Behind stars such as Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, better branding, momentum from last year’s record-setting event and emerging new fans, the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament is poised to have an explosive year. Ad inventory for women’s March Madness has been selling at a brisk pace, according to media buyers, as brands capitalize on unprecedented interest in the game.

The event, which begins with Sunday’s selection show, will be carried on ESPN channels with the championship airing on ABC on April 7 at 3 p.m ET. “We are very well-sold for the women’s tournament,” said a Disney spokesperson, who did not share details. Brands expected to advertise during the women’s games include State Farm, Home Depot and Capital One. 

Given the record-setting success of the 2023 women’s tournament—including 9.9 million viewers for the final—demand for this year’s event has grown substantially, according to people involved in ad sales. While pricing ramps up as the tournament progresses, a 30-second ad unit for the championship game costs around $500,000, according to at least three media buyers, with one buyer noting the number is up from less than $100,000 within the past few years. This is compared to about $1 million for a unit in the Final Four of the men’s tournament, which airs on CBS Sports and Turner Sports channels.

The men’s tournament is “essentially sold out,” with a “handful of units left,” for last-minute asks, Jon Diament, executive VP, advertising sales, for Warner Bros. Discovery, said on Wednesday.  

Coming out of last year’s upfront negotiations, ESPN had little inventory remaining to sell for the women’s tournament, said Jimmy Spano, executive VP, head of Dentsu Sports. “Any advertisers that did look to buy [the women’s tournament] in scatter, ESPN has leverage and can charge a premium,” said Spano.

The men’s tournament, on the other hand, grants a period of exclusivity to legacy sponsors immediately following the upfront, before opening inventory to the general market in early November. Spano said sales for the men’s tournament started slow in the general market due to challenging economics during the fourth quarter as well as the demand to shift more money to women’s sports.

Bookmark our upfront and NewFront calendar

In past years, it was easy to grab ad inventory à la carte for the women’s NCAA tournament. But this year, ESPN asked for a $1 million minimum commitment to advertise during the tournament, and a dollar-for-dollar spend match across other women’s sports properties, confirmed multiple buyers.

ESPN and the NCAA in January announced an 8-year, $920 million media rights deal that begins Sept. 1. The deal includes $65 million for women’s basketball, according to Just Women’s Sports, or more than three times its previous deal.

Media buying platform Tatari saw demand for inventory in the women’s tournament grow after over 20 clients tested campaigns during the women’s regular season in the fourth quarter. 

Also read: How media buying is evolving 

In previous years, “I don’t think women’s March Madness really came up all too often—the ratings just weren’t there to justify brands spending large amounts in the women’s tournament,” said Elliot Rifkin, associate director of media buying at Tatari. “This year, everything is flipped … our brands started testing women’s college basketball in 4Q, and it has been some of our best performing media.”

But it’s not just on TV where stars are made. Women’s sports fans in particular are absorbing content over online and social channels, and that is what’s driving interest in televised events like March Madness, according to Haley Rosen, a former pro soccer player who today is CEO of the online news site Just Women’s Sports.

“I believe March Madness and the Final Four are going to be absolutely massive, but the work that goes into making that massive is happening now,” Rosen said in an interview. Brands would do well to consider the online fan when investing to reach the women’s sports audience, she said, noting that the TV has become a “lagging indicator” of fan interest.

“It’s really important that we’re surrounding the game content with digital content and meeting fans where they’re at, which is social—it’s TikTok, it’s showing up in those ways,” Rosen said. “I don't think a lot of the legacy players are doing a good job of meeting the women's sports audience where they’re at. They might be putting more of these women’s sports games, more college basketball games on TV. But they’re not surrounding those games with content that’s reaching the audience.”

More coverage

At least part of what’s driving online interest in women’s sports is the proximity between athletes and fans born out of necessity, said Thayer Lavielle, executive VP of The Collective, a division of the sports agency Wasserman dedicated to driving inclusion of women in sports and entertainment.

“If you’re a true women’s sports fan, you have to be pretty loyal, because it’s harder to find their games, it’s harder to find their merchandise, it’s harder to follow it—it’s just hard work,” she said. “And so over time, you become more and more dedicated and devoted and more and more of an advocate.”

Getting sponsors into the game was traditionally difficult because of a longstanding perception that women’s sports commanded only 3% to 4% of the media coverage devoted to men’s sports. But a Wasserman and ESPN Research study published last year challenged that notion. Driven by streaming and social media, Wasserman now believes women’s sports get 16% of sports media coverage and are on the way to 20% by 2025 if current trends hold.

Prior estimates created hesitancy among potential investors to women’s sports, Wasserman found.

The Wasserman study also showed that while women’s sports make up more than half (53%) of all college sports competitions, they account for only 8% on the professional level. This explains the explosion today in women’s sports leagues in hockey, volleyball and other sports. “I think people are seeing [women’s sports] as a good early-stage investment, or a mid-stage at this point,” Lavielle said.

