Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce is expanding his empire again. Beyond his play with the Chiefs, Kelce is known for his New Heights podcast with brother Jason, the Kelce Jam music and food festival he launched in Kansas City this year, his appearance in June’s edition of The Match (where he and Patrick Mahomes took down Steph Curry and Klay Thompson), his hosting of Saturday Night Live, and more. And now, he’s taking over as the newest “Overly Direct Spokesperson” for DirecTV, a campaign that started earlier this year with Succession star Brian Cox.
Not surprisingly, Kelce’s first commercial in the role is focused on DirecTV’s sports offerings. In particular, it plays up their recently-launched Sports Central, an on-screen hub focused on providing access to live games, stats, and scores in one location, and their SportsPack of channels including NFL Network, NFL RedZone, league networks, conference networks, CBS Sports Network, and more. Here’s the commercial:
And here are some quotes from a release:
“I’ve loved seeing the DirectTV commercials over the years and I’m honored to follow in the footsteps of several football legends that I also call friends,” said Kelce. “This is a fun campaign and showcases DIRECTV as the ideal solution for football fans looking for a great viewing experience.”
“The new Overly Direct Sportsperson spots and digital activations are a light-hearted way to demonstrate DIRECTV’s leadership in bringing sports, including football, to viewers, whether through live TV or various streaming apps,” said Vince Torres, chief marketing officer, DIRECTV. “The campaign is intended to be fun, with a focus on the differentiation of the DIRECTV customer experience, including sports access, aggregation, and personalization.”
It’s interesting to see DirecTV continue to emphasize sports in general and football in particular, as this will be the first year they don’t have NFL Sunday Ticket (which has moved to Google/YouTube) for individual consumers (they will be offering it to businesses, something they do with many other streaming sports packages). But they still have a lot of sports offerings, including NFLN and RedZone (a carriage deal they renewed for multiple years last month).
And Kelce’s certainly a prominent personality in the sports world and beyond, and one with a sense of humor. So it makes sense for them to tab him, following in the wake of other NFL-affiliated figures like the Mannings, Tony Romo, Andrew Luck, and Rob Lowe. And it makes sense for him to do this as the next step in boosting his business empire.
[DirecTV on YouTube]
