When it comes to attracting sponsors and ad dollars, the March Madness tournament is arguably the USA’s second biggest sports property (after the Super Bowl).
While the final buzzer-beating game attracted just 18 million TV viewers (a 37% fall from last year after switching to cable-only) and associated 30-second spots cost just $1.5m (compared to the Super Bowl’s 115 million and $5m), the whole NCAA men’s basketball tournament has a huge audience of around 180 million. Few other live properties can match that number of eyeballs.
Little surprise then that NCAA top tier partners (like LG, AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola) and its other 15 official sponsors invest big bucks in official partnerships.
But the eclectic range of unpredictable brands from several left-field categories – all eager to engage with this huge March Madness fan base – is something of a surprise.
After all, which other sports property can attract as diverse leverage campaigns as diverse as the official ladder partner Werner, iconic motorcycle outfit Harley-Davidson’s ‘Live Your Legend‘, as well as international sponsorship heavyweight work like Capital One’s ‘Road Trip To The Final Four’ and LG’s #Do Game Day Right’?
This year even saw a funky tournament ‘campaign button/badge’ campaign from the highbrow, political heavyweight media brand The Washington Post.
Indeed, 2016 saw Wunderman analyse tournament brand and category spend (in the form of social media mentions and fan buying behaviour) and its data revealed the category that spent the most was children’s apparel, toys and baby products (through brands like Disney, Hot Wheels, Huggies and Barbie).
Why?
Well, the study shows NCAA basketball has a younger fan profile than most major sports properties. The average March Madness fan is a 35-to-39-year old married man with kids and an annual income between $75,000 and $100,000.
So big spending, younger adult men with kids – a desirable demographic that challenges the sports fan stereotype. No wonder Harley-Davidson launched its new global #LiveYourLegend campaign aimed at engaging a younger rider during this year’s tournament.
When it comes to sports properties, March Madness isn’t just very big, but it is also very different.
