March Madness: Dell, Marriott, State Farm In Game

Ad spending for March Madness, aka the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, is at an all-time high and expected to surpass $500,000. Like other top-tier sporting events, the tournament has a core group of sponsors that return annually.

As a marketing platform, the tournament goes beyond TV. This year, CBS will again offer "NCAA March Madness on Demand." All games from the first three rounds of the Tournament will be streamed live over the Internet, available at no charge to PC users with a broadband connection.

Last year, CBS signed up 18 advertisers to sponsor these Web casts, including Courtyard by Marriott, Dell Computers, Lowe's, Pontiac and State Farm Insurance. The aforementioned advertisers also ran spots in the TV broadcasts. Several of last year's key advertisers, including Dell, Marriott and State Farm, are back this year. New advertisers include AT&T and its Cingular Wireless unit, as well as Kraft Foods, which will be promoting its DiGiorno frozen pizza.

CBS says that, so far, March Madness on Demand has generated about $9 million in ad revenue, up from $4 million last year. Advertising units on the Web casts include billboard displays around the perimeter of the viewing window and video ads during the periods when the television broadcasts are in commercial break.

advertisement

advertisement

On average, says TNS Media Intelligence, 83% of the tournament's network TV ad revenue comes from returnees. In this decade, the Top 10 advertisers have spent almost $1.1 billion or about 40% of total network TV ad revenue generated by the event.

General Motors has spent $422 million in the last seven years on the tournament; AT&T, $111 million; Anheuser-Busch, $96 million; Coca-Cola, $88 million in six of seven years; SABMiller, $84 million; Microsoft, $76 million in six of seven years; Pepsico, $67 million; the U.S. government, $52 million; DaimlerChrysler, $49 million, and Sprint Nextel, $48 million in six of seven years.

At $1.1 million for a 30-second spot, only the Super Bowl ($2.5 million) earns more for its broadcaster.

The tournament drives total ad revenue for college basketball. Nearly 75% of all measured national TV ad dollars that are spent in college basketball each year are spent in the tournament. Comparatively, college and pro football TV ad revenue is distributed exactly the opposite, with 75-80% coming from the regular season and the rest from post-season, TNS says.

Next story loading loading..