After a year’s hiatus, the Madness is back, and it looks like the teams, players, fans, and sponsors couldn’t be happier. NCAA® basketball is a very big deal, and the March Madness tournament is even bigger. Fans can’t get enough of the games, highlights, scores, brackets, and more, and though all sporting events boast multiple channels, screens, and ways to view the action, no event delivers content across more channels than March Madness.

The NCAA has adapted well to shifts in media consumption, setting all-time tournament records, with over 100 million livestream viewers and over 24 million live hours consumed through their streaming platform in 2019. In addition, they are well heeled in social media, pushing a more prominent presence for the tournament, which yielded a 94% increase in engagements year-over-year across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with videos across the three platforms generating over 135 million views.

This Madness is such a big deal that it is consistently one of the most-advertised sporting events of the year. Sponsors are required to pay top dollar, with ad spend reaching $1.3 Billion in 2019. And big-named sponsors are cashing in to win, with the savviest of the savvy doubling down by targeting fans across all of the channels during the entire tournament.

NCAA fans are active everywhere

learn how sponsors can make the most out of their March Madness targeting

With masterful advances in universal IDs, data-built audiences can now be used to target fans across channels and devices. From digital to social to CTV, sponsors are gobbling up cross- channel audiences to efficiently and effectively extend their reach and frequency, getting the most out of their big sponsorship dollars.

Social data in this arena has become a very big deal in recent years. As social media engagements rise, the signals identifying fans increase, providing powerful insights into where and how marketers can reach fans, wherever they might be. Affinity Answers boasts the largest social media footprint in the audience business, providing audiences to more than 400 brands and ad tech partners focusing on big tentpole events like March Madness.

If you are missing social data as a piece to extend and capitalize on your March Madness sponsorship, contact us now to see how we can create a custom audience combining fans of your brand and March Madness, or search for us in your favorite marketplace or DSP for syndicated March Madness offerings. Reach out today: audiences@affinityanswers.com