Logo

Advertisers Nuts Over March Madness

Mar 12, 2008  •  Post A Comment

Like college basketball fans, marketers are crazy for March Madness.
The annual NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament broadcast by CBS draws some of the highest ad rates of any programming on television. While others do the bracketology to figure out which teams will be among the 64 squads that will be invited to the big dance, TNS Media Intelligence has put together a scouting report on the event as a media property.
“As a sports marketing event, the collegiate basketball tournament is part of a Final Four alongside the Super Bowl and the Summer and Winter Olympics,” said Jon Swallen, senior VP of research at TNS Media Intelligence. “The popularity of March Madness extends to a broad, diverse cross-section of the population and this makes it a valued opportunity for certain marketers.”
CBS pays the NCAA a license fee of about $529 million for exclusive TV, digital, radio, publishing and merchandising right to the tournament, according to TNS.
March Madness is expected to generate $545 million in network ad sales this year, up from $519.6 million last year. Over the past 10 years, TNS estimates, the tournament has generated $3.83 billion in network ad spending by almost 300 marketers. Last year, 126 advertisers bought ad time during the games and in pre-game and post-game programming.
The NCAA Men’s basketball championships also are in the final four when it comes to ad prices. In fact, among sports, only a 30-second spot in the Super Bowl costs more than a spot in the NCAA Championship game. The college final tops the major college football games, the NBA Championships and Major League Baseball’s World Series, according to TNS.
TNS pegs the average price for a spot in the NCAA final at $1.26 million and says a spot in one of the semi-final games costs a whopping $698,000.
The average Super Bowl spot cost about $2.4 million, while the AFC and NFC Championship games generate $972,000 per 30 seconds. Among other events, the college football Bowl Championship Series drew $900,000 for a spot, while other major bowl games averaged $510,000. World Series spots were $425,000 apiece and NBA Finals spots were $389,000.
About 80% of CBS’ March Madness ad revenue comes from repeat sponsors, a figure TNS said signals above-average retention compared to other sporting events.
General Motors is usually the top spender during the tournament, averaging about $70 million over the past five years. GM’s spending accounts for as much revenue as the next four largest advertisers combined.
Following GM in the ranking over the past five years are Coca-Cola, which averages about $22 million a year; AT&T, which spends about $21 million; Anheuser-Busch, $16 million; and SABMiller, at $13.8 million.
In addition to TV, where at least some part of the tournament is seen by 130 million people and the final is seen by 40.3 million viewers, CBS has been streaming early-round games on the Internet.
While Web viewing is growing rapidly, TNS said the online video audience is still dwarfed by the traditional broadcast TV audience, accounting for less than 1% of total viewing.

26 Comments

  1. Hands down, Apple’s app store wins by a mile. It’s a huge selection of all sorts of apps vs a rather sad selection of a handful for Zune. Microsoft has plans, especially in the realm of games, but I’m not sure I’d want to bet on the future if this aspect is important to you. The iPod is a much better choice in that case.

  2. HP has a comparable free iPad app called HP iPrint Photo for HP printers. Just my 2 cents.

  3. I really like the colors here on your blog. did you design this yourself or did you outsource it to a professional?

  4. Hey how are you doing? I just wanted to stop by and say that it’s been a pleasure reading your blog. I have bookmarked your website so that I can come back & read more in the future as well. plz do keep up the quality writing

  5. Nice!! Great Ifo. Great People. Great Blog. Thank you for all the great sharing that is being done here.

  6. Kudos to you! This is a really good blog here and I love your style of writing. How did you get so good at blogging?

  7. Dreamin. I love blogging. You all express your feelings the right way, because they are your feeling, focus on your blog it is great.

  8. Amazing freakin blog here. I almost cried while reading it!

  9. Amazing freakin blog here. I almost cried while reading it!

  10. Ultimately, an issue that I am overzealous about. I have looked for information of this topic for the last several hours. Your site is greatly appreciated.

  11. Terrific piece you have prepared here! The web is overflowing of bad authorship and I was grabbed by your lucidity. Your determinations are dead-on and I will straightaway subscribe to your rss feed to remain up to date with your up future postings. Yes! I acknowledge it, your authorship style is fabulous and i will now work harder on improving mine.

  12. nice information its usefulness and significance is overwhelming the way you covered all the basic necessary information is really impressive good work

  13. I’ll gear this review to 2 types of people: current Zune owners who are considering an upgrade, and people trying to decide between a Zune and an iPod. (There are other players worth considering out there, like the Sony Walkman X, but I hope this gives you enough info to make an informed decision of the Zune vs players other than the iPod line as well.)

  14. I agree with your thoughts here and I really love your blog! I’ve bookmarked it so that I can come back & read more in the future.

  15. Neat blog layout! Very easy on the eyes.. i like the colors you picked out

  16. Keep focusing on your blog. I love how we can all express our feelings. This is an extremely nice blog here 🙂

  17. Nicely said, agree with pretty much everything there. Thanks 😀

  18. Great blog!! You should start many more. I love all the info provided. I will stay tuned 🙂

  19. I really like the colors here on your blog. did you design this yourself or did you outsource it to a professional?

  20. Nice blog subject. thanks for letting me add something!

  21. Dreamin. I love blogging. You all express your feelings the right way, because they are your feeling, focus on your blog it is great.

  22. Interesting thoughts here. I appreciate you taking the time to share them with us all. It’s people like you that make my day 🙂

  23. I am happy to find so loads of useful information at this time during the article, we require increase extra strategies in this regard, thanks for sharing

  24. Way to focus and straight to your point, i love it. Keep up the work people. Dont let anyone stop us bloggers.

  25. Neat blog layout! Very easy on the eyes.. i like the colors you picked out

Leave a Reply to Get Backlinks Cancel Reply

Email (will not be published)