About 60% of the estimated $1 billion in ad revenue for the event is coming from NCAA sponsors, known as corporate champions and corporate partners, many participating through multi-year commitments. Industries such as automotive, insurance and fast food are the leading ad buyers, with COVID-dinged categories like travel and movie studios making larger commitments this year, executives said.
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Some advertisers are separately using the stage of the high-profile event to cast a spotlight on its relatively neglected Women’s March Madness, which runs its tournament concurrently and is carried by ESPN.
“The tournament for all practical purposes is sold out. We’ve had one hell of a selling season,” John Bogusz, executive VP, sports sales and marketing, at CBS Network sales, said during a media briefing on Tuesday.
“We sold it out for a lot of good reasons,” added Jon Diament, executive VP and chief revenue officer, Turner Sports. “[It shows] the power of live sports, especially programs like this that really matter to society, and I’m sure we’ll have great ratings, great demographics and great games. We also have a very strong corporate program, which is almost 20 deep, and those sponsors came back in a big way. Lastly, our digital product, which will stream all the games on screens like mobile, is also sold out.”
The tournament managed to sell its available time without participation from online sportsbooks, which have taken the professional leagues by storm but remain banished by the NCAA from associating with college sports. Emerging product categories like crypto banking, which announced its mainstream arrival through Super Bowl ads this year, “kicked the tires” on the NCAA event, Bogusz said, but ultimately declined to buy.
The NCAA’s Corporate Champions this year are Coca-Cola, Capital One and AT&T. Another 14 Corporate Partner brands, from Aflac to Wendy’s, are at work on campaigns for the event.
While the $2 million pricetag for a 30-second championship game ad is a hefty haul, it falls well short of the up to $7 million lured for Super Bowl ads this year.
Bogusz said that uncertainty around professional baseball—which is now in the fourth month of an owner lockout that is already eating away at the regular season and its $1 billion advertising market—was not a factor in the appetite from brands for the tournament. “We wrote most of this business before there was any issue in baseball,” he said. “The Champions and Partner deals are multiyear deals, and the other inventory we've sold certainly happened before the issues with baseball [became acute].”
“Most baseball advertisers are wait-and-see,” added Diament, whose networks have a substantial broadcasting deal with MLB. “They're not spending money elsewhere such as the tournaments or our other properties like NBA, which has had a great spring. They’re keeping their fingers crossed. It’s a long season and they’ll try to kick the can down and wait it out.”
Spotlight turns to women’s tournament
Led by new campaigns for Buick and Degree, NCAA basketball advertisers are using the high-visibility tournament events to point out a disparity in recognition for women’s March Madness. (The women's tourney was prohibited from even using the Madness trademark until this year.)
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