The innovation and content creation around March Madness will grow with each passing round. However, last week, saw several universities capitalized on the excitement around conference tournaments and Selection Sunday by scaling up content creation, courtesy of IMG College. UConn, Tennessee, and Cal reminded us that each game has its own story as they produced mini-movies featuring top highlights and behind-the-scene access to their conference tournament games.
The continued prominence of Facebook live video was evident throughout the week, with schools going live from the locker room, watch parties, and championship celebrations. A few schools broke out the Twitter Mirror for Selection Sunday as well. West Virginia took fan questions, played around with the Challenger App, and even added their own custom stickers. Conference tournaments also mark the end of the season for several schools, and with their season coming to an end on Friday, Nebraska took the defeat in stride, kept the message positive, and rallied their fanbase.
Also last week, the Collegiate Licensing Company launched a video campaign around its spring retail activation, Rock Your Colors. Nearly 20 National Marketing Fund schools submitted footage to CLC, which was then edited into made-for-social content with an emphasis on collegiate merchandise. Each school was supplied with the final cuts and suggested copy with all posts linking to the school’s online merchandise stores. First, CLC empowered schools to create great video content — each school was allocated a budget to create the content, whether that be to hire a shooter or purchase equipment. Shot sheets were also provided, focusing on overall atmosphere, merchandise, and chants, cheers, and unique traditions to each university. Second, it allowed for CLC and partner universities to launch a unified merchandise campaign around the excitement of March Madness, the start of college baseball season, and spring football.
All great engagement by the schools to help reach a wider, passionate audience as a big month for college sports rolls along
