers were likely to see were scantily clad and bumping and grinding on the sidelines.

But when it comes to marketing to its ranks of female fans, the league is proving a quick study. It’s something Nevada’s sports book industry can continue to take a lesson from as it searches for ways to expand its customer base at a time when the stage is being set for the expansion of legalized sports betting nationally. It’s about the party – and a sense of inclusion that breaks through some old stereotypes.

The NFL recognized the potential less than a decade ago when, in 2009, its female viewership comprised approximately one third of its fan base, according to Bloomberg. That number is now about 45 percent.

That’s a dramatic increase despite the league’s problems with player domestic violence.

One reason for the increase appears to be the league’s appreciation of the potential to turn female fandom into a fashion statement with its “Fit for You” campaign. Rutgers Business School Associate Professor Kristina Durante tells Teen Vogue, “What marketers have found is that when you have a product that women start to take to; as soon as marketers started to go for women, they lost women because women were like, ‘hey I just want this product, it doesn’t need to be girly. We don’t have to have just one gender role that is hyper-feminized. … We can be whatever feels right for us.”

Not only does the league remind skeptics that it counts three women among its team owners, but the NFL also likes to tout its now annual “Women’s Summit” before the Super Bowl.

“We want to make sure we’re giving our fans an enriching experience and thinking about the biggest platform there is as an opportunity to bring in teen girl fans,” NFL vice-president of marketing Johanna Faries tells Reuters.

Now that’s marketing.

And if the NFL can increase its female viewership so dramatically in a relatively short time, Nevada’s sports books – especially as they look toward a grand expansion – can do the same.

As Towson University’s Lyndsay Walker tells USA Today, “More women watch the Super Bowl than the Oscars.”

By the time the morning flight touched down, the Eagles fan was ready to return to her pregame festivities.

As a devoted Packers fan, and one who figured Foles was in way over his head, I kept quiet my opinions of Philadelphia’s chances of defeating Atlanta.

Which, as it turned, out was a good thing. Her “Birds” won, 15-10, with Foles leading them into the NFC title game.

John L. Smith is a longtime Las Vegas journalist and author. Contact him at jlnevadssmith@gmail.com. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith.