March Madness promises ad boon

As the NCAA's major basketball conferences gear up for their tournaments, advertisers are also gearing up. Once the final conference tourney's are completed later this week, the NCAA Selection Show takes center stage and after that the 19-day event basketball fans know as "March Madness".

by Kristina Knight

The end-of-the-season national championship has been a boon for advertisers for the last ten years, bringing in an estimated $3.5 billion over the 19-day period. In 2008, forecasts predict that March Madness will bring in more than $540 million in television ad revenue alone.

With more than 65 hours of games on television and some broadcast over the Internet, only the Super Bowl is a more lucrative investment for advertisers.

Much of the spending during 2008's March Madness will be from returning advertisers; only about 20% is expected to be from new marketers.

Why is the tournament such a good investment?

Because the majority of viewers stay with the game until the last second. Rather than flipping channels or multi-tasking in some way, viewers are basically glued to their couches and La-Z-Boy's for the two hours of each game. More than 130 million viewers have watched at least one game with over 40 million viewers tuning in to the championship game each of the past five years.