Buick, one of 15 Official Corporate Partners of NCAA Men’s Basketball, is activating around the 2021 tournament through an integrated campaign which is led by a series of television commercials as well as Buick’s NCAA March Madness In-Vehicle App.
The TV work, developed in harness with agency Engage M-1, is led by spots for the Buick Envision, Encore and Enclave (the official SUVs of NCAA March Madness) spearheaded by a commercial called ‘So You’ which highlights several key features including self-park, heads up display, safety cameras and wireless Apple CarPlay and set to ‘So You: Tight Spot’ sung by Matt and Kim.
The campaign also highlights the Buick special cash offers during March Madness.
From 14 March, the campaign also included a series of 25-second bumper spots wrapping game programming on official broadcasters CBS and Turner Sports including ‘Signs’, ‘Cucumber’, ‘Canon’, ‘All Of You’ and ‘Trombone’.
The spots are supported by social content running through the tournament across the car company’s own channels including a series of cat mascot executions and the #BuickDribble Final Four strand.
Need help with your brackets? Just pick all the teams with cat mascots. #SelectionSunday #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/2bRm9FQL7h
— Buick (@Buick) March 14, 2021
You have to look great when it comes to game time, right @GreatClips?
The All-New #BuickEnvision. Official SUV of the #MarchMadness. pic.twitter.com/8Bkp7REWuz
— Buick (@Buick) March 17, 2021
⏰ It’s time to register the entire family for the Final Four Dribble!
Free Dribble basketball
Free Dribble t-shirt
Pick up at your local participating @Buick dealershiphttps://t.co/jelPYfY4lZ#BuickDribble pic.twitter.com/2vxpNoVHWG
— NCAA Final Four (@FinalFour) March 4, 2021
The #BuickDribble is a national dealership linked activation strand which invites under 18’s to participate in the free Final Four event by joining thousands of fans dribbling in their neighborhoods between 29 March and 4 April and sharing their own dribbles on social media using the #BuickDribble hashtag.
The first 3,200 pre-registered participants will receive a free Dribble basketball and t-shirt along with instructions on how to do the Dribble presented by Buick outside in your own neighbourhood.
During the pre-registration process, participants will be asked to choose a Buick location most convenient to you to pick up your basketball, shirt and instructions.
While Buick’s NCAA March Madness In-Vehicle App has been developed to immerse owners/users in the action.
The app, which first debuted on Buick infotainment screens in 2018, provides what the brand describes as ‘an all-access pass to the tournament with live game coverage and highlights from the First Four all the way to the championship game’.
The app is auto-installed on Buicks and is activated from an icon on the Infotainment System2 screen (if the vehicle has an active data plan) and goes live when the first games tip off.
Comment:
Buick, which shares Official Corporate Partner of NCAA Men’s Basketball with fellow auto brand Nissan (as well as 13 other official corporate partners and three corporate champions in AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola), is leveraging the 2021 tournament in a major way.
Buick has been a sponsor of the NCAA March Madness college basketball tournament for many years and the 2021 in-vehicle app work follows a similar path as the auto mark laid down in 2019 and 2018.
The latest campaign follows on from previous notable Buick March Madness initiatives including its 2016 ‘Buick Bracketball’ work with agency Jack Moreton which revolved around an experience which aimed to resonate and reconnect with consumers and fans and cut through the noise, engage visitors and showcase a whole new side of Buick focused on its more modern, stylish and high-tech designs.
Buick Bracketball took March Madness brackets off the page and onto the court via a basketball game in the format of a bracket – the first bracket that fans could literally play.
The initiative included high-impact graphics, light-up Plexiglas backboards, regulation LED shot clocks, and sensitively calibrated scoreboards all came together to delicately merge our high-tech execution with the simple joy of playing basketball.
Played by all the family, players raced against the clock to score the most points. And so that fans could share the experience, we captured short videos of players sinking shots. The videos were available immediately so that, as soon as fans were done playing, they could share their victory on social media.
Fans engaged with vehicles to scan to win tickets to Final Four and championship games and it led to engagement levels, consideration and sales all soaring.
Amongst the key outcomes of that campaign were:
- 30% increase in display visits
- 50% more leads generated
- 60% sales increase
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