The NFL Shop at Super Bowl in downtown Phoenix Convention Center occupies 30,000 sq. ft. (Photo by Aramark)
This may be the year that NFL Shop at Super Bowl sales offsite equal sales at the University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Ariz., on Super Bowl Sunday.
Prior to the big game Feb. 1, Natara Holloway, VP, Brand Marketing and Retail Development, Consumer Products, for the National Football League, predicted the usual 60/40 ratio may easily shift this year. Sales at the NFL Shop at the Phoenix Convention Center downtown, adjacent to the local consumer-oriented NFL Experience were booming, she said.
An 11-year veteran of the NFL, including four years heading up brand marketing, Holloway said the first rule in merchandise has always been making sure fans have the product. Today, that’s enhanced with the mantra that the fans have a good time buying the product. “It’s the experience,” she said. “It’s not just the purchase.”
“Replenishment is easy these days,” she added. That used to be the biggest hurdle, but everything is automated and refined now, so retailers can concentrate on the added value. NFL Consumer Products is growing by leaps and bounds, to the point that this year, the NFL Shop at the NFL Experience occupied 30,000 square feet.
That retail outlet was open for nine days from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. leading up to Super Bowl, and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on game day. This year, it benefited from attendees at the Pro Bowl Jan. 25, which was also held at the University of Phoenix Stadium.
“A lot of merchandise is sold on game day,” Holloway said, “but we benefit from local sales at the NFL Experience, often from people who are not going to the game.”
Bragging rights start with interaction.
Among options is the Virtual Dressing Room, where fans can pick a shirt and hat, even possibly a foam finger, and ‘virtually’ put it on. They are e-mailed a photo of how they look in the Super Bowl gear. Hopefully, they will also buy the items.
That option was offered in the NFL Fan Style Tour truck, which was parked outside the NFL Shop in Phoenix. The 53-foot trailer has been on the road since August 2014, making 26 stops building up to Super Bowl.
It was set up this year as part of Verizon Super Bowl Central. With more than one million visitors expected to attend, the state of Arizona teamed up with Verizon to transform downtown Phoenix into 2015 Super Bowl epicenter Jan. 28-Feb. 1.
NFL Shop entertainment elements this year included a large autograph signing section, a customization zone where buyers could purchase their face on a football, for example, and 32 mannequins of NFL players with which they could take their pictures.
Exclusive merchandise always impacts sales, and the NFL Shop at the NFL Experience had some of its own, not even available at the Super Bowl game. When the New Era Arrival Cap was put on sale the day the teams (Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots) hit the Phoenix tarmac, duplicating what they wore on arrival, it sold out within an hour, Holloway said. It was only available at the NFL Shop.
The entire retail experience is hyped on NFLShop.com and most items seen in the store are also available online. That has boosted sales enormously.
The NFL Shop is handled in-house. Aramark is the NFL’s retail operator at the Super Bowl.
Super Bowl 50 will be held Feb. 7, 2016, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.
Interviewed for this story: Natara Holloway, (212) 450-2000