Marketers Crazy Over Online Video For March Madness
- by March 15, 2007
Marketers including Coca-Cola, AT&T, General Motors' Pontiac, Courtyard by Marriott, and Dell are making a splash not only by sponsoring so-called "Bracket Challenges" on major online sports hubs, but diving into online video advertising as well.
The NCAA is also an opportunity for marketers to tie closely into social media tactics via a passionate audience of ardent fans. The Bracket Challenges invite fans to create their own private group sites, issue e-mail invites to friends, customize scoring, trash talk via message boards, and access scores and standings updates on a live basis.
The major online sports hubs are going all out for March Madness. ESPN's Tourney Challenge pairs it with sponsors Pontiac and State Farm, while Yahoo's Tournament Pick'Em '07, sponsored by HP, offers nifty features like a Scenario Generator.
CBS SportsLine is offering Bracket Challenges and a Round by Round Challenge sponsored by Porsche Cayenne. Porsche invites viewers to click on a banner ad to watch a film.
In addition, Chrysler's Jeep Patriot brand debuted an online film "The Way Beyond Trail" that invites viewers to join three characters who drive a Patriot while searching for a buried treasure. Consumers can influence the plot via their viewing choices.
In addition to high-profile TV buys directing viewers to the Web to access the film, Jeep is running banner ads on ESPN, SportingNews.com, and SI.com, among other sites that will plug the online video.
NCAA March Madness online is a key venue for marketers looking for a highly engaged, motivated audience. The goals for online video are different depending on whether the advertiser is looking to deepen brand affinity and interaction or generate potential leads, transactions, and traffic to their Web site--for example, like Circuit City and Sony, which are among the advertisers appearing on CBS SportsLine.
"If you're Coke, you're not looking for sales--you're looking for engagement with the brand so you go where the fans are. NCAA is a huge business online," said Michael Hayes, senior vice president-managing director, Initiative Interaction.
Hayes, who has no clients in the NCAA, but nonetheless buys a lot of online video, said deploying the right metrics makes all the difference in determining whether a program is successful. He suggested a combination of tactics including counting actual streams (completed streams) to measure engagement with an ad unit, examining click-through rates, and mounting an online branding study. The brand impact study would measure brand consideration and lift, along with purchase intent.
Pontiac, which is going full throttle into March Madness, is using Rovion's InPerson technology to promote its NCAA Game Changing Performance Contest. The technology enables Sportscaster Greg Gumbel to appear personally and invite March Madness fans on numerous Web sites to enter the contest. The contest is in its third year, and second year using the Rovion technology.
In terms of engaging with viewers, Len Ostroff, Rovion's CEO, said the technology enables Pontiac to "bring Greg to life on Web sites and personally greet and engage with visitors on the site."
While average click-through rates for online video hover around 3%, the rates for Pontiac's program last year reached around 18 to 20%, Ostroff said.
Last year, Gumbel appeared only on the contest's landing page, but this year, Pontiac's using the technology to advertise on a slew of third-party sports sites to drive people to the contest.
"What continues to attract Pontiac to our platform is it really allows one of the most recognizable personalities in sports broadcasting to be brought to life within the visitor's online experience." Pontiac was not available for comment.
In 2006, CBS SportsLine racked up more than 19 million streams of live and archived tournament action with March Madness on Demand and logged more than 5 million visits during the tournament. CBS reports that 1.3 million people registered for March Madness on Demand.
