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The NFL’s new ‘celly’ campaign is an homage to TikTok fandom
The NFL's new 'celly' campaign aims to engage younger audiences by leveraging the viral nature of celebration dances popularized on social media platforms like TikTok. By integrating these cultural elements into their branding strategy, the NFL is not only acknowledging the interconnectedness of digital and traditional media but also positioning itself to attract a more diverse fan base, particularly among younger and female viewers.
FastCompany: In the NFL ’s new kickoff campaign, the league’s biggest stars are wiggling their hips, shimmying their shoulders, doing the worm, and recreating Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam . The spot, titled “The Season Is Your Stage,” debuted on August 20 to drum up excitement for football season, which begins on September 9 with the annual NFL Kickoff Game. It was created in partnership with the NFL’s lead creative agency, 72andSunny , and includes cameos from players like Bijan Robinson of the Atlanta Falcons, Dion Dawkins of the Buffalo Bills, and Travis Hunter of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Each player is shown practicing their “cellys” for the coming season. That’s internet jargon for the celebration dances that have become popular fodder for viral NFL content on social media. According to Marissa Solis, NFL senior VP of global and brand marketing , the campaign is one way that her team is working to bring the NFL’s digital fan base—which tends to skew younger and more female than its regular season viewership—into the league’s main stage programming. “I think it’s a way to acknowledge that all of these platforms are now interconnected,” Solis says.
“They can’t all live in silos, especially because this [younger] audience is always on, watching everywhere. We have to be where they are, not the other way around.” Inside the NFL’s social media playbook Over the past several years, the NFL’s fandom has been seeing a kind of modern day renaissance—and the brand has been working to adjust in real time.
In 2023, after years of predictions from analysts that the NFL was on the decline, the league got a major boost in the cultural zeitgeist from the reveal of the relationship between the Kansas City Chiefs’ star tight end, Travis Kelce, and the pop megastar Taylor Swift, leading to a jump in viewership from young and female audiences. On social media, the relationship’s ties to the NFL have been an durable topic of conversation , one that the league has embraced .
As the league benefits from the “ Taylor Swift effect ,” it’s been investing in its digital presence in a big way, working to meet young audiences where they are by turning pivotal moments in the season into short-form content extravaganzas . “Five, six years ago, we started a concerted effort to reach what we call ‘growth audiences,’” Solis explains. “One of the critical growth audiences is young people. When you think about Gen A, Gen Z, they’re the digital generation.
We know that they’re not necessarily just viewing four hours of a game—they’re engaging day in and day out, 24/7, on social platforms.” This April, the league gave Fast Company a behind-the-scenes look at its social media strategy for its three-day college draft, an annual marquee moment for the brand. That effort included a programming team of 10 people hunkered down in their social media command center in Pittsburgh, churning out about 1,000 social posts every day.
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The NFL's campaign represents a significant shift in how traditional sports leagues engage with younger audiences through social media, making it impactful and relevant, though leveraging social media trends is becoming more common.