Monday, March 20, 2006
March Madness: A Textbook Lesson In Branding (Part 2)
byThe NCAA’s March Madness marketing machine is through Rounds 1 and 2 and down to the the Sweet 16. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this post, this event is a classic study in branding. Branding connects with people on an emotional level, and anytime you have grown people yelling at their television sets, you know an emotional connection has been made. The television is not an interactive medium. It will not answer your plea for “What in the hell was he thinking?” or “How could he miss that?” You have been absorbed into the illusion and transported to courtside where your shouts of encouragement or disdain will no doubt be heard.
This 20-day event is a carefully crafted, cresendo-building piece of coordinated marketing perfection. At news sources all over the country today, you will see information about the Sweet 16 high on the list of lead stories. Midweek will be filled with news about who will challenge and who will prevail in next weekend’s rounds. It won’t just be the regular sources of news carrying the story, either. Bloggers and other consumer generated media will carry the message forward in record numbers. As of this morning, Technorati, the blog search engine, counted 39,965 blog posts containing “March Madness” including this one.
Television, radio, newspaper, magazines and the Web will be saturated with stories in the days ahead about what will be and what could have been. Similar to cult brands in the product world, this event has achieved cult brand status in the sporting event world. It is a branded spectacle that helps people—good or bad—define who they are and what they like. In that regard, the March Madness basketball tournament probably takes its proper place at the table along with the SuperBowl and the World Series.
This is the NCAA’s moment to shine. If you look at some of the financial reports from the NCAA, you’ll see the importance of Division I sports and the importance of this basketball tournament. A pie chart illustrates the relative size of budgets for Divisions I, II, and III. Also, if you download and examine the Division I Championship Financial Analysis, you’ll see that only five out of the 36 total men’s and women’s sports championships create positive cash flow for the NCAA, and there is nothing remotely close on that list to the success of this March Madness NCAA tournament.
The drama will continue for two more weeks. As a marketer, I will marvel as the promotional juggernaut builds March Madness to what I am sure will be another successful conclusion on April 3. Do your part to build the brand and fill in the blanks.
