If you’re like most people, the very mention of March Madness conjures a montage of athletic greatness and pandemonium-inducing buzzer beaters. But at its core, March Madness is all about branding. When else can brands engage with an audience that is hyper-motivated on social media, willingly donning branded merchandise, and engaging with content 24/7 with impunity, even during work hours?
As a proactive marketing analytics company, we couldn’t help but wonder what March Madness looks like from a marketing perspective. We put our platform and a few analytical tools to work to see how the Final Four teams stack up based on marketing metrics. Could an analysis of Domain Authority predict the 2014 NCAA champion? What about total social followers or uniques?
If you’re still placing bets, then read on, marketers, and put your money where your metrics are.
FACEBOOK FACE-OFF
When it comes to social media presence, the Florida Gators are towering over the competition on Facebook with over 1.3M fans. That said, the Wisconsin Badgers are getting the most bang for their buck on the network. Though the Badgers have less than a tenth of the Gators’ Facebook fans, they have more people talking about them (181,190 for the Badgers vs. 170,492 for the Gators), building some major Badger buzz online. Should Florida and Wisconsin meet in the championship game, prepare yourselves for a Facebook face-off of David and Goliath proportions (not to mention a major Facebook advertising win for Mark Zuckerberg). Florida is a Facebook powerhouse, but Wisconsin is an underdog worth rooting for.
TWITTER POWER
While Florida is operating a full-court press on Facebook, their dominance doesn’t carry over to Twitter. When it comes to posts of the 140-character variety, the Kentucky Wildcats are King with 69,118 followers. The Wildcats even eliminated fellow Twitter superstar the Michigan Wolverines in the Elite Eight round, proving their dominance on the channel. For your Twitter underdog, look to Connecticut — they may have the smallest Twitter force with only 14K followers, but like the Badgers on Facebook, they have a dedicated, retweeting fan base.
BRAND MESSAGING
Kentucky is leading the Final Four pack on Twitter, but while most teams peaked in average retweet/tweet on March 30th (when each team secured their spot in the Final Four), Kentucky maximized their retweet average earlier in the week, on March 27th.
AVERAGE RETWEET/TWEET OVER TIME
Take a look at the teamwork-oriented tweet that led to the early spike in Kentucky’s retweet average (which came just before their Sweet Sixteen game against the Louisville Cardinals). The humble messaging paid off, garnering the team over four times as many retweets than their average. On and off the court, it pays to have a strategy, if not a touch of humanity!
MASCOT LOVE
Which team’s mascot is getting the most #love on Twitter? If you selected the winning teams for your office bracket based on mascots, then this is the metric for you. We looked at a head-to-head breakdown of mascot hashtag frequency over the course of the month courtesy of Topsy. Despite their less-powerful Twitter presence, the #gators have crushed the #huskies in Twitter mentions throughout the tournament, while the #badgers eked out a win over the #wildcats after a surge in the Elite Eight round. From a #mascot perspective, it looks like we’re heading for a #gators vs. #badgers championship game.
(Of course, we couldn’t let talk of mascots go by without plugging our own, Maven the Corgi. Follow him on Twitter and prepare for cuteness overload.)
WEB DOMINANCE
If you consider the Florida versus Connecticut side of the bracket as a web battle, Florida has Connecticut beat thanks to their website’s trust and popularity. Just take a look at Florida’s lower Alexa Rank (remember, you want this lower) and higher Domain Authority score below. In the battle of West versus Midwest, Wisconsin also has the advantage over Kentucky with a lower Alexa Rank and higher Domain Authority.
So all web developers out there, place your bets on Florida and Wisconsin to meet in the finals, with Florida the heavy favorite overall thanks to their superior Alexa Rank.
SOME PERSPECTIVE ON THE MADNESS
While it may feel like March Madness is ubiquitous, we couldn’t help but notice that there’s another phenomena that has dwarfed March Madness every April for the past four years: Game of Thrones. This weekend also happens to be the Season 4 premiere for HBO’s hit fantasy-porn series, so if you’re suffering from March Madness overload, feel free to show your GOT spirit instead. Just take a look at how Game of Thrones has ousted March Madness in search trends since it first premiered in April 2011.
BOTTOM LINE: If you’re both a marketer and a betting man, put your money on Florida given their wins in the Facebook, mascot hashtag, and web authority categories. Go Gators! (But beware White Walkers, because winter is coming.)
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