Katie Austin normally publishes fitness content to her Instagram and YouTube channel. But this week, she’s been posting a steady trickle of content from New Orleans.
That’s because Austin, 31, from California, is one of hundreds of creators who have swarmed the Big Easy for Super Bowl 59, getting paid large contracts to make social media content for big-name brands like Electronic Arts and Nike.
Austin was sent to New Orleans this week by Snap and the NFL to give her fans a behind-the-scenes look at the Super Bowl. She’s also involved in integrations around the games with brands like Microsoft and Verizon, for whom she is hosting a promotional fan event.
“I can reach a lot of people myself,” said Austin, who has about 2 million followers across all platforms. “So sending a creator like me to an experience, I am engaging my followers to get that awareness.”
As the 2024 NFL season concludes, viewership and engagement among Generation Z and Generation Alpha has hit a record high, according to the NFL. Austin’s role underscores a new reality where online creators are treated just like traditional celebrities, in an attempt to attract younger audiences to football.
The NFL has made this push in partnership with social apps like YouTube and Snapchat, highlighting the league’s evolving marketing strategies that are increasingly focused on digitally native audiences.
“You start to look at these different cohorts of fans, especially the ones that are a little more difficult to reach through linear and you start to see the role in which creators can play and broaden that audience,” said Ian Trombetta, NFL senior vice president of social, influencer and creator marketing.
For this year’s Super Bowl, featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, brands like Nike and EA are sponsoring creators to attend the event and post content.
Austin didn’t say how much she’s getting paid for the content she’s making at Super Bowl 59, but some brands have signed deals of up to six figures with some creators to promote the event, said Victoria Bachan, global president of Sixteenth, a creator talent management company.
“You can no longer really have a media strategy for tentpole opportunities like this that do not include a creator level,” said Bachan.
Brands are increasing their spending on influencer activations for this year’s Super Bowl between 25% and 35%, and they’re diverting funds from traditional TV-only advertising to do so, according to a study by Captiv8, an influencer marketing platform.
The push for creators comes after concerns about younger audiences’ lack of interest in sports had grown. A 2022 Emory Goizueta Business School study found that 27% of Gen Z identify as “anti-sports,” compared with 7% of millennials and 5% of Generation X.
The NFL’s push to engage creators, which began in 2019, has already paid off. The percentage of Gen Z and Gen A who identify as fans has grown steadily for the last three years to an all-time high as the league’s investment in creators has grown, according to the NFL.
Besides Austin, Snapchat sent a handful of other creators to the Super Bowl to post behind-the-scenes content using augmented reality filters.
Meanwhile, YouTube, which secured a $2 billion-per-year deal for the rights to “NFL Sunday Ticket” in 2022, has established itself as pivotal to connecting the league with digital audiences. This year, YouTube will debut as the first official sponsor of the Super Bowl Tailgate, which will feature events with top creators like Kristy and Desmond Scott and a livestreamed performance by rapper Post Malone before the game on Sunday.
To adapt to these changes, the NFL has eased up on restrictions around the use of official league footage by creators on their YouTube channels.
The league and YouTube in January expanded their “Access Pass” program to allow retired NFL players like Cam Newton, Jason Kelce and Kurt Benkert to use league footage in their videos.
“There’s this pathway now that certainly did not exist five to 10 years ago,” Trombetta said. “It’s really cool especially as these athletes showcase more of their personalities off the field.”