Super Bowl LVI will be played on Sunday, February 13th, at 3:30 p.m. local time at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. This sporting mega-event almost marks a national holiday and underscores what it means when a sports brand unfolds as a cultural icon with enormous commercial strength manifested in various demand determinants.
However, the position as a cultural icon should not be taken for granted by the NFL. Like other market leaders in business, the NFL is forced to continuously evaluate the market dynamics that over time can have a decisive impact on brand strength and thus market relevance.
Andy Dallin, co-founder and director of the sports consultancy firm ADC Partners in the USA, who has worked in or with the American professional sports leagues for several decades, sees the Super Bowl as the biggest single sporting event on American soil without comparison.
Dallin emphasizes that:
"The Super Bowl is much more than a sporting event [...] and even though the approximately 4-hour match involves American football, Super Bowl Sunday is now an unofficial national holiday; a large proportion of the population watches the Super Bowl, even though they are not necessarily (ed. American) football fans or for that matter sports fans [...] It is a cultural event."
Professor Douglas B. Holt from Harvard Business School describes the movement from brand to cultural icon as being characterized by a very loyal following or fan base, which gives the respective brand strength to maintain a good position in the market for many years; this, based on a completely different recipe than conventional marketing.
The competitive advantage should not, in the traditional strategic sense, be seen as rooted in good service or certain functional benefits. Rather, it lies in the ability to create a deep cultural connection and the common empathy or engagement found therein (Holt, 2003).
It's often about lifestyle. In the sports industry, it can be seen as the relevance a sport has generated over time. For instance, expressed through storytelling (the power of a good story is that people can relate to it).
Storytelling is firstly captivating (for instance, the athletic performance). Secondly, it's dramatic (the physical dimension of the game or the uncertainty of the outcome). Thirdly, it's shaped by the myths (who are the athletes, what is their motivation, and the gap between heroes and villains?), which are the subject of countless discussions of the game or event at school, at work, or at the dinner table.
The stage is set for sport as a cultural product and an entertainment phenomenon – even though brand dynamics can be complex.
Indeed, not everything has been rosy for the NFL over time, even though the Super Bowl has been a substantial driver through the socio-cultural and socio-economic development related to the event's evolution over time.
The NFL has also fought against question marks and research (Omalu, DeKosky, Minster, Kamboh, Hamilton & Wecht, 2005; Omalu, Hamilton, Kamboh, DeKosky & Bailes, 2014) regarding the sport's health challenges and issues related to domestic violence, the Colin Kaepernick case, the fight for social justice, and most recently the demand for rebranding the Washington Redskins.
The Hollywood movie Concussion is based on the aforementioned research and highlights how the NFL almost went to war against the main character behind the research, Bennet Omalu. The NFL wanted him to retract the research, which depicted a health risk associated with American football.
The scene in the film illustrates how a contrast arises between, on one hand, knowledge and enlightenment from research, and on the other hand, the commercial and economic interests attributed to the NFL's market power.
Andy Dallin sees precisely the NFL's and Super Bowl's commercial development as an important reason for the league's status. As Dallin puts it, it all has to be put into context, and he emphasizes that
"the commercial nature of planning the event on a Sunday might be somewhat mundane, but observers should nonetheless consider the following:
1. The game is the most-watched TV event in the USA (by a considerable margin compared to the remaining TV events) year after year. Nothing comes close. On average, the event has twice the viewership compared to other programs.
2. The Super Bowl 2022 demands an even higher price for advertisements than before (up to $7 million for a 30-second commercial spot).
3. The NFL's (ed. commercial) partners (some of whom also show commercials on TV during the game) spend massively to capitalize on the association with the league and especially with the Super Bowl. See, for example, Pepsi's month-long campaign aiming to promote their halftime show (with high frequency).
4. The TV commercials are often more discussed (and followed by fans) than the game itself."
So, there's nothing that comes close to the Super Bowl as a one-day event in the American market.
