Besides AT&T’s Tourney Town presence, the company sponsored the televised halftime show, the alternate broadcast on ESPN2 hosted by Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird and the (free) Saturday concert at the AT&T Discovery District with Saweetie.
That’s a W. with ESPN
As the exclusive broadcast partner for the women’s NCAA tournament, ESPN had a huge presence in Dallas, activating under its “That’s a W” campaign. At Tourney Town, fans lined up for a 360 photo opportunity, complete with real confetti and basketball tricks under the espnW brand.
“We like to shout out when women are doing these amazing achievements both on and off the court, so the activation is all about bringing people in and giving them their own W moments they can celebrate with a championship moment,” said Amanda Marcotullio, marketing manager at ESPN.
The activation also had four “locker rooms,” one for each team, where fans could pose for photos. According to Marcotullio, last year, all the teams were on a single wall, but attendees were too competitive and would actively block out opposing teams’ logos.
The star of the show
While basketball legends flocked to Tourney Town, the true star of the event was the Aflac duck. The company recently partnered with South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, and the campaign with the coach was all over Dallas, with the duck coming along for the ride. Competitions let fans win points to earn prizes like Bluetooth headphones and Aflac branded merchandise. Of course, I left with my very own (inanimate) Aflac duck, too.
Mascot University
For Dick’s Sporting Goods’ massive activation, I roped my friend Amanda Christovich at Front Office Sports into attending Mascot University. After going through orientation, we completed our four years at school with a variety of activities, not limited to temporary tattoos, building a mascot puzzle and shooting some hoops. Fans could also take a holographic photo with stars from the men’s and women’s games.