The Peak Celebrity Era

Taylor Swift has had an outsized influence on pop culture and commerce in 2023 and 2024, putting her mark on music sales, NFL ratings, sales of official and unofficial merchandise, and more. While Swift is an anomaly in the breadth and depth of her current dominance, her situation nevertheless makes an interesting case study on the power of celebrity in the world of consumer products and experiences.

Some of the sectors where Swift has distinguished herself of late include:

• Music sales. Swift’s current Eras Tour became the first ever concert tour to gross more than $1 billion globally at the end of 2023, according to Pollstar, and the number is still rising. Luminate found that Swift accounted for 1.2 trillion on-demand streams across U.S. audio platforms in 2023, or one in every 78 streams, and she was the most-streamed artist on Spotify in 2023, with more than 26 billion streams globally. Swift also released two albums during the year, with 19 million total units sold, making her the number-one artist of 2023 in this category. Her theatrical concert film had the highest grossing opening weekend ever for this genre and ranked as the fifth biggest box office success of any film during the year.

• NFL fandom. CBS reported a 53% increase in female viewers aged 12-17 watching NFL games between the start of the football season and the AFC Championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs—Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce’s team—and the Baltimore Ravens on January 28, 2024. The first game Swift attended, in September, attracted 63% more female viewers aged 18-49 than the Chiefs’ previous game, according to Roku TV, translating to a 61% increase in overall viewers. On February 11, 2024, the Super Bowl, which featured the Chiefs and was famously attended by Swift, was the top-rated Super Bowl telecast ever with 123.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, up 7.5% from the previous record of 115 million in 2023. Meanwhile, Swift generated $331.5 million in equivalent brand value (EBV) for the Kansas City Chiefs and the NFL in the four months between her first Chiefs game and January 22 (before the AFC Championship game and the Super Bowl), according to Apex Marketing Group.

• Official merchandise. Sports Innovation Lab data showed that the NFL hit a single-day record in merchandise transactions, across all 32 franchises, on the day Swift attended her first Chiefs game, including through the NFL Shop, NFL Gamepass, and NFL+. According to Fanatics, sales of Kelce jerseys spiked nearly 400% after the first game Swift attended, putting him in the top five players in sales and spurring sell-outs of his jersey in women’s sizes. (He is still labeled as a trending player and “most popular in jerseys” on NFL Shop more than two weeks after the Super Bowl.) Forty-five percent of Swifties overall and 70% of “dedicated fans” said in an Adtaxi survey that her connection to the game increased their interest in football, and the latter group was three times more likely to buy NFL merchandise than before the Swift era. A collaborative necklace from NFL Wear by Erin Andrews and BaubleBar, both NFL licensees, sold out the night Swift wore it during a game, and had a waitlist in the 10s of thousands a week later. When Swift wore a custom upcycled Chiefs jacket made by designer Kristin Juszczyk, the latter’s business spiked and she ended up with an NFL licensing deal. Back to music, meanwhile, Pollstar estimated that $200 million worth of official merchandise was sold at Swift’s 60 Eras Tour shows in 2023, not including products purchased off-site before or after the concert.

• Unofficial, artisanal, and vintage merchandise. Westside Storey, an independent Kansas City shop, saw orders spike into the hundreds after games attended by Swift, especially after she wore a vintage jersey from the store; online drops of merchandise, meanwhile, went from 30 to 50 people shopping and half of the items selling, to 1,200 to 1,500 people shopping and products selling out in five minutes. Separately, EB and Co., which sells $14 rings featuring a red jersey shape with Kelce’s number 87, sold out the 100 units on hand and had preorders of close to 1,200 after Swift was spotted wearing one at a game. Etsy and TikTok Shop merchants and print-on-demand sites are selling out products featuring NFL/Swift-influenced designs and phrases, such as “Go Taylor’s Boyfriend,” “The Football Era,” or the Chiefs’ arrowhead logo with Swift’s first name inside. Much of this DIY merchandise is borderline or fully infringing on official trademarks, but so far the NFL and Swift seem to be taking a tolerant stance.

• DIY supplies. Swift’s followers make and trade friendship bracelets consisting of brightly colored beads, messages inspired by song lyrics, captured in letter beads, and charms. Michael’s reports that sales in the jewelry category, including jewelry-making kits, have been up more than 40% across the chain since mid-April 2023, coinciding with the start of the friendship bracelet trend about a month after the Eras Tour launched on March 17. Jumps in category sales average 300% in cities where Swift has tour stops in the days leading up to the concert. The chain has adjusted inventory levels, created displays of bracelet-making products, and held in-store classes to accommodate fans and drive sales. Meanwhile, Swifties also create their own outfits to wear to the concerts, inspired by song lyrics, which certainly adds to the DIY sales boost.

• Overall economic impact. Research company QuestionPro has estimated that total consumer spending tied to the concerts (including travel, hotels, tickets, and apparel purchased) has exceeded $5 billion in the U.S., with fans dropping more than $1,300 on average (compared to $100 for fans of a typical concert). The U.S. Travel Association estimated that, including both direct and indirect spending, the economic impact could be as high as $10 billion; this includes, for example, people who come from out of town for the show and stay a few days investing in the local economy. A Tokyo City University professor estimated that his city would see a minimum 25% increase in revenue for every night of the tour.

• Social influence. In August 2023, Swift posted a message on Instagram encouraging her followers (totaling 272 million on the platform) to register to vote on National Voter Registration Day at Vote.org, operated by a nonpartisan nonprofit group. The site recorded 35,252 registrations, 23% more than the previous year’s Registration Day number and the most since 2020. The number of 18-year-olds registered more than doubled compared to 2022. It is not known how many of those registrations were Swift-connected, but anecdotal evidence suggests many were: Vote.org said it saw a 1,226% jump in participation in the hour after Swift’s post, with 13,000 users visiting the site, on average, during each 30-minute segment.

How long these trends will last is anyone’s guess, but the Eras Tour is scheduled to continue through the end of this year. It should also be noted that Swift has generated some negative sentiment in the past year as well—especially with regard to her connection with the NFL—as is typical for almost any celebrity initiative (or any initiative at all) these days. Still, her commercial accomplishments are impressive.

Very few celebrities will boost merchandise sales to this degree, of course. That said, many famous faces drive purchasing. Attendees of Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour last year spent above $1,800 per show, according to QuestionPro, even more per capita than Swift’s fans are spending. Fanatics said it moved more merchandise tied to University of Iowa basketballer Caitlin Clark in a 24-hour period than it has for any collegiate athlete in the NIL era, after she broke the NCAA women’s scoring record earlier this month. And YouTuber MrBeast, who recently announced a licensing deal with Moose Toys, has said he brings in $600 million to $700 million per year from his 239 million-subscriber channel and products such as his Feastables food brand.

As these examples show, celebrities can have a profound impact on the purchasing decisions of their loyal followers, although not all become mainstream success stories. This illustrates why—from the growth of celebrity-branded merchandise to bumps in sales from official and unofficial endorsements—celebrity marketing has become such an important component of the licensing business.