The Philadelphia Eagles: Stoking National Football League Fandom in Africa

In 2022, the National Football League (NFL) created the International Home Marketing Areas program with the goal of stimulating global fandom for American football. As part of the program, the league assigned individual teams exclusive commercial rights to international territories, effectively giving teams the opportunity to create “international home markets.” As a result, the Eagles, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania were granted access to Ghana, making it the first NFL team to officially enter a market in Africa.<br><br\>But how should the Eagles’ marketing team go about creating a fan community in Ghana? How should it market the game of American football? What media or social channels should the team use to reach and connect with Ghanaian audiences? What activation points should it leverage? Should the team prioritize educating Ghanaians on the rules and nuances of American football or focus on building awareness and interest in the Eagles franchise specifically? And how should the Eagles evaluate whether their marketing efforts are succeeding? These were all questions Jen Kavanagh—Senior Vice-President of Marketing and Media for the Philadelphia Eagles—needed to answer before she could formalize the Eagles’ marketing strategy in Ghana.

This case is designed to foster discussion on how to introduce existing products and brands and create brand communities in new, specifically international, markets. It highlights the opportunities and challenges associated with marketing and branding decisions for international expansion, particularly those that are mature in their country of origin but unfamiliar or uncommon elsewhere. The case illustrates the issues that must be considered, as well as specific challenges of professional sports marketing at league and franchise levels. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to<br><br\><ul><li>develop an integrated marketing campaign plan: defining the objective, allocating budget, developing creative tactics, and selecting media channels and metrics to measure campaign success and efficacy;</li><li>understand the role of community and local partnerships in introducing new products abroad;</li><li>discern how to balance a standardized versus localized strategy for crafting a compelling brand image across different markets;</li><li>evaluate past efforts to export products or brands abroad in order to identify key barriers and opportunities;</li><li>analyze market maturity to guide marketing decisions around which brands should focus communications and activities on increasing primary demand through category-level education and awareness versus driving secondary demand;</li><li>analyze how brands can use community engagement, experiential marketing, and celebrity or brand partnerships to grow strategically; and</li><li>discuss how to create engaging brand stories or compelling brand position.</li></ul>

• international branding
• advertising
• integrated marketing communications
• brand communities