\n<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve heard of Taylor Swift<\/strong>, you\u2019ve almost definitely also heard of her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce<\/strong>. It\u2019s a publicity dream for the football team, and one that could never have been planned. Nonetheless, Lara Krug<\/strong>, the team\u2019s first-ever chief marketing officer, has been tasked with turning the Chiefs into, in her words, \u201cthe world\u2019s team,\u201d and she\u2019s leveraging the ripped-from-a-romance-novel love story between Kelce and Swift<\/a>, the team\u2019s so-far stellar regular season record (currently the best overall in the NFL), their Super Bowl three-peat quest, this week\u2019s premiere of a Chiefs-themed Hallmark Christmas movie<\/a>, and more to ensure it happens.<\/p>\n \u201cSome things in life can’t be scripted, but you can certainly take the opportunity and run with it,\u201d Krug recently told Vanity Fair<\/em> in a bar high above Times Square.<\/p>\n Since joining the Chiefs organization in 2021, Krug\u2014who has experience at Anheuser-Busch InBev, L’Or\u00e9al USA, and Avon\u2014has been focused on raising the team\u2019s profile on a global scale. Is Krug counting on that winning record and high-profile romance to spike the metaphorical marketing football? No, but she\u2019s not not<\/em> using those fortuitous facts to her advantage.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish them nothing but absolute happiness in their lives,\u201d she said, measuredly, while noting Kelce and Swift have brought new eyes to the team. Remember: The first time Swift showed up at Arrowhead Stadium<\/a>, sales of Kelce\u2019s jersey<\/a> reportedly spiked by a whopping 400%<\/a>. That\u2019s one of those things you certainly can\u2019t script.<\/p>\n What can be scripted, however, is a movie. The Chiefs organization collaborated with Hallmark for Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story<\/em>, a feature-length tale of love and conflicts of business interests between a multi-generational Chiefs fan (her) and a Chiefs fan engagement employee who tends toward the Grinchy (him). There is eggnog, there is a magic hat, there is a sudden understanding of the Meaning of Christmas And Also What It Means to Really Love the Chiefs, and there is, of course, a happy ending. The movie premieres on the Hallmark Channel on November 30, the day after the Chiefs play the Oakland Raiders, a game that will stream live on Amazon Prime on Black Friday, another win for Krug and her team. It also has the potential of being two days of programming that will satisfy across sectors of extended families gathered for the holidays. The couches don\u2019t even know what\u2019s coming for them.<\/p>\n The idea for the movie, Krug said, \u201cstarted with our Chiefs playoffs campaign last year.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe created this idea that the playoffs [are] the best holiday of the year,\u201d she said. \u201cIt has a lot of the tropes of all the other holidays. People dress up, they eat too much, there’s fireworks\u2014all the pieces. The postseason as a holiday campaign came to be and in it, riffing off of the cultural relevance of last year of love stories and romance and all the things, we thought, what better way to tell a holiday story than a holiday movie?\u201d<\/p>\n