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While Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese may have been the stars of March Madness, brands certainly used college basketball’s biggest platform to make a splash.
Dozens of brands had an on-the-ground presence in Dallas over the weekend, where record-breaking crowds gathered to watch the nation’s top talent.
Sunday’s championship alone drew nearly 20,000 fans, and the women’s NCAA tournament itself pulled in 357,542—a D1 women’s basketball championship all-time attendance record—and an opportunity for brands to engage with thousands of consumers.
In 2022, women’s March Madness on ESPN had 14 sponsors and 22 advertisers. In 2023, the network increased that to 15 sponsors and nearly 100 advertisers, and for good reason.
During Sunday’s final between LSU and Iowa, a staggering 9.9 million viewers tuned in on ABC—a 103% year-over-year increase, making it the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever. That’s more than the average number of viewers for Amazon’s Thursday Night Football games (9.6 million), the 2023 Daytona 500 (8.2 million) and any Stanley Cup game since 1973.
I was on the ground in Dallas for Adweek, taking in the action at the Final Four, hitting as many brand activations as I could. In addition to NCAA skills challenges and a history of women’s basketball exhibit, here’s what I saw from brands:
Buick Sees Her
Buick presented one of two centralized brand activations for fans, this one directly in front of the American Airlines Center. Party on the Plaza featured a full bus with a stage, highlighting Buick’s #SeeHerGreatness platform. Throughout the weekend, Buick, in partnership with media platform Togethxr (founded by athletes Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim, Simone Biles and Sue Bird) hosted what the brand described as “mentorship huddles” with athletes and coaches including Bird, Becky Hammon, Nneka Ogwumike and Diana Taurasi.
The full outdoor fanfest served as a pregame event with food and beverages, merchandise sales, music, games, photo ops and more. Other brands, including Coca-Cola, also had small tents on the plaza.