The annual NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament has grown into the second most popular multi-program sporting event for advertisers, behind only the NFL playoffs. Last year’s March Madness tournament garnered 21.3M viewers (second only to the Super Bowl). TV advertising spend is projected to be $1.13 billion, up 10% from last year, a record for the month-long event. March Madness is also very supportive of the changing viewing habits of sports fans. The tournament is offered on multiple digital devices including tablets, laptops and desktops. In 2014, Turner Sports produced March Madness Live and reported 70 million live video streams were recorded for the duration of the tournament. In this study, Extreme Reach Research has compiled data intelligence that illustrates which brands within dominant verticals ran the most effective March Madness ads. These insights are based on brand lift data using proprietary Extreme Reach brand effectiveness research technology.

3. Abstract
OBJECTIVE
Extreme Reach conducted a study to determine the effectiveness of the advertisers in three of the
most advertised verticals: Automotive, Telecom and Technology.
METHODOLOGY
The study was conducted across Internet-connected devices using proprietary Brand Effectiveness
Research tools on the Extreme Reach platform and included and exposed group of over 400,000
participants and a control group of approximately the same size from around the United States.
Participants described how likely they were to purchase a product or service from a particular
brand by choosing a single answer from five choices ranging from “very likely” to “very unlikely”.
Surveys were completed by the control group, who had not been exposed to games during the
tournament and by the exposed group immediately after they had watched specific March Madness
games on television, online or both.
The Automotive vertical surveys took place from the broadcast start of the Sweet 16 round
to the end of the National Championship game. While the Telecom and Technology research
encompassed the beginning of broadcasting of the Final Four games to the end of the National
Championship game.
FINDINGS
The percentage change in likelihood to purchase the advertised products and services, among
the exposed group, ranged from 29.3% to 85.9%.
April 2015
MARCH MADNESSMARCH MADNESSMARCH MADNESS