AFL clubs told to appeal to Taylor Swift demographic to help promote AFLW teams

The league is desperate to revive crowds in the AFLW after conceding it halted momentum last year. And to do so, they’re encouraging clubs to follow the lead of the world’s biggest popstar.

A room filled with AFL club executives and staff was made to shout “Taylor Swift” in unison during the league’s inaugural industry-wide summit on Tuesday.

The league is desperate to revive crowds in the AFLW after conceding it halted momentum last year with a fixture that traversed too many venues and too many timeslots.

Appealing to the “Swiftie” demographic — with its high concentration of millennial and Gen Z women — was a focus in several sessions at the two-day summit including an AFL panel on “winning the future fan”.

Comparisons were drawn between Swift’s “elite-level performances”, the “stadium experience” on offer and the potential ceiling of the women’s competition as clubs were encouraged to pursue the same target demographic to market their home games.

St Kilda’s timely Eras-inspired marketing and Adelaide’s “Crowchella” campaigns from the previous AFLW season were understood to have thrilled senior staff at AFL House, with both teams drawing above average crowds to their home games in 2024.

The summit was part of the league’s push for a more collaborative approach between its 19 clubs, and also featured a 30-minute presentation from Gold Coast’s merchandise team and Elite Sports apparel boss Joe Siciliano on the Suns’ pink 2025 Gather Round guernsey.

The session was titled: “Think Pink: The Bold Guernsey That Changed The Game”.

Gold Coast stars Noah Anderson (left), Touk Miller (front) and Wil Powell model the Suns’ ‘trailblazing’ pink Gather Round guernsey. Picture: Gold Coast Suns

Department heads including chief financial officers, football operations bosses and social media managers from all clubs including the Tasmania Devils’ administration sat in the AFLW and future fan sessions on Tuesday morning.

After lunch they broke off into smaller groups to discuss topics ranging from the use of AI to an update from AFL general counsel Stephen Meade on the concussion class actions the league is facing.

On Wednesday, Essendon chief strategy and growth officer Mark Bolton and Sydney finance boss Leigh Taylor presented to the clubs on exploring non-traditional revenue sources, while Adelaide’s Catherine Evans and Anna Muecke shared with rivals how the club worked towards its well-received rebrand at the end of the 2024 season.

AFL boss Andrew Dillon had opened the inaugural summit on Tuesday morning, mounting a stage in the Medallion Club room at Marvel Stadium to the soaring chorus of Ed Sheeran’s Castle on the Hill.

A relaxed Dillon told the audience the league was in “complex negotiations” with a prospective grand final music act and tipped Adelaide for the men’s flag as he also took a probing line of questioning from host Kath Loughnan on the direction of the game.

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon says it was important to ‘bring everyone together’ at the league’s first ever whole industry summit this week. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

The league has ran plenty of club-wide conferences in the past, but Dillon said it was a significant shift to combine all sectors into the single event in Melbourne.

“What we were doing previously was having a number of different conferences that were sort of running in silos … we thought, what about bringing everyone together so that we can all learn,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

“The feedback from clubs has been great … we’re not really getting into the heavy football stuff (in the sessions).

“We just want to make sure that our game remains accessible and affordable, and as popular as what it has been.”

Originally published as AFL clubs told to appeal to Taylor Swift demographic to help promote AFLW teams