{"id":10654,"date":"2022-02-21T09:10:33","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T16:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tegnacorpstage.wpengine.com\/advertise\/?p=10654"},"modified":"2023-02-27T12:35:45","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T19:35:45","slug":"could-advertising-during-march-madness-be-a-slam-dunk-for-your-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tegna.com\/advertise\/could-advertising-during-march-madness-be-a-slam-dunk-for-your-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Advertising During March Madness be a Slam Dunk for Your Brand?\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one lesson we learned from all the big sporting events in February, it\u2019s that nationwide audiences live for sports content. Following suit in delivering big audiences, the upcoming March Madness tournament is poised to score big ratings. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>16.9 million<\/span><\/a> estimated U.S. viewers watched the 2021 championship game between Baylor and Gonzaga. Streaming was up last year too – more than 1 billion minutes were streamed across 32 games in just two days,<\/span> making it the most-streamed tournament to date<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

But high viewership also means less productive employees. According to <\/span>WalletHub<\/span><\/a>, the average worker spends six hours watching the tournament, and 56% of millennials are willing to miss work deadlines to catch the games, making this a great time to market to millennials.\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

But these audiences are doing more than just watching the games. In 2021, <\/span>47 million people filled out brackets<\/span><\/a> – and <\/span>according to ESPN<\/span><\/a>, the network alone collected 16.2 million brackets; at peak times, fans submitted more than 15,000 brackets per minute. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Audience Breakdown<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

So who exactly are these engaged viewers? According to data from the <\/span>Intercollegiate Fan Report<\/span><\/a> and MRI Simmons*:\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n