Though NFL Draft viewership is lower than the league’s usual standards for games, many sports would love to have a fraction of the audience that tuned in on Thursday to see Caleb Williams go to the Chicago Bears with the No. 1 pick.
In 2023, the National Football League welcomed 11.29 million viewers to its first-round NFL Draft broadcasts on ABC, ESPN and the NFL Network. That would’ve placed the Draft in the depths of the 50 most-watched sporting events of the year—which were all NFL broadcasts—but still gave it a sports marketing audience larger than all but one game of the World Series and any auto racing event, any domestic or international soccer event or any hockey or tennis event.
That doesn’t include 123 million Super Bowl viewers this year—the largest television audience since 150 million people watched the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.
“The NFL is riding massive momentum in fandom, interest and viewership, and the draft is an exciting moment for the most passionate fans to welcome the new players,” said Basia Wojcik, vp of sports at The Marketing Arm. “It’s no wonder that brands want to appeal to these fandoms—both the teams’ and the draftees’—and activate around this hopeful event.”
While the draft runs through Saturday in downtown Detroit’s Campus Martius Park and Hart Plaza and will be broadcast on NFL Network, ABC, ESPN, ESPN Deportes and streamed on NFL+ throughout, some brands got a jump on the action with ads and activations.
Here are just a few notable examples:
NFL
The league launched a spot featuring Brock Purdy (San Francisco 49ers), Puka Nacua (Los Angeles Rams) and Aidan Hutchinson (Detroit Lions)—who each had exceptional rookie years—offering advice to draftees as clips of Marvin Harrison Jr. (Ohio State), Caleb Williams (USC), J.J. McCarthy (University of Michigan) and Jayden Daniels (LSU) play throughout.
“My advice for draft prospects is letting them know their rookie year is going to be tough in the best way, but make sure you soak up this selection moment and embrace whatever team you end up on,” Hutchinson said. “We have something special here in Detroit, and when you look at the success of last season, we’re going to build off that.”
Nationwide
Peyton Manning, the No. 1 pick of the 1998 NFL Draft, joins financial services company and NFL sponsorship veteran Nationwide in telling league prospects how to handle some of the more awkward on-stage elements of draft night. An NFL sponsor since 2014 and presenting sponsor of its Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award, Nationwide just added the league’s retirement-planning sponsorship to its lengthy roster of official league auto, home, life, business, agribusiness and pet insurance partnerships.
