March Mad-Men-Ness

Some people will tell you that March Madness is some “big dance” between a large pool of college basketball teams. They think it’s the greatest thing since football season.

Well, I don’t buy it. I went to a college, and by the time March rolled around, we didn’t even know what a basketball was. We thought that the post-season was a cereal competition.

So in my eyes, March Madness is instead a marketing opportunity with a bullet list of hundreds of orange orbs. Every time the orbs fly and change hands, every time they bounce off the backboard and into the basket, passion flares. Attention sharpens. Intensity builds. Emotion abounds.

Off the court, there is a far-reaching network of ancillary excitement. Bracket competitions flood every dorm hall, office lounge, and local tavern. Fans don their colors and risky types wager their paychecks.

The players compete, the fans scream, the alumni gloat, and a nation watches on. They track the tourney on their flat panel TVs, local papers, satellite radios, office computers, and mobile phones. Then they broadcast to the world how great their local team/alma mater/bracketology is through Twitter and Facebook.

It’s one of those rare moments when a large and diverse audience keeps its attention on a single point through multiple media for a span of weeks.

Everything a marketer could hope for is already there.

Are you taking advantage of the madness? Leave a comment and let us know.