Year in Review

Our 2025 Marketer of The Year is The NFL

By Colin Costello
December 31, 2025

In a year marked by volatility, exhaustion, and cultural whiplash, one brand didn’t just cut through the noise. It rose above it. The National Football League earns Reel 360 News’ Creative Marketer of the Year for 2025 not because it shouted the loudest, but because it understood something essential: when the world feels fractured, people crave connection. And no one delivered that connection at a greater scale, with more intention, than the NFL.

In 2025, the NFL didn’t simply promote games. It marketed belief. Belief in teams, in communities, in optimism, and in the idea that shared experiences still matter. That may sound lofty, but it was executed with discipline, data, and remarkable creative clarity. At a moment when audiences were fatigued by corporate posturing and culture war signaling, the league leaned into joy, unity, and emotional truth, reframing football as one of the last remaining live rituals that brings people together across age, geography, and ideology.

This didn’t happen by accident. The NFL’s marketing engine is among the most research-driven in the world. According to TV measurement firm EDO, NFL advertising remains the most effective environment on television. A single NFL ad delivers the impact of more than 20 ads on other broadcast or cable programming.

During the 2024 season, regular-season NFL ads were 19 percent more effective than the primetime average, playoff ads jumped 63 percent higher, and Super Bowl spots surged 243 percent, according to EDO. Early 2025 data suggests that momentum has not slowed.

Week 1 NFL ads this season were already 56 percent more effective than the primetime average. They outperformed last year’s regular-season benchmarks, reinforcing why the league remains the most powerful advertising environment on television.

Under the leadership of EVP and CMO Tim Ellis, the NFL has undergone a full-scale creative and cultural reinvention. Since joining the league in 2018, Ellis has pushed a philosophy that blends purpose with personalization and escapism with responsibility.

His “helmets off” approach humanized players, turning them into multidimensional cultural figures rather than distant athletes. That strategy paid off again in 2025, as ads featuring players proved significantly more effective than those without. Spots starring Kansas City Chiefs Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes, and even Andy Reid outperformed league averages, reinforcing the power of authenticity and familiarity.

Creatively, the league’s partnership with 72andSunny continued to define the tone. Campaigns like the Kickoff anthem “You Better Believe It” didn’t just hype a season. They tapped into a universal emotional insight backed by years of NFL research: optimism peaks before Week One, especially among families and younger fans. The league didn’t ignore that data. It built its creative around it, turning belief itself into the product.

Inclusivity was another defining pillar. Girls’ flag football wasn’t treated as a side initiative but as a central growth strategy. The NFL’s investment in flag football now spans dozens of states and multiple global markets, with participation directly linked to long-term fandom. With flag football set to debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, the league’s storytelling in this space felt not just progressive but prescient. These campaigns didn’t lecture. They invited.

Technology also played a critical role. In 2025, the NFL leaned further into hybrid production models, blending live action, CGI, and generative AI to personalize creative for all 32 teams without fragmenting the brand. Streaming partnerships with Prime Video, Peacock, and Netflix delivered ads that were 66 percent more effective than traditional broadcast placements. Yet, the technology never overshadowed the message. Emotion always came first.

What ultimately sets the NFL apart is consistency, not just in messaging, but in values. Week after week, season after season, the league delivered work that felt human, hopeful, culturally fluent, and inclusive. In a year when so many brands chased outrage or irony, the NFL chose joy, belief, and togetherness, and made it feel earned.

That’s not just great marketing. That’s creative leadership at scale.

Go Birds!