“Sponsoring women’s sports is going to be the last frontier,” added Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of the consultant Strategic Resource Group. “Whoever wins the war for women’s sports sponsorships is going to win the back half of this decade and into the next decade.”

Greater access

A 2021 TikTok by Sedona Price, then a basketball player for the University of Oregon, laid bare the disparity between resources devoted to NCAA men’s and women’s basketball. The video, which contrasted a state-of-the-art weight room devoted to male players with a single rack of dumbbells for women at their respective NCAA Final Fours (only one of many inequities ranging from food to on-court branding to swag revealed at that event), shamed the NCAA into a commissioned gender equity study that concluded the governing body for years had badly underserviced women’s basketball, perpetuating a myth that its tournament was a money-loser.

Since that report—and a second that focused on sports other than basketball—the NCAA has undertaken changes big and small to address gender disparity. Brands in the meantime have helped to raise the profile of women’s college athletes through name image and likeness (NIL) deals that also began in 2021. These conditions have provided a pathway to seemingly sudden megastardom for athletes such as Clark, while contributing to record TV ratings, and improved access that has made women’s sports in general, and the NCAA women’s tournament in particular, a phenomenon.

“A couple of years ago, the women’s NCAA Tournament wasn’t even allowed to use the term ‘March Madness,’” Howard Megdal, editor of Next, a women’s basketball news site, and The IX, an associated women’s sports hub, said in an interview. “The branding of the NCAA Tournament right down to the logo was ‘Final Four’ and ‘Women's Final Four,’ with men being treated as the given, and women being treated as the afterthought.”

Righting these wrongs has helped improve access to the game, Megdal said.

“Simply put, as people have access to women’s basketball, the appetite meets the moment because they experience it, and love it,” he said. “Caitlin Clark is fundamentally the same player now as she was as a freshman. But as a freshman, you would have a lot of trouble seeing her on TV outside of the Big 10 Network.”

Visibility isn’t an issue for Clark any longer. Her NIL sponsors include big names such as Gatorade, Nike, Buick, Goldman Sachs and State Farm. And her televised games are drawing equal or better to ratings of men’s games.

Clark’s NIL deals are worth $3.1 million, or fourth-most among all athletes tracked by the website On3. LSU basketball stars Angel Reese and Flau’jae Johnson are women’s basketball’s other big NIL earners, bringing in $1.8 million and $1.1 million respectively, according to On3. Most recently, Clark agreed to a multi-year deal with Panini America, for exclusive memorabilia and trading cards.

Clark is signed by State Farm through next year, so the athlete and insurer will continue to work with one another even as Clark becomes a professional. State Farm also sponsors the WNBA Draft, where Clark is expected to be the first pick. Enterprising fans are already scooping up tickets for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, which picks first in the April 15 event.

 “We’re excited that Caitlin has declared, and I think you'll see us do some things to celebrate that heading into the draft,” Patty Morris, marketing executive at State Farm, said in an interview.

Morris said State Farm would be releasing a campaign around Clark for the tournament but didn’t share details. Clark’s most recent work for State Farm debuted in December as part of the brand’s “Right Kind of Magic” campaign from Highdive.

While live TV sports have consistently been the most successful programs in driving consumer engagement, women’s sports are delivering an outsized boost, according to a new report from EDO, the outcomes measurement company.

NCAA games with Clark, EDO said, are 7% more effective for advertisers than NCAA women’s basketball games without her. And Clark’s State Farm ads are 46% more effective than the brand’s average since she signed with the insurer last year.

Brand plans

The Home Depot announced a three-year partnership with the NCAA this week, which covers men’s and women’s basketball among 90 NCAA championships. The home-improvement retailer is kicking off the partnership with “How to March Madness,” a series of humorous ads starring Shaquille O’Neal that is aligned with Home Depot’s busy spring season. The campaign includes linear TV, digital and social, and experiential activations such as an onsite Tool Shaq allowing attendees at the Men’s and Women’s Final Four to experience “How to March Madness” live.

Coca-Cola will promote Coke Zero Sugar with marketing activities that include sampling and experiential activations in the NCAA men’s and women’s Final Four, as well as on-campus events at colleges across the country. New TV ads star college players Jay Williams (Duke) and Aliyah Boston (South Carolina).

Also read: Coke Zero Sugar uses AI to create custom font

Capital One, the presenting sponsor of ESPN’s TV coverage and sponsor of the “Tourney Town” fan festival set for the Women’s Final Four in Cleveland, will be sending out a range of new ads from agency GSD&M. “That’s What March is For” is a basketball-themed singalong remake of “That’s What Friends Are For,” featuring original songstress Dionne Warwick along with Capital One’s celebrity spokespeople—Jennifer Garner, Samuel L. Jackson, Charles Barkley, Magic Johnson, Spike Lee and Jim Nantz.

“When we built our initial strategy to become NCAA Corporate Champions, we made sure that women’s sports were a focal point from day one, which is something we’re really proud of,” said Daniel McCaskey, managing VP of brand strategy, advertising, media and sponsorships at Capital One, in an email.