College basketball fans across the country are gearing up to root for their local and national teams in this month’s NCAA basketball tournament. For advertisers, it’s an even bigger moment to get their brand in front of captivated fans as they watch the games on big screens, laptops, and mobile devices.
While it’s tempting to blow your marketing budget on expensive air time, most brands will need to be more creative if they want to generate real business results during one of the biggest seasonal sporting moments of the year.
If your brand wants to avoid spending millions on linear TV tournament ads, but still wants real business results from tournament advertising, you can still score big before the final buzzer. Here are five ways advertisers can win big by tying their brands to “game-time decisions” across mobile, desktop, and OTT:
Full court press with your creative
Using basketball-related imagery and terminology in creative can tie your brand identity to the tournament before, during, and after games.
All screens matter
Watching a live sporting event on TV involves a lot of untargeted commercials. Your moment to grab fan attention can come during those breaks. As fans scroll their smartphones during commercials, your targeted sports audience segment will reach the perfect consumer, and drive the potential for “in the moment” engagement.
Don’t sleep on the rest of America!
While tournament viewership is high, not everyone is a superfan! Advertisers can also reach people who are not big basketball fans but watch along with others in their homes. For those passive fans, a blended combination of mobile, desktop, and OTT will keep your brand front and center for even non-basketball viewers.
Think globally, advertise locally
Tournament games are played in several different cities and time zones across the US. If your brand has a local presence, use geo-targeting to reach local fan audiences and game attendees to drive more results, online or in-store, before, during, and after games.
Research your national competitors
If you are a local or regional brand, use your online advertising to go head-to-head with the big national chains. Local brands can generate digital “game day” LTOs and other incentives to pull customers away from the big TV advertisers and win their own bracket using the power of their online presence.
Our advice – create a customized advertising game plan for your business, find the open spot on the floor, and let ‘er fly! Use the power of multiscreen geo and audience targeting powered by GroundTruth to hit your shots and grow your brand.
GroundTruth helps advertisers leverage real-world behavior to deliver real CTV business results for small, medium, and large brands. To see how GroundTruth drives performance marketing results for its clients, email us at hello@groundtruth.com.
