12 min read
Dec 16, 2024
March Madness creates unparalleled excitement, drawing both fans and non-fans to watch college basketball teams vie for the national championship. Brands across the US leverage this buzz with targeted consumer promotions to take advantage of the buzz and excitement surrounding the NCAA tournament (and brackets, of course) and the school spirit of students and alumni.
Basketball is the second most followed sports in the world and more so among 16-25-year-olds in the U.S. The NCAA Division I basketball tournament is commonly called ‘March Madness’ and takes the format of a single-elimination tournament between 68 teams. According to ESPN, in 2023, the men’s final averaged 14.69 million viewers, and the women’s final averaged 9.92 million viewers – an all-time high. This much-loved sport is further boosted by NCAA developments like division realignments, NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deals, and legalized sports betting. Meanwhile, technological advancements and the rise of streaming services are transforming fan engagement through immersive experiences and diverse viewing options.
March Madness Promotions: Scoring Big with Smart Marketing Strategies
Few events rival March Madness in creating a buzz and for marketers, the tournament offers a unique opportunity to engage audiences and drive sales. Here are key strategies to make the most of this annual sporting spectacle:
1) Build Engagement with Fans
The excitement starts even before tip-off. Brands can tap into the pre-tournament buzz by creating engaging and sharable content through bracket challenges, asking fans to pick Cinderella teams or predict winners. During the games, amplify engagement with bracket and mini-bracket contests, live social media activities, and rewards for accurate picks.
2) Maximize Real-Time Fan Engagement
Gamification-based promotions like Sports Bingo or Bracket challenges bring fans closer to the action while offering exciting prizing opportunities. Platforms like Snipp help brands partner with professional sports leagues and teams to drive engagement and loyalty at every stage of the tournament:
- Pre-Game: Motivate fans to participate playing the odds, registration drives, and data collection for valuable first-party insights.
- In-Game: Delight audiences with real-time interactive gameplay, enhancing the experience with rewards and special offers.
- Post-Game: Keep the momentum going with post-game promotions, messaging, and new incentives to drive foot traffic and continued excitement.
3) Bracket Battle: Engage Fans with Themed Contests
One of the best things about March Madness is the bracket. Every year, millions of people fill in their tournament brackets – analyzing expert predictions and poring over form guides in an effort to chart the course of the famously unpredictable tournament.
Lean into this by running a contest that asks players to fill out a bracket and share their picks with you online. In exchange, players can win prizes for accurately predicting results and the overall tournament winner. These can be anything from a care package full of your most popular products to an experience day or a cash reward. The important thing is to offer something customers value.
To keep players engaged throughout the tournament, consider awarding prizes to the highest-scoring players at the end of each round. Alternatively, you could use a live scoreboard to allow players to see how they compare to others and indulge their competitive instincts.
Quicken Loans and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway offered $1 billion for a perfect NCAA March Madness bracket this year, payable in 40 annual installments or a lump sum. Along with the grand prize, the company awarded $100,000 to the 20 most accurate brackets, for use in home-related purchases. Quicken Loans also donated $1 million to educational non-profits in Detroit and Cleveland, tying the campaign to social impact.
To celebrate the 2024 tournament, Buffalo Wild Wings had a real buffalo named Jack select brackets for both the men’s and women’s tournaments. On March 19, the completed brackets were released, and fans were invited to submit their own at BeatTheBuffalo.com to see how their picks compared to Jack’s.
4) Collaborate with Influencers and Streaming Platforms
Partnering with athletes or sports influencers during March Madness 2025 boosts visibility and adds authenticity to campaigns, resonating strongly with sports fans.
Collaborations with platforms like Paramount+, YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV STREAM, and Max offer access to tech-savvy audiences. These platforms enable innovative ads, such as interactive commercials and real-time promotions during games, while leveraging personalized subscriber data to target campaigns effectively.
5) Run Purpose-Driven Campaigns
Show your brand’s values by supporting meaningful causes. For example, help be a driver for the continued growth of women’s sports, by running promotions centred around the Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. Or consider how your campaign can support underserved communities - related to sports or providing useful resources or opportunities to those in need. Obviously, these can be tied to your company or marketing team’s broader efforts around community impact and don’t need to be one-offs centered around one sports marketing window.
Gatorade’s Fuel Tomorrow campaign is partnering with national youth groups to develop activities that promote equity in sports by using their grassroots networks and expertise. The multi-year effort comprises a $10 million initial investment in these groups and additional funding to help them advance their missions. The platform also provides access to sports facilities, equipment, transportation, and training coaches on how to be champions of equity and inclusion.