We also see that the trend of 'Super Bowl Parties' over the years has spread to Denmark and other international markets. Most recently, consumption figures – ironically, given the conservative and regulated approach to betting in the USA for many years – show a new tradition: Consumers are spending huge amounts on betting on the outcome of the Super Bowl.
Sports Illustrated reported in early February 2022 that the American Gaming Association concluded that a whole 31 million Americans are expected to bet on the Sunday game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams. This marks a 35 percent increase compared to last year.
At the same time, the expectation is that there will be a consumption of 7.6 billion dollars, which is an increase of 78 percent from the previous year.
The commercialization train for the Super Bowl is still moving at enormous speed. Add to that the consumption of beverages, food, and other goods in connection with the Super Bowl (see here for further inspiration) and the NFL's and Super Bowl's ability to capitalize. As Andy Dallin puts it:
"There is nothing in the USA that comes close to the attention that the Super Bowl creates."
The movie Concussion also highlights how the city of Pittsburgh spent 233 million dollars to build a new stadium for the NFL team Pittsburgh Steelers, while the city simultaneously closed schools and raised taxes. Yes, American football is a central cultural phenomenon in the USA.
The scene in the movie also illustrates that the NFL is not out to change the world. Basically, the NFL owns one day a week, as the title of another movie, Any Given Sunday, so rhetorically expresses, and millions of fans are very passionate about the sport.
Omalu suddenly became a threat to the NFL, which, by the way, is a situation that can draw parallels to Colin Kaepernick. But with a good cause in hand, he fought for social justice, but was sacrificed for being bad for the NFL business.
The business-centric single-entity structure, and thus the centralized sports economic structure (Cortsen, Hehr & Nielsen, 2021) in the NFL, has served as a catalyst for how the NFL's market power has spoken its own language without intelligent foresight.
The latter points to the fact that a sports brand – and not even a cultural icon like the NFL – does not miss the dynamic interaction that exists between brand and marketplace.
Most recently, we've seen that rising stakeholder demands have made it clear that an NFL-associated brand like the Washington Redskins is not static.
The team has recently been rebranded as the Washington Commanders as an example of the societal sustainability trend seriously hitting the sports industry. And even a professional sports league, which for many years has been associated with being 'the major sports league' in the USA.
The NFL's single-entity and centralized ownership structure cost, as mentioned, Colin Kaepernick his NFL career as a result of the star's fight for social justice. A fight that at the time was not in line with the league's business interests. From my perspective, it seemed like an ill-considered and short-sighted strategic handling of the case by the NFL.
Kaepernick later came out positively on the other side as a winner in the case based on public opinion and as the face of Nike in major advertising campaigns. And not least as the person who significantly helped to change more than the state of American football.
He also managed to make an impact on other sports – including NBA basketball (NBA, 2020) – where the club owners in a completely different way supported the players' fight for social justice. But he also made an impact on the debate in the surrounding society.
Since then, we have seen that the NFL, exemplified by the rebranding of the team in Washington, has come to better thoughts and, like other brands (sport is no exception), cannot afford to act in direct contrast to the sustainability and CSR trends that fill the surrounding society.
As indicated above, the time when sports branding was primarily based on 'one-way communication' from the brand towards consumers is long past. Even the traditional 'two-way communication', which is more fluid between the brand and consumers, has long been replaced by the high-speed communication train, which the coupling between commercialization and digitalization has created as a more multidimensional and interactive information path between brand and consumers.
Indeed, with this in mind, there is no doubt that consumers more than ever determine the strength of a sports brand.
The context for leading and controlling brand development has thus also changed significantly within sports branding. This places new demands (and competencies) on the commercialization process within sports economics, where even strong sports brands like the NFL are pressured by 'less time on the ball'. Therefore, sports brands must understand and execute on increasing stakeholder demands to make intelligent, sustainable, and market-relevant decisions within a shorter time horizon and in a sports market, where market development, whether rooted in sustainability trends, technology and data development, or other innovation, is more dynamic than ever.
