March Madness 2014

March Madness is officially under way as 64 men's college basketball teams battle for the championship. This year's tournament has already created a lot of noise due to early upsets of the high seed teams. With the Sweet 16 round coming up, 6 teams of 3-seed or higher have been eliminated already. Also, dreams of winning Warren Buffett's $1 billion reward for the perfect bracket have been shattered: no perfect bracket remains in the pool.

Last year, some savvy marketers digitally linked their brands to the tournament without paying huge amounts towards sponsorships or in-game advertising. Advertising and sponsorship costs can be extremely high: a 30-second ad during the men's championship game can reach $1.4 million and one major company spent $35 million toward sponsorship.

Pizza Hut offered fans a coupon for a free one-topping medium pizza if all four 1-seed teams reach the Final Four in Atlanta. Spam posted YouTube videos to target college basketball fans on social media. Hooters also particpated in the marketing madness, and offered downloadable deals that include free fried pickles.

March Madness generated more than $1.15 billion in ad revenues in 2013, and 2014 is expected to easily top that figure. Marketers believe that it is a market that is "continuing to grow with no signs of peaking." This year, companies are debuting new ads featuring sports celebrities, designing new apps, and giving away free food to attract fans and customers.

 Papa John's ad with CBS Sports sportscaster Jim Nantz

Burger King 2-for-$5 ad with NBA legend Chris Webber

Something else that I've observed so far, is that CBS Sports, which is broadcasting the tournament with
Turner Sports, is doing a stellar job with online on-demand coverage, website management, and social media. CBS Sports is offering HD live coverage of every game of the tournament on its website. The coverage is free to cable and satellite customers. Also, its website offers full highlights and in-depth analysis videos and articles. I was very impressed with the overall quality of the website and especially the live coverage of the games in HD.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/03/17/march-madness-final-four-pizza-hut-spam-hooters/1987889/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/03/13/march-madness-ncaa-mens-basketball-championship-final-four/6341865/

CBS Sports Facebook page

CBSSports.com

NBA Goes Global

NBA is arguably one of the most popular sports league in the U.S., and is regarded as the premier basketball league in the world. Its popularity is ever growing as more and more athletic freaks ascend to the league. In addition, NBA's revenue of the 2012-2013 season reached a record $5 billion. In a globalization effort, NBA's turning its eyes to China, which is a prime market for the league. Currently NBA is one of the most popular brands in China: 70 million people follow NBA on social platforms. The new NBA commissioner Adam Silver is implementing an expansion plan in hopes of reaching global success. NBA is now expanding TV coverage and building basketball facilities in China. NBA's effort to capture China has been successful, as NBA China's revenue in 2012 amounted to $150 million. India and South Korea are also the major targets of the league. NBA is looking to build off the success in China and reach the rest of Asia. It is also signing marketing and licensing deals with major companies in China. Major sports brands such as Nike and Adidas are also targeting China and the rest of Asia; Their sponsored athletes visit Asia on promotional tours every summer. NBA has become a marketing juggernaut globally, and its potential has no ceiling at this point.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/business/international/nba-looks-to-asia-for-next-growth-spurt.html?_r=0

http://www.nba.com/2012/news/11/13/stern-nba-revenue.ap/

Experiential Marketing at the Oscars

The 86th annual Academy Awards took place last night and with no surprise created a buzz all over social media. Companies and marketers pounced on the Oscars to advertise and promote themselves. The commercials featured corporate juggernauts such as General Motors, AARP, Coldwell Banker, and Unilever. In addition, a long list of companies put on events in Los Angeles as a part of a growing trend, experiential marketing. Experiential marketing offers consumers tangible ways to connect with brands, in a belief that such engagement is more likely to stimulate positive word of mouth and discussion in social media. Companies that participated in experiential marketing at the Oscars include Fiat Chrysler, Banana Republic, Grey Goose, Chobani, L’Oréal, and Stella Artois. Marketers of these companies stated that the experiential marketing events can help "bring brands to life." Vanity Fair magazine and its sponsors created the Vanity Fair Social Club, which provides work spaces for bloggers and news reports with amenities such as a media wall, faux food truck, and vending machines powered by Twitter. Sponsors gave away merchandise in exchange for posts that use their hashtags and handles. The Oscars is considered the Super Bowl of Vanity Fair, and the magazine company's marketers believe that setting up a HQ for bloggers and reporters will enable them to create good content. 

The social-planning website Evite also participated in experiential marketing; Evite encouraged consumers to host in-home and virtual viewing parties for the Oscars, and asked consumers to post recipes, party tips, videos, and to dress as their favorite actors/actresses. 

The experiential marketing is certainly a different, unconventional way of marketing, but it is also drawing huge success. It enables companies to engage its brand with consumers in a refreshing way and generate revenue.