6) Engage at Bars and Social Spaces
Sports bars are bustling with March Madness fans, offering a prime opportunity to create unique, “ownable moments” that stand out from the usual bracket-based promotions. Collaborations with these venues can boost visibility through branded contests and gamified activities.
For example, Buffalo Wild Wings’ ‘Overtime Wingtime’ transformed overtime games into unforgettable brand moments by giving away over 700,000 wings during the 2021 tournament.
Think beyond the ordinary to craft experiences that resonate and leave a lasting impression.
7) Excite with Giveaways
Sweepstakes, also known as giveaways, are one of the simplest and most popular consumer promotions. And for good reason: they’re easy to set up and, if you do it right, even easier to enter. All consumers must do is perform a simple action – like signing up for your mailing list, scanning a code, completing a survey, answering a poll, purchasing a product, etc., or liking a Tweet – for a chance to win a great prize. It’s a great way to build excitement and drum up interest in your brand. Offer prizes tied to the event, like tickets to the finals or exclusive merchandise. The key to a successful sweepstakes is offering relevant, valuable rewards.
Marriott Bonvoy, as the NCAA's Official Hotel Partner, launched the ‘Score Big with Marriott Bonvoy Game Day Rituals’ campaign, featuring NCAA players performing pregame rituals at its properties. The brand also offered a giveaway for members to win a trip to the Women’s Final Four, including flights, accommodations, courtside seats, and a session with Sydney Carter, boosting tournament excitement and brand recognition.
Reese’s launched an on-pack March Madness promotion offering fans a chance to win exclusive Reese’s-themed merchandise. With prizes available on Standard and King Size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, consumers could win items like jerseys and basketballs, along with cozy at-home gear such as sweatshirts and hats, ensuring they could enjoy the tournament in style and comfort.
8) Join the Conversation on Social Media
Every year, March Madness triggers a flurry of social media activity. According to Statista, in March 2023, 64% of enthusiastic sports fans planning to watch the NCAA tournament indicated they would actively engage with social media during the event. While research from Sprout Social reveals that March Madness-related topics reached over 576,000 engagements and 1.57 billion impressions on Twitter on the first two days of the tournament alone.
Joining social media conversations – where it makes sense for your brand – is a great way to engage with customers and promote your products during March Madness. The most successful brands take this one step further by running themed social media promotions to capitalize on the excitement the tournament generates.
FanDuel harnessed the power of the hashtag to drive engagement during March Madness 2022. Throughout the tournament, the company shared several amusing March Madness Memes with the caption #MarchMadness to get in on the fun. As well as making fans laugh, the posts generated roughly 1,000 engagements and 22.29 million impressions.
For March Madness 2024, SKIMS launched a highly successful and engaging social media campaign that combined high fashion with the excitement of college basketball. The campaign showcased the brand’s expansion into menswear while strategically tapping into the fervor of collegiate sports. Leveraging the popularity of NCAA athletes, SKIMS featured players sporting its products in visually striking content that resonated with male college basketball fans. SKIMS Unveiled the Men's All-Star Campaign featuring prominent college basketball players like Caleb Love (Arizona), Donovan Clingan (UConn), Hunter Dickinson (Kansas), and others, SKIMS' latest campaign celebrates March Madness with style and star power.
9) Join the Conversation on Social Media
Use the tournament to gather valuable customer insights. Promotions with receipt uploads or sign-ups can reveal consumer habits, preferences, and even competitor product trends.
To boost sales for Pringles, Cheez-It, and Town House during a key promotional period in 2024, Kellanova partnered with Snipp to launch an engaging Gift-With-Purchase (GWP) campaign. Highlighting their association with college basketball, the initiative encouraged consumers to purchase any three participating products, upload a picture of their receipt to a dedicated microsite and claim a $15 Fanatics e-gift card as a reward. This campaign successfully combined consumer incentives with a seamless digital experience to drive brand engagement and sales growth.
March Madness Marketing: One key sports marketing window
There are various windows to run sports marketing campaigns to engage passionate fans during the times when they’re most engaged. Our Guide to Sports Marketing is a great resource to give you trends, stats, marketing ideas and examples of what other brands are doing (and see various sales promotion examples here). Consider running a campaign for March Madness - or plan for the next sports marketing window - using some of the ideas above or in the guide!
Contact us to discover how our sports based promotions solutions can help you engage your customers and drive sales.
Dec 18, 2024
41 min read
