IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: NCAA Tournament 2011

  • Basketball FREAK?!

    March Madness is a time of great success along with upsetting, shocking defeats.  The tournament lasts a month long that will determine the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship team.  So why did it take millions of viewers missing parts of games for decades before the networks realized we ALL want to watch ALL the games?  Well, 2011 is the year!! 

     One network, CBS, and three Turner cable channels, TBS, TNT and truTv will each individually broadcast different Division I Men’s Basketball matches from start to finish so that collectively they will show all the games. Not only are you able to watch one game, you are able to view the continuous scores of all the other games on the other networks from the top of your tv screen so you don’t miss a beat! Viewers now have the ability to flip between channels to the most exciting matches. This brings more coverage to the networks while broadening the audience of viewers.  Not everyone watches basketball, but during March Madness, many more do because of the upbeat competition of the tournament.  These four channels allow all the viewers to keep track of their bracket and join in on the fun!

    So far all channels collectively have done an excellent job of keeping fans up to date with coverage and news on the tournament before and after each game. A team of commentators led by Greg Gumbel have kept the conversation going for every match up. The partnership that CBS and Turner has created where the feel and look of each station’s broadcast, including the same graphics and commentators, has convincingly made viewers feel like they are watching the same tournament. As opposed to the tournament being broken down among four different stations with their individual interpretation of how it should look. This ideal broadcast is what March Madness fans have been craving for years.

    CBS has owned the rights to March Madness since 1982 and since all that time CBS controlled what games were shown. So in a bold move for making the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament available for all basketball freaks and bracket-fillers, CBS signed a 14 year deal with Time Warner’s Turner cable company for $10.8 billion to own the rights to the tournament. In doing so CBS and Turner have become each a customer-centric organization. They saw what the fans wanted and delivered. “It’s a better programming option for the viewer at home and the basketball fan,” said CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus. “More work on his or her part to find the game, but they get to decide what game they want to watch. In the past, I think we did a very good job of moving around, but it was our [CBS] decision.” Since CBS and Turner have become customer focused they see the importance for the NCAA tournament to be controlled by the viewers, and to allow the Madness of March to be experienced by the fans. 

    The next set of tournament games are this Thursday and Friday, March 24th and 25th, which showcase the remaining Sweet Sixteen. Check www.ncaa.com for a live bracket of the remaining teams and teams whose road to victory has ended.

    -Lauren DeHart & JC Salter

  • March Madness Scoring Big with Advertisers and Viewers

    The pressure is always on during March Madness and not just for the teams.  This year marks the start of a new strategy that is scoring big with advertisers and basketball viewers across the nation.  Last April, a 14-year $10.8 billion deal partnered CBS with Turner broadcast System.  This new deal means the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship games will be divided between CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV making all games available without an extended cable package.

    This change in game airing has not only allowed CBS to take corrective action to fix fans’ complaints about not being able to pick the games they want to watch but also allows advertisers to maximize their reach and get more for their money.  With a +15% rating growth and an average of 8.4 million viewers for the first week alone, records were set with the highest first week viewer average in 17 years and +18% growth in viewers for Sunday’s third-round coverage.  This +18% growth on Sunday meant an additional 1.6 million viewers in comparison to 2010.

    Specifically, the areas of largest growth have been males ages 18-34 with a +40% viewer growth.  This is big news for advertisers focusing on this public.  With bigger audiences comes a bigger advertising vehicle. With this type of seemingly exponential increase, the five R’s of receptivity, relevance, response, recognition, and relationship come to mind. Since males were targeted as the areas of the largest growth, companies can now utilize TNT, truTV, TBS, and even CBS and relevance to gear their advertising efforts towards males between the ages of 18-34.

    Someone taking full advantage of this opportunity is Buick. The famous automaker is trying to rebuild its brand image and appeal to younger buyers. What better time to do so than during the NCAA tournament amongst males between the ages of 18-34? Buick utilizes the idea of recognition by recognizing their audience as avid college basketball fans and bringing in a key player from last year’s runner up, the Butler Bulldogs, to help endorse their new brand image. Avery Jukes will appear in one of several TV spots of telling stories of overcoming the odds and hammering through tough obstacles. This is a true appeal to the emotion of the viewers because fans of college basketball appreciate a good Cinderella story, as the Butler Bulldogs were categorized during the NCAA tournament of 2010.

    Avery Jukes, who played basketball in last year’s championship game for Butler University, is the founder of Jukes Foundation for Kids, a non-profit entity dedicated to providing food, clothing and educational resources to youth in the United States and Uganda. (GM)

    It’s certainly going to be interesting to see how advertisers employ the Five R’s throughout the tournament. Will they use the emotional appeals of a good comeback story? Or will they gear themselves towards a more winning attitude of champions never lose? We’ll just have to see what the Madness of March brings…

    -Carissa Niederkorn, Deji Adeleke, Tiffany Evans, Katie Eagle & Anna Kate Babnik