Analysis by Kevin Albright in KIN 501
I came across a marketing article Athletic Business Journal that I found really interesting regarding the NCAA Tournament and how big of a stage it is for marketers around the country. The article starts off by saying that the NCAA Tournament is not quite as attractive to marketers as maybe the Super Bowl or the most recent Olympics, however it is pretty close and especially this year is gaining a lot of attention from marketers. The tournament consists of over 60 basketball games which are all broadcasted over four popular TV stations (TBS,CBS,TNT, TruTV). Games go on for nearly 3 weeks and attract many viewers outside of basketball fans because of the size of the event and the instructiveness of filling out a bracket and competing against others for the better bracket. The article talks about the tournament being a marketers dream because of the large coverage as well as the fact that it’s live sports, they describe it as “TiVo proof”.
Last year it was said that the tournament generated over 1 billion dollars in ad revenue and they anticipate exceeding that this year. The growth of social media has helped the marketing of brands also because for three weeks social media is buzzing about everything relating to the NCAA Tournament. Also companies are sponsoring apps, hotels, contests, hosting concerts and running promotions during this time to grab the attention of their views and promote their product. I see it as a great way to market because of the reasons the article mentioned dealing with it being a 3 week event, live TV, tons of social media opportunities and the size of the spectators.
This topic is very relevant to class because determining where you are going to use your marketing resources is one of the most crucial parts to a successful marketing program. I also thought that it would spark and interesting discussion on how valuable some marketing may be and what kind of price tag can you put on it. For example Warren Buffet is teaming up with Quicken Loans to offer 1 billion dollars to anyone who can get a perfect bracket. Quicken Loans is gaining so much publicity from this contest and they are willing to risk a lot of money if someone wins the contest. Now the odds are very slim that someone gets a perfect bracket but it was the decision they had to make as to how valuable is that as a marketing scheme. The importance of studying trends and analyzing numbers and statistics can be critical to devising a strong marketing plan.
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