The Madness of Marketing in MarchThe Madness of Marketing in March

As a college basketball fan,I really enjoy March Madness (the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament).  I love the games.  I love the passion.  A passion lasting 112 games,three weeks,and thousands of hours of sports coverage.  

And where there is passion there are marketers —all trying to capitalize on the heightened awareness,the passion,the fans.  Through watching many games and reading coverage online,I have seen the many commercials and banner ads (I must be nearing frequency levels in the triple digits with some ads).  As I analyzed which teams will make it to the Final Four,I also wondered which marketers are winning the advertising bracket.  As I reviewed the many ads,I grouped the  ads (television and online) into three different groups:basic exposure,contextual integration,and brand passion. 

Basic Exposure
Basic exposure is just running an ad as is.  No changes. A marketer will get the ratings —get the eyeballs.  However,they are not tapping into the passion of the tournament.  The obvious advantage is no additional production costs.  However,before dumping any ad onto the tournament,marketers need to think about viewer benefit.  Typically,there are two viewer value propositions:entertainment or mass product benefit.  The majority marketers in the tourney take this approach.

Although there are many examples,I was intrigued with the overwhelming amount of commercial exposure for men’s personal care products.  Sure,sports attracts a higher proportion of males,and college sports are more upscale (although upscale may have little to do with these products),but the jump ball for male attention seemed a bit much.  Anyway,here are four of the products with significant air play.

• The AXE Hair Action  commercial is more entertainment than product benefit. The ad uses humor to promote the product benefit. The AXE ad is probably entertaining to their target:a single guy in his teens to twenties —for a mid-40′s guy,not so much.
• Degree for Men is taking a contest approach with Bear Grylls —the guy from Man versus Wild.  Viewers are encouraged to sign up for a Degree Adventure Challenge,where the winner could join Bear in an episode of Man versus Wild.
• Dove Men+Care is running both commercial and online content.  The commercials are pretty straight forward,and center around a mass product benefit approach —Dove’s Micro Moisture. 
• Gillette Body Wash takes a humorous jab at Dove in their commercial.   Like the Dove ad,Gillette uses a product benefit (Odor Shield) in their approach.

Contextual Integration
Contextual Integration is combining elements of the tournament within the ad —hoops,basketballs,basketballs going through hoops.   Contextually,the ad fits.  Normally banner ads are just a front door to the regular site experience.   The following are several examples of marketers integrating into the tournament.

• Hooters ran an expandable banner titled “Catch all the Sports Action at Hooters” on Fox Sports.  The banner,which was adorned with basketballs and Hooters girls,allowed users to enter their zip to find the nearest restaurant.
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup is the official .  The ads are simple focusing on the product —the primary change is the commercial tagline (e.g. “The Elite Eight”) and the number of candies.  Online is a different story.  The Reese’s Perfect Play within the NCAA Tourney asks people to vote for the Perfect Play from four videos.  It is a little like the old Pontiac Game Changing Performance,except instead of giving money to a scholarship fund Reese’s will be awarding the sweepstakes winner tickets and a trip to next year’s Final Four in Houston.

Brand Passion
Brand passion is finding the connection between the brand,the tournament,and the fan.  This is not easy to do,and very difficult for many brands.  The core element is a connection.  A connection that builds upon the passion point and the brand.  The following marketers use a brand passion strategy. 

• While on television AT&T ran commercials where Luke Wilson is playing H-O-R-S-E,online the brand created a simple experience where people can do “tweet outs”to tournament teams.   Through CBS Sportsline fans can access AT&T Title Tweets where people can do shout outs to their team via text message or Twitter.  A nice integration for a mobile brand.
• Capital One’s Ivan Brothers  webisodic adventure (running on ESPN.com) follows the journey of the Ivan Brothers —from backwoods basketball phenomenons to March Madness.  The initial video on the YouTube channel has over 980,00 views –quite impressive.   However,the drop off is severe to the rest of the videos with the next highest video getting only about 20,000 views.  This is not uncommon.  The marketer buys views through their banners.  However, viewer interest does not proceed past the initial viewing,and video views drop off dramatically.  The campaign nicely extends Capital One’s Viking Campaign,however,why didn’t they run these ads within the tourney?  All I remember seeing is the Viking ski commercials.
• On television HP ran their commercials,on ESPN HP sponsors HP Amazing 16.  The site encourages fans from the Sweet Sixteen universities to show their passion by uploading photos or posting on the message board —and you get extra points for posting from an HP computer.  The winning school will receive $100,000 in contributions.   On the plus side this sweepstakes builds off the brand line “Let’s Do Amazing”.    It is somewhat limiting by only including the Sweet Sixteen schools.  And like Capitol One,their commercials airing during the tournament where not linked to this campaign.
• On television and online Coke Zero is promoting their Brain Bracket.  Coke Zero is a perennial marketer in March Madness creating annual favorites like Bracket-O-Matic.  Brain Brackets is for the fans.  People submit ideas on how to improve sports from a fan perspective (e.g. The Zebra Cam,),then users vote for their favorites in bracket match-up.  The Brain Bracket is novel and worth checking out.  Although it is larger March Madness in scope,the bracket approach to picking a winner works.

Which way would you prefer? For many marketers it comes down to efficiency.  They would would prefer spending the money on media —on getting eyeballs,not on production.  I prefer effectiveness over efficiency —every exposure,every experience should count.  My goal would be to come up with a brand passion idea linking the passion of the event with passion within the brand DNA.  You can’t always convert,but you need to step up to the line and give it a shot.