Marketing March Madness: 20 years of the corporate champions program and counting

Dawn Staley will appear with former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski in Aflac’s new college basketball campaign. Courtesy of Aflac

Starting 20 years ago, the NCAA’s corporate champion and partner program hit the marketplace in a unique two-tiered format that was part of CBS Sports’ 11-year, $6 billion bundled-rights agreement. It included media and marketing rights for March Madness and other college championships together for the first time.

By creating an exclusive top tier called Champions and a second tier called Partners, the thinking was that CBS and the NCAA could offer more opportunities for companies to be involved.

As the NCAA marketing program in its current form hits its 20-year anniversary, having started in 2003, it rolls into March Madness with a robust program of three longtime champions — AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola — and 13 partners.

Coke’s deal has lasted 20-plus years — the first iteration of it was valued at $500 million over 11 years — and it is still going strong. 

AT&T, which took the position from Cingular Wireless, came on board in 2007 replacing that brand, which had been around since 2001. Capital One’s champion partnership began in 2010.

“Having relationships that in some cases go out two decades or more, that’s really given us the opportunity to grow and innovate around them,” said Chris Simko, CBS Sports senior vice president, sales and marketing, Paramount Advertising. “You’re able to build a trust as you go down this journey together and develop friendships. Having that level of trust, where we’re talking about how to help one another’s business as opposed to transactions, is really where you’re trying to get to.”

GM, which for years activated its Pontiac brand on NCAA championships, surrendered its deal in 2009 as the company eliminated Pontiac in the face of a challenging economy. Capital One took its place as a champion.

“We just felt like there were clients who were ripe to be more involved,” Simko said of the origin of the Champions program. “There was a tier there that could stand out from the rest, but the idea was that this group could sort of ‘champion’ the NCAA’s efforts and mission.”

AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola remain the three top sponsors, but their assets have grown immensely beyond a three-week media buy to now include major concerts at the site of the host city, fan fests and other events that offer activation opportunities, like Coke’s culinary “Taste of the Final Four” event.

“When you have partners that have been around a long time, that doesn’t mean you can’t innovate or that things don’t evolve,” said Jon Diament, executive vice president, ad sales, Warner Bros. Discovery, which partners with CBS. “You’re still in a position to try new things even though you might have had that partner for a long time. The media landscape changes. Social media changes.”