Which Advertiser's Digital Video Campaign Won March Madness?

Which Advertiser Won March Madness?

April 05, 2018

The 2018 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament was a 68-team single-elimination tournament to determine the men’s national basketball champion for the 2018 season. After a grueling few weeks, Villanova was finally crowned champion. While these amazing teams did the real heavy lifting, we’re here to discuss which digital advertisers came out on top!

In total, the fourteen advertising campaigns that aired during March Madness represented over 20 million video views and 94,000 social interactions (comments, likes, and shares) across the internet by end of day April 2nd, 2018. Here are some insights based on data collected for this major sporting event:

Celebrities and Silly Humor FTW

As with the Super Bowl the top campaign, a spot from Capital One that continues a theme from years past during March Madness features the cast of Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee, and Charles Barkley. This campaign found that celebrities and silly humor is always a winning combination.

QSR and Beverage Know Their Target

No major sporting event can be watched together with friends without the accompaniment of…? Well of course, something to eat or a refreshing beverage right? Half of the advertisers in the top 10 list gave viewers reason to crave during the tournament.

#2 Coca-Cola – #MarchMadness

#3 Wendy’s – Forget the Shot Clock

#7 Buffalo Wild Wings – The key to a winning bracket? Wings

Save the following March Madness Digital Video Review to share with your team:

Here are the other top 10 spots

#5 Google – The Official Cloud of the NCAA

While not taking a funny approach, Google’s campaign was still lighthearted in showing off its analytical capabilities by providing fun statistics about the student athletes in the tournament and posing interesting questions such as “Are games more physical around midterms?”

#Inspiration

Other advertisers tended to take a more lighthearted tone, which common for big sporting events. About half of the top ten campaigns were humorous in some way. Dove Men’s Care went with an inspirational theme, highlighting the hard work that goes into competing as a high level athlete. Enterprise featured Doc Nix & The Green Machine aka “The Most Entertaining Pep Band in College Basketball” and tied in their brand promise of wherever you and your team are going, Enterprise Van Rental will help you get there. Infiniti ran another inspirational campaign featuring a basketball game played by various cancer survivors. The ad encourages people to fill out tournament brackets with the end goal of donating money to cancer research.