Social Media Catches March Madness

The “Madness” known as the NCAA Basketball tournament is upon us again.   And while the game match-ups between high and low seeds usually result in outstanding down-to-the buzzer play, the pairing of social media and NCAA basketball’s tournament fanbase may be the best match-up of all.  A cruise around the Web reveals a number of folks already talking about March Madness-related social media craze.  But whose campaigns are the most engaging?

Here are our top 3 picks for best social media campaigns of the March Madness season:

#1 – Coca-Cola: Taste the Madness

Coca-Cola has launched TasteTheMadness.com for Coke Zero in a viral effort to solicit video entries from NCAA fans.  The user-generated video content site showcases fans displaying their school “madness” for a chance to be featured during the Final Four broadcast.  Coke Zero’s play is that the beverage has “all the madness” of real Coke taste with zero calories.  In keeping with the college theme, the site allows users to sort videos by conference.

#2 – Yahoo & KFC: Tourney Pick’em 09

Yahoo has dedicated a mobile site for the NCAA tournament sponsored by KFC.  The site offers scores, news and game schedules; but its bread and butter is the Bracket Pick’em contest that offers players a chance to win $1 million for anyone who completes a perfect bracket.  $10K is offered to the next closest bracket should no one be perfect.  In addition, KFC promotes food coupons on the site as well as allows visitors to use their printable brackets for in-store discounts.

#3 – CBS Sports: Facebook Bracket App

CBS Sports has found a winning March Madness strategy in Facebook.  They developed a brackets app for Facebook that allows users to create their own custom bracket tournaments and invite their friends to participate.  Although not nearly as popular as Watercooler’s similar Facebook app FanSection Bracket, which has more than twice as many active users, CBS Sports’ app has some unique features.  You can fill in and track your bracket with the chance of winning cash, along with offering other fun things like a trash talking board and a slightly more serious discussion area.

And finally, in true March Madness bracket form, Search Engine Watch has put together The Sweet 16 bracket of popular social media sites in an attempt to determine who is, or will become the king.

Visitors are asked to place their votes in the comments section, which the site has said will be a factor in the final decision.  The Sweet 16 bracket lists each social media’s strengths, weaknesses, how companies can leverage it and who owns/manages it.  We think it’s a pretty cool little exercise and summary (and by the way, we’re rooting for Twitter!)

3 Comments »

1. [...] Read full story » Share this post on the Social Networking & Bookmarking sites below… [...]

   Pingback by Social Media Cateches March Madness | Social Net Daily — March 20, 2009 @ 9:27 pm

2. Thanks for pointing me to this article Hollis.

   March Madness is a great opportunity for a lot of brands to dip their toes in the water of social media because there is so much conversation surrounding the tournament. If companies can join the conversation and genuinely connect with these fans the profit, loyalty, etc. will follow.

   Other big brands are using this opportunity to get acquainted with their audiences using social media as a channel. ESPNPlus launched an account @Big12Network on Twitter, where their staff live-tweeted the Big 12 Tournament and showed their partners, the Big 12, some love.

   Now they’ve moved on with their own account, @ESPNPlus and are tweeting the actual NCAA tournament.

   I’m certain there are others. It would be interesting to collect them all in one place and evaluate their efforts.

   Ryan

   Comment by Ryan Stephens — March 22, 2009 @ 9:46 pm

3. Now, how many of these promote the women’s tournament? ESPN is the only one to do this, to my knowledge.

   Comment by Megan — March 24, 2009 @ 12:58 pm

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