Growing the game overseas is more than a slogan for the Indianapolis Colts. It is a real push, and the organization sees London and other international stops as a chance to introduce the Horseshoe to fans far beyond Indiana.
Stephanie Pemberton, the Colts’ senior vice president of marketing, said the team has already felt that demand.
“We’ve seen a huge appetite for American football around the world,” said Stephanie Pemberton, the senior vice president of marketing for the Colts.
For the Colts, that interest is about more than the result on the field. It is also about how the franchise presents itself to people seeing it up close for the first time.
“I think people really resonate with kind of the Midwestern values, the Hoosier hospitality that the Colts are kind of known for,” Pemberton added.
The club has already taken that message to Germany twice, and Pemberton said the atmosphere there showed just how wide the appeal can be. At the Berlin game, she said fans were invested in both sides, while plenty of others were simply there to soak in the event.
“At our Berlin game one of the things we saw is, fans were cheering for both teams. Like you had a core Colts fan base, you had a core Falcons fan base,” Pemberton said.
“But then you had a lot of fans that just were there to experience it. And they were just happy for every stage of the game and every big moment.”
The Colts also have a decade of London experience to lean on. Ten years after their last game there, the team has come to appreciate that overseas fans are drawn to the full NFL production, not just the football itself.
“The sort of pomp and circumstance that comes with NFL games, whether that’s pregame entertainment, whether that’s the tailgating, halftime shows,” Pemberton said.
Blue is part of that international push, too. When the Colts travel, their mascot travels with them, and according to mascot program specialist Isaac Soares, the reaction abroad can be bigger than people expect.
“To actually see Blue there, it’s almost like seeing a celebrity, right?” said Isaac Soares, mascot program specialist for the Colts.
Soares said he spent roughly a hundred days last year traveling overseas to help promote Blue. His goal is to raise the bar for mascots around the league by building memorable moments in person and online for the team’s global audience.
“We have some pub activations. Actually, Blue has his own pub that we’ll be activating at called the Blue Post.
So, it’ll be very much Blue specific. The Colts are activating at a different pub, and Blue will go to that pub as well.
But we’re going to do a bunch of content and have a bunch of people that is just for Blue,” Soares said.
For the Colts, that kind of effort fits into a bigger leaguewide direction. Pemberton pointed to Roger Goodell’s comments about continuing to make international games a priority and said the team wants to be part of that expansion.
“As [NFL commissioner] Roger Goodell has said, like, this is going to continue to be a priority. And I think his vision is that that teams do continue to increase their frequency of playing internationally. So, we’re certainly want to be a part of that growth and that opportunity,” Pemberton said.
Soares said the experience goes beyond football and mascot work.
“It’s really special to be able to break those barriers of language and culture to just connect in a way that’s very human,” Soares said.
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