by

Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, February 5, 2018

The National Football League (NFL) does not seem to resonate well with younger viewers, which means advertisers could be losing out on reaching their strongest lifelong audience, according to Lotame data released Monday.

Fans ages 18 to 24 years old show the “lowest interest” among all who show an interest in football and use a PC or a smartphone.

Those with the highest interest in the NFL were individuals between 45 and 54 years of age, followed by between 55 and 64, more than 65 years old, between 35 and 44 years of age, and between 25 and 34 years of age.

It’s not clear from the data why the NFL is losing young fans. A Burson-Marsteller

study released last week suggests football fans want the NFL to keep politics out of the game — or at least Super Bowl LII. Still, millennials are more welcoming of a political statement than other demographic groups, with 51% saying the game is a very appropriate place to express political views, and 21%, saying that’s somewhat appropriate,

Broken down geographically, there were some differences in attitudes toward the NFL in the Lotame study. In urban and rural areas, individuals between the ages of 55 and 64 showed the most positive NFL behaviors, while individuals between the ages of 35 and 44 led in suburban areas.

Lotame, an independent data management platform, examined the digital behavior of “connected NFL fans,” which the company defines as Americans who “are interested in football” and use a PC and a smartphone.

Connected NFL fans ranked in the top 71 percentile of income, and have “good” credit as a group.

MediaPost.com: Search Marketing Daily

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