NCAA finding new growth in digital, content

For visitors to Houston this week, the Final Four and its ancillary events will largely look and feel like they did last year in Indianapolis. In this year's Final Four we have Oklahoma going up against Villanova while University of North Carolina will be facing Syracuse. My prediction is going to be North Carolina verses Oklahoma i the Championship game. The NCAA and its partners, Turner Sports and CBS Sports, have created a on-site formula that works for them and what the on-site formula is that they will have three days of concerts, a mega fan fest and a Texas-size tailgate on the day of the championship game. What this mean is that there will be little that qualifies as new or different on the ground. But that doesn’t mean things aren’t going to be bigger this year. Much of the growth in March Madness sponsor activation is coming from the digital and content side, where concerts are being simulcast and new sponsorship inventory is being created via the March Madness Live app and its new forms of distribution. For example, AT&T sponsors the Friday night concert at the Final Four (Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco), and for the first time the NCAA corporate champion plans to telecast it live across dedicated channels on DirecTV and U-verse. Also on the digital and social front, Allstate joined LG as a presenting sponsor of the NCAA’s Snapchat stories, which are new this year. This is big for many companies to be sponsors for the Final Four for March Madness.