Posted by In the ad world, the early bird gets the worm – or at least a guaranteed time slot – when it comes to the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament. The takeaway? Don’t wait to buy or you’ll be shut out.
According to Jon Diament, the executive vice president of advertising sales for Warner Bros. Discovery, the ad inventory for this year’s tournament is “basically sold out” and setting a record year doing so.
“This will be the best revenue tournament we’ve ever had,” Diament said, speaking at a virtual press conference on Wednesday. “We’re setting revenue records here.”
Diament said that inventory for live sports events like March Madness tends to be a “hot commodity” due to pressures on advertisers to “lock in big audiences.” The single-elimination tournament showcases 68 teams vying to advance through three weekends of games, to be named national champs of college basketball. The event draws up to 10 million viewers each year.
Inventory is already approximately 50 percent sold by the fall of the previous year, according to John Bogusz, Paramount Advertising’s outgoing EVP of CBS Sports sales. This is because many of the “regulars” have locked in their deals years in advance, he said.
These big hitters include official NCAA corporate champions Capital One, Coca Cola, and AT&T. Geico and Home Depot are joined by Marriott Bonvoy, Unilever, and Reese’s as occupying the official partners tier. Other official partners include auto brands Buick and Nissan, and the food chains Buffalo Wild Wings, Pizza Hut, and Wendy’s. Financial services companies Intuit and Invesco are also among official partners of the March Madness tournament.
Even now, only days before the tournament is set to begin, advertisers are still trying to land last-minute spots. But they’re mostly out of luck, according to Diament, except for “a handful of units” the networks earmark for the last minute. Bogusz added that the Final Four and Championship games are particularly filled up.
“People are gobbling up inventory, looking for audience guarantees way in advance,” said Bogusz, noting this year’s March Madness tournament has been selling out faster than normal.
According to Sportico, the CBS Sports and TNT Sports partners expect to generate over $1 billion in ad revenue for this year’s event, after earning a whopping $968 million plus in sales last year. Madness, you ask?