As March Madness approaches, kudos again to one of the most unique, niche sponsorships in sports: Werner Ladders. The NCAA still has its official net cutting scissors (Fiskars) and traction wipes (Slipp-Nott), and its mop but Werner remains one of the few brands that seems to always find its way to the camera, and the most important celebratory moments during Championship Week and into March Madness. By the way, wonder how the cutting of the nets started? This explains it.
Now ladders are not something people go and buy every day. Like snow shovels. you make your purchase and hope it lasts and does its job and stick it away again. The return on purchasing a ladder is probably even less, and given the millions who live in inner cities, the market for ladders is probably even smaller than for scissors. Yet Werner does an ample spend on platforms like ESPN now leading into every March Madness run to make sure their brand is front and center. Does it make sense? Probably so and here’s why. Of all those niche brands around the NCAA Tournament, the ladder probably gets the most exposure as the nets go down as teams advance to The Big Dance and then through the tournament and the millions of eyeballs watching. That “One Shining Moment” doesn’t happen around the rim unless someone is providing the ladder to get the players and coaches up to cut down the nets.
Therefore Werner gets extended time on air with their product, replete with signage, during some of the most-watched and elongated moments during March Madness. It gives a brand which may get lost in the purchasing shuffle a bit more stickiness with consumers, and by backing it up with ad spending, delivers a nice one two messaging punch. Werner will again sponsor additional highlights to help bring the excitement both on and off the court. Also every year they seem to increase their breath and scope of engagement around the most visible, and sometimes most consistent, brand ambassadors around college sports; the coaches. They sponsor the Naismith Coach of the Month Award and have added in recent years the American Football Coaches Association and its awards, and Coach To Cure MD a partnership between the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), and Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD), the largest national charity devoted exclusively to Duchenne muscular dystrophy. So now you factor in all important cause marketing to the program to further spread the ROI for Werner.
Oh and here’s another nice addition; March is yes…National Ladder Safety Month. National Ladder Safety Month is the only movement dedicated exclusively to the promotion of ladder safety, at home and at work. National Ladder Safety Month brings awareness to the importance of the safe use of ladders through resources and training. Is it the biggest of initiatives? No, but it creates yet another way for Werner to tie pieces together at a key sales time.
Odds are if you are going to purchase a ladder, spring is your time. The old one is broken, we need to clean windows and trim trees and move packages, so who do we go buy? Maybe it’s the brand, probably the only brand, I hear of during March Madness. So when consumer goes to Lowes (an NCAA Partner) or Home Depot the chance of brand association is that much higher. Now do other brands spend direct to consumer to get identity? Sure. But to carve a unique niche with a mass audience and benefit from some nice spill-over exposure, Werner Ladder seems to have a leg up on its rivals. A nice niche carved with a very solid focus.
