• by Karl Greenberg , March 30, 2012

For automakers, NCAA March Madness is a huge tentpole event. A new survey from YouGov BrandIndex suggests Toyota has enjoyed the largest boost in perception with hoops fans.

Specifically, three spots that feature “Coach T” urging college-age students to buy a Camry or Corolla have done the trick. The ads, via Saatchi & Saatchi, L.A., make fun of consumer perception of dealers as kind of two-dimensional, stiff and oddly out of touch. The idea, clearly, is that, while the Coach T guy and his assistant are depicted pitching the car to prospects, it’s the car and its features that speak for themselves. 

In YouGov’s study, General Motors had the second-biggest boost, running TV, print and digital ads touting the 2013 Chevy Malibu Eco and 2012 Buick Verano luxury sedan. 

Chevrolet is not an official partner with the NCAA’s men’s basketball division, but YouGov BrandIndex says the GM division's Malibu Eco has given Chevy the third-biggest gain during the tournament to date. Volkswagen and Ford rounded out the top five.

The basis for YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz is responses from basketball fans to: "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?" The firm says the scores, which range from 100 to -100, are derived by subtracting negative feedback from positive. A zero score means equal positive and negative feedback. YouGov BrandIndex says it interviews 5,000 people each weekday from a representative U.S. population sample, drawn from an online panel of more than 1.5 million individuals.

Toyota had about a 15-point gain in positive sentiment during March Madness versus the two-week period prior to the tournament. General Motors saw about an 11-point gain, of which its Chevrolet division gained 8.3 percentage points. Volkswagen gained 7.7 points during the March Madness period and Ford 5.5 earned points.