Financial decisions feature highly in most consumers’ new year’s resolutions, so Experian targets the time of year to make a play for their attention. And when choosing spokespeople who can score with consumers, the financial information company decided to go to those who literally know how to tackle people—football players.
Experian has leveraged football audiences for years to take advantage of the sport’s wide reach and intense fandom. Experian has an “everything but the Super Bowl” approach, flooding the zone throughout the season leading to the National Football League championship.
“Live sports is the only must-see TV out there now,” says Steve Hartmann, head of integrated marketing for Experian. Nielsen numbers show football games move the needle in total TV viewership during the fall, both in broadcast and streaming networks. A recent Nielsen report called NFL games “the irrefutable multiplatform catalyst of the fall TV season.”
“We buy enough NFL advertising that we feel like we’re a pretty big player in the NFL,” says Hartmann. “We’re not the biggest, but we’re consistent. Every season you’re going to see Experian in NFL games, whether it’s the beginning of the season in September, October, or the NFL playoffs.”
The company started working with Kansas City Chief player Travis Kelce in 2023 when it launched its Smart Money debit card and in 2024 launched “Tackling Life,” a campaign that featured San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner and his wife Sydney and Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love and his fiancée Ronika Stone. In the ads, which promoted Experian’s financial management app, both couples discussed tackling common financial goals.
Most recently, Experian launched “BFFs,” featuring Warner and Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua. New spots, by Experian’s in-house agency The Cooler, show the two talking about life, football, and finances, and how the tools in the Experian app can help households’ financial management.
The new ads are an extension of Experian’s brand campaign with comedian Sam Richardson as the viewers’ BFF—Big Financial Friend—offering help with their financial journeys. That was the first brand revamp since 2016, as Experian repositions from a credit reporting company to a financial platform for consumers.
“With the NFL playoffs coming up and the college football playoffs coming up, we really wanted to put some NFL talent into our creative and introduce the BFF campaign through that lens,” says Hartmann. “We’re lucky enough to have two players that are on teams that are going to be in the playoffs, and hopefully we’ll make a run towards the Super Bowl.”
The campaign broke in December, in time for the run to the Super Bowl. Experian is not a sponsor of the big game, but Hartmann said the company advertises heavily in all the NFL and college football games leading to the championship, up to the pre-game shows.
Timing is important in the choice of football as a vehicle, says Hartmann. Between the college football playoffs around New Year’s Day and the NFL playoffs “football is on everybody’s mind in January,” so this was a good moment to shift from the branding campaign starring Richardson to a more product-focused campaign with a football theme, says Hartmann.
“January is a very important month for financial services and financial health. People make a lot of their financial decisions at the beginning of the year,” says Hartmann. “What’s the biggest way to reach an audience in January? Well, it’s the NFL playoffs.”
Football’s “Unduplicated Reach”
The combination of reach and engagement makes football a good strategic choice, says Hartmann. Within sports the football fandom brings “unduplicated reach” and holds the audience’s attention, he said.
“You know that your team is playing on Sunday at 1 o’clock and you’re going to tune in and watch them,” says Hartmann. “But then you also have the fact that you’re reaching 15 to 25 million people in one game.”
Experian is hoping to dig deeper into the fandom and cultural relevance these athletes bring. Besides airing during the game broadcasts, the spots will also appear across streaming platforms, social media, and other digital and connected TV platforms. Additionally, Experian has signed up to be the presenting sponsor of the podcast “Real Ones: The League” hosted by Warner.
“We want to reach NFL fans everywhere they are,” says Hartmann. “For us it’s really reaching that NFL audience with our NFL campaign, no matter where they are consuming their football content.”
Besides its existing reach, the NFL audience is also gaining value as it diversifies, attracting more women and younger viewers. In a time of fragmented attention, audiences and media that cultural relevance is unique, says Hartmann.
“There’s just a lot of ways the NFL has penetrated the society and made its way into the water cooler conversation. People talk on Monday mornings about it: ‘Did you watch that game yesterday?’ Being associated with that to me is really important for a brand, just because it is getting talked about and it is so big.”
Experian is thoughtful about its choice of spokespeople, says Hartman. It chose Fred Warner because he was “someone that can really speak to the product, understands how it works, (and) really can convey the benefit of it to a bigger audience,” Hartmann explains. It then paired him with Nacua, even though they are rivals on the field, because Warner was friends with Nacua’s older brother and they played together in college.
The concept was to bring two friends to talk about financial matters and how Experian could help, Hartmann explains. “We needed two BFFs off the field who could bring that to life.”
Beyond the football season, Experian will keep the sports focus during the post-season, by showing up in the big tentpole events of the year, including the World Cup and Winter Olympics. The campaign with Warner and Nacua will likely show during the Winter Olympics and the Daytona 500 in February. Experian is also running advertising during the World Cup programming on NBC, Telemundo and Peacock, but it’s too soon to say what the creative will look like, says Hartmann: We’ll probably have something new and exciting for that.”
