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New Analysis Highlights the Biggest Spenders, Increasing Ad Rates, and Growing Network TV Revenue

Sports fans and advertisers alike are counting down to the start of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament beginning March 13th. March Madness continues to be one of the marquee franchises in televised sports, and TNS Media Intelligence has searched its extensive database once again to serve up the latest figures and trends in March Madness advertising.

According to TNS Media Intelligence, over $2.73 billion has been spent on network TV advertising during the tournament games from 2000-2006. For 2007, ad spending is expected to surpass $500 million in 2007— an all-time high, and a 65 to 70 percent increase in the current decade.

MARCH MADNESS AS AN INTEGRATED MARKETING EVENT

As a marketing platform, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is more than just TV commercials. It also extends to other platforms.

NCAA MARCH MADNESS ON DEMAND

In 2007, CBS will again offer “NCAA March Madness on Demand.” All games from the first three rounds of the Tournament will be streamed live over the internet, available at no charge to PC users with a broadband connection.

For the 2006 Tournament, CBS signed up 18 advertisers to sponsor these webcasts including Courtyard by Marriott, Dell Computers, Lowe’s, Pontiac, and State Farm Insurance. The aforementioned advertisers also ran spots in the TV broadcasts.

Advertising units on the webcasts include billboard displays around the perimeter of the viewing window and video ads during the periods when the television broadcasts are in commercial break.

EVENT MARKETING

Major TV advertisers in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament leverage their investment through integrated event marketing programs that involve sales promotions, contests, sweepstakes, etc.

The 2006 tournament featured these high-profile efforts:

Chevrolet – a sales event tied to the Tournament, with incentive pricing on various car and truck models.

Pontiac and Lowe’s – each of these advertisers conducted a sweepstakes with trips to the Final Four weekend as the top prize. TV spots directed viewers to visit their local dealer/retail store to enter the drawing. Lowe’s also cross-promoted its event in Sports Illustrated magazine.

Cingular - Cingular ran TV spots promoting a service that enabled customers to interact with the Tournament through their cell phones. In addition, the carrier also ran ads for a sweepstakes drawing to win tickets to the Final Four weekend and a chance to step onto the court and make a basket for $5 million.

About TNS Media Intelligence:

TNS Media Intelligence is the leading provider of strategic advertising intelligence to advertising agencies, advertisers, and media properties. The company’s tracking technologies collect advertising expenditure and occurrence data, as well as select creative executions, for more than 2.4 million brands across 20 media. Established in 23 countries with more than 16,000 customers, TNS MI is part of the TNS Group, ranked #2 worldwide in marketing information and the world’s largest custom research company. The U.S. headquarters are in New York City with sales locations in major markets throughout the United States.

About TNS:

TNS is a global market insight and information group.

Our strategic goal is to be recognized as the global leader in delivering value-added information and insights that help our clients to make more effective decisions.

As industry thought leaders, our people deliver innovative thinking and excellent service to global organizations and local clients worldwide. We work in partnership with our clients, meeting their needs for high-quality information, analysis and foresight across our network of over 70 countries.

We are the world’s foremost provider of custom research and analysis, combining in-depth industry sector understanding with world-class expertise in the areas of new product development, segmentation and positioning research, brand and advertising research and stakeholder management. We are a major supplier of consumer panel, media intelligence and internet, TV and radio audience measurement services.

TNS is the sixth sense of business.

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Contacts

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Alicia Wells, 212-931-6149