This is also due, especially in professional sports, to the sports industry's strategic starting point, which is often centered on 'the ability to compete'. Competitiveness speaks to the desire to win consumers' favor - through performance both on and off the field.
A recent example of this trend is the rebranding of the NFL team in Washington from the racially inappropriate Redskins to the Commanders. This comes at a time when the surrounding society, both in the US and in Denmark, has seen similar rebranding cases.
'Kæmpe Solbær' and 'Solbærstang' have replaced ’Kæmpe Eskimo’ for ice cream manufacturers in Denmark. The well-known Marie biscuits with chocolate, which were branded under 'Black Marie', have also disappeared.
In the US, there have been similar rebranding examples: the food brand Uncle Ben's due to racist and stereotypical undertones, as well as the Cleveland Indians from Major League Baseball and various collegiate sports teams have been forced to rebrand either by name or in relation to their mascots, for instance.
Current trends are thus leaving a living imprint on the branding landscape. The question is, what will happen to professional sports teams like the Chicago Blackhawks from the NHL or the Kansas City Chiefs from the NFL?
Andy Dallin has both advised professional teams on branding and worked on moving American teams from one city to another - and thus rebranding.
He believes that "rebranding and finding a name for a new team typically take many factors into consideration, including, but not necessarily limited to, the following:
1. Geography - what is unique and/or relevant for the location or region? Consider, for example, the Portland Timbers from the MLS. The name paints a picture of the logging that takes place in or around Oregon. Or the Phoenix Suns which reflect (no pun intended) the 300+ days of sunshine a year.
2. Characteristics of the sport. American football is often perceived as a battle with the efforts it takes to move down the battlefield and take new territory.
3. The club or team's history. When the MLS launched the Seattle Sounders in 2007, it was seen as a turning point for the league. Many names were in play, but the Sounders emerged as a clear favorite; the Sounders were Seattle's team back in the defunct NASL league in the 1970s.
4. The passion that fans often express.
5. The cultural relevance and timely care. Consider, for example, the NBA's Toronto Raptors, which was launched in 1995 shortly after the massive worldwide success of the movie Jurassic Park."
Rebranding, like branding, is a complex affair filled with various associations. However, the process has also been anything but straightforward for the new Washington Commanders and, like any other professional sports team, must lead the rebranding process in the omnipresent pressure from stakeholders such as traditional mass media, commercial partners, and not least fans, who especially via social media platforms have stronger and more direct access to voice their opinion.
President Biden, however, supported the initiative along with the majority of other fans with a humorous tweet associated with his dog. And surely, the thesis “acknowledgment is the first step to a new reality” also underscores the fact that neither successful branding nor rebranding happens overnight? Just as winning over time can quickly make critics forget the new name (and last season's lack of success is not forgotten in Washington).
Sport is in that way a very irrational and emotionally charged context. This is also seen through protests when European football clubs have toyed with the idea of changing the name or logo. And although the Washington Commanders are far from getting the A+ grade according to the American scale and qualification via discourse on social media and the associations that Commanders bring forth, the pressure has at least been so great that a rebranding was seen as the right decision.
Andy Dallin highlights the complexity of rebranding in the sports industry, but also mentions that:
"Rebranding is a matter of the sports organization making the necessary efforts to satisfy existing fans, ideally being able to engage a new fanbase, and simultaneously working to create positive associations and manage to repair the fence in relation to the previous name."
Regarding the team in Washington, Dallin also sees it as important for the team to change "the perceptions that have created a toxic culture [...] It's not an easy task, and there have been many internal battles. Ultimately, however, they have opted for a safe direction with the Commanders in that they have retained the existing colors as a way to maintain some important emotional capital from the existing fan base, and at the same time they have chosen a name that generally is not as offensive or at least marks a change of direction from the previous name. Finally, the name contains some of the characteristics of American football, which also characterize the sport's identity. So in that way, it wasn't a 'wow' choice, but a relatively safe choice, and that is certainly significant, considering the attention the team has received for many mistakes over the past 20 years."
