College basketball bracket brings in $23K for the Evansville Courier & Press

Matt Coen

The Execution
The contest lasted for the duration of the college basketball tournament, but the team began planning for it much earlier.

At least two months before the tournament, the sales team got together to kick off the basketball initiative. To get everyone excited, all the reps played Knockout and the top two players won a gift card.

As you can see from this sales sheet, the paper sold one title sponsorship, two secondary sponsorships, and 16 additional opportunities to be a VIP picker. They ended up securing sponsors from a variety of categories, including a local mall, a tire shop, local bars & grills, a credit union, an auto repair shop, an insurance company, a liquor store, a chiropractor and a pizzeria.

Here's what each sponsorship included:

Title Sponsorship (1 available)

• Naming rights.
• Name on promotional material.
• Chance to be a VIP Picker.
• Advertisement on double truck.
• (4) 6"×5" advertisements on updated bracket page.
• Quarter-page, B&W ad to run on a weekday during the contest.
• 165,000 Big Box ads.
• 40,000 mobile ads.
• Inclusion in all promotional print and online advertising as Title and "Brought to you by" sponsors.

Secondary Sponsorships (2 available)

• Advertisement on double truck.
• Chance to be a VIP Picker.
• (4) 3"×5" advertisements on updated bracket page.
• Quarter-page, B&W ad to run on a weekday during the contest.
• 100,000 Big Box ads (Span Fold, ROS).
• 20,000 rich media impressions (schedule based on availability).
• Inclusion in promotional print and online advertising as "Brought to you by" sponsors.

VIP Pickers (16 available)

• 3.25"x2.5" advertisement on the double truck.
• (2) 2"×4", B&W ads to run on a weekday during the contest.
• 50,000 leaderboard impressions to run during contest.

In the end, 18 of the 19 sponsors ended up as VIP pickers during the bracket. These VIP pickers competed against each other to win prizes:

The paper also offered advertisers the opportunity to be a prize sponsor in return for inclusion in the promotion.

On the first day of the bracket, the Evansville Courier & Press placed a double truck advertisement in the sports section of the paper featuring a basketball bracket, sixteen 3.25"x 2.5" advertisements for the VIP pickers, and an ad for each of the sponsors.

Following each round, the paper included a full-page advertisement with an updated bracket and an ad for each of the three sponsors. There were also additional ads in the paper throughout the contest. The staff made sure to focus on what was in it for the audience by featuring the prizes and the URL to enter prominently.

Local prizes really helped drive participation and the paper highlighted these prizes within the game itself.

One of the most exciting elements of the Hoops Hysteria campaign was a contest-within-a-contest for the sponsors to win additional ad space. The day before the bracket began, the paper hosted a kickoff party for advertisers with a chance to win prizes, which was a huge hit. Sponsors also were encouraged to hold their own "contests-within-a-contest" by setting up a private group and inviting their own customers to compete for more prizes.

The Results
The Hoops Hysteria campaign brought in $23,000 in revenue for the Evansville Courier & Press. Thanks to the staff's planning and elements like local prizes, the paper consistently sees tons of participation in its College Basketball bracket!

Matt Coen is the president and co-founder of Second Street, a leading provider of private-label online promotions platforms and partner success services for media companies based in St. Louis, Mo. He can be reached at (314) 880-4902 or matt@secondstreet.com.