Last-Minute March Madness Campaign Ideas

March Madness is here, with the action starting on Selection Saturday, March 17. The first round starts on March 21 for men and March 22 for women, with the NCAA Championships April 7-8. For brands who want to hop on the March Madness popularity without sponsoring events or expensive TV ads, it’s not too late. In fact, #MarchMadness posts are highly searchable with 2.9 million posts on  Instagram and 5.6B views and 358K posts on TikTok. Check out these thought starters:

5 last-minute March Madness thought starters

Get in on the action with these thought starters:

Game-day UGC contests and giveaways

A giveaway is something a brand can jump on last minute during the tournament. There are multiple opportunities and the days of the games can be found on the NCAA’s website. Run a social media contest in which your followers can share their game-day setup or team spirit featuring your brand for a chance to win branded merchandise or other prizes.

Bracket challenges

You’ll find plenty of brands, influencers and basketball fans sharing their brackets for the men’s and women’s tournaments. Your brand can easily host a branded online bracket challenge where consumers can predict the outcomes of the games for a chance to win prizes. Or have a bracket challenge of your brand’s products, with fans voting for their favorites. 

Virtual watch parties

If you have a bunch of basketball lovers who are a part of your following, host a virtual watch party. Team up with an influencer to host the live stream and reward anyone who creates UGC from your watch party with discounts or chances to win merch. If budget allows, you can also have special guest appearances from former players or sports analysts.

Interactive content

Create interactive content like quizzes or polls related to the tournament. This will help you drive engagement on your social media platforms and allow you to jump on those popular hashtags.

Support a local team

If it doesn’t make sense for your brand to get involved in March Madness, but you have a local team in the tournament, support the team on your social media. This is an easy way to take part in the festivities while staying true to your content.

Best practices for March Madness campaigns

To maximize your brand’s impact during this high-stakes basketball season, consider these proven strategies that can help you score big with your March Madness campaigns.

Take a look at the NCAA’s rules

The NCAA has become more and more protective of the tournaments and the rights to some phrases. Ensure you’re staying within the rules when talking about the upcoming games so you don’t get your brand in trouble. 

Champion diversity

Ensure your brand is digging into all parts of the upcoming games. A lot of times, brands focus only on the men’s teams, but there’s an entire tournament for the women’s team, too, which has increasingly become more popular. Tie in diversity throughout both teams with your content or the people you’re working with on your campaigns.

Highlight culture and fanfare

While the games are exciting, so is the culture and fanfare that comes with each team! This is where you can support your local team, tie in the culture of the city they’re from and share excitement from the side of the fans, not just the players.

Entertain

With so many people talking about March Madness, you’ll want to be sure your brand’s campaigns have an entertaining edge. Make sure your content is fun and interactive and gets your followers excited to take part.

Utilize social media stickers and features for engagement

When sharing on social media, make sure you’re using the platform’s stickers for engagement. You can include polls, voting or even do a full bracket within your stories that people can take part in. The more people engage with your content, the better it is for the algorithm. 

We’re getting close to the games, so use some of these ideas to jump into the March Madness conversation. Find influencers to work with on any last-minute campaigns by checking out IZEA’s Marketplace.

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