However, the rebranding was not a quick decision. A 2016 study (Woodrow Cox, Clement & Vargas) conducted by the Washington Post concluded that 9/10 of the study's 504 Native American respondents did not feel offended by the name Washington Redskins, which is why the team's rebranding only recently took place, despite researchers and journalists questioning the validity of the study.
A 2020 study (Fryberg, Eason, Brady, Jessop & Lopez) conducted based on research at UC Berkeley, on the other hand, concluded that over half of the 1,000 Native American respondents in the study felt offended by the name. This might suggest that the ownership and leadership of the Washington Redskins clung to the first study, which with a critical pen seems like reverse research or commissioned work, that at least according to the UC Berkeley study raises questions about why support organizations behind Native Americans emphasize that mascots, merchandise, or team names in professional sports can be extremely stereotypical and negatively marginalizing, while sports teams (at least until very recently) have maintained the opposite.
The same can be said about the case with Colin Kaepernick, who fought for social justice but lost his career as a quarterback in the league at a time when the ownership, leadership, and branding in the NFL were not where they have moved to today.
The process of leading the brand process through various identity levels, which must balance between the communicated brand identity and the brand identity perceived by stakeholders, will be interesting to follow.
How the organization manages to articulate and integrate the most important cultural characteristics around the team, its history, and performances over time in beautiful union with the struggle for a better future cannot be neglected.
If acknowledgment is the first step to a new reality, then the transformational economic element surrounding all actions should lead to a new and BETTER reality - following a process where many fans were asked in advance and where past legends have been an active part of the rebranding process.
These stakeholders are obviously important assets in the short term, but it's also about creating a name and a reality that future fans and stakeholders can live with for years to come.
The aspect of time cannot be discounted. Both research (Fombrun & Shanley, 1990; Cortsen, 2016) and practice show that companies - even in the case of professional sports companies - are fighting over and operationally very dependent on influencing their commercialization cycle positively through activities related to image, reputation, and branding.
Therefore, the importance is centered around creating:
1. Positive attention around the organization and branding activities.
2. A perception of good quality of the work that the organization guarantees and initiates, thereby laying its name among stakeholders.
3. Positive brand associations.
4. A loyal crowd of support among the large number of fans with preferences and a high degree of identification with the organization and a further development of this fan base with an upward trend.
In relation to the NFL, Super Bowl, and Washington Commanders, this depends on the ability to stage and orchestrate the prominent advantages that can be attributed to the organization in relation to competitors in the market. Here, both the NFL as a whole and not least the tournament's highlight, the Super Bowl, stand much stronger than the team from Washington, which in recent years has struggled with fluctuating sporting performance, ownership and leadership that has gone through the court of public opinion, and further investigations due to allegations of poor working conditions and sexual violations.
The latter has caused noise in the short term, but the new Washington Commanders can trust that being part of 'the big show' on American soil, like the NFL and Super Bowl, can make a positive difference over time.
This gives a hybrid sports branding advantage in the long term based on the economic and sociological manifestation of brand strength in the interacting sports brands (editor's note: NFL and Super Bowl).
Also, the ability to adapt to the environment and thus stakeholders' requirements must not be underestimated, and a sports brand is also a reflection of the social sense of community that particularly comes from the younger generations towards increased sustainability, whereby the sense of community becomes a domino effect that takes more and more fans with it - including us in the parent generation or those in the grandparent generation who have a concern about our planet and especially our children or grandchildren's future.
Last but not least, this message will be strengthened by the fact that the NFL, the league's teams, and the Super Bowl are a prominent branding platform with great impact in the media landscape, but also in the 'talk of the town', which sport at this level always has been and will continue to be the subject of.
And surely there is a touch of sustainability in this, when the societal role of sport from the grassroots level all the way up to the professional level is examined as a larger ecosystem?
Listen to this podcast for further inspiration about the Super Bowl.
