If nothing else, March Madness is appropriately named. For three weeks at the beginning of the spring, men and women across the country shake off the cold of the past winter, drop what they’re doing, fill out a blank bracket and proceed to go absolutely nutty for college basketball.

In fact, it’s estimated that U.S. companies lose an estimated $1.8 billion due to decreased productivity and increased employee bracket participation. The NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Tournament has a tendency to make us all a little crazy on and off the court.

Some celebrate the insanity by gambling more money than they can stand to lose on the hope that they’ll be able to accurately pick a winning team. Others use the event as an excuse to get-together with friends while cheering on teams and players whom will be forgotten come May.

And still others just enjoy sharing in the skill and determination being presented by aspiring athletes from across the country.

And then there are marketers.

Call them opportunistic if you must, but the marketers who are able to thrive despite the heavy competition are the ones who know how to tap into current interests and turn them into opportunities for advertising and brand recognition.

March Madness is Made for Marketers

As with the Super Bowl, Summer Olympics, World Cup, and other major sports events, March Madness is no longer just an event for the sports fans, but it's also become a important event for marketers. When done well, March Madness can be a huge payoff for advertisers looking to expand the reach of their brand and touch new customers.

With nearly 140 million viewers expected to tune in to watch the month-long nexus of the college basketball season, that’s an enticing number of potential new customers for companies who want to put their products and services in front of all those eyeballs glued to the television, laptop and mobile screens.

Last year’s tournament generated $1.5 billion in advertising revenue, and there’s no reason to suspect that this year will be any different. Of course, landing a commercial spot on the network (CBS or TBS) during the games is the first thing to come to mind, but will take more capital than some marketers have access to; the average price of a 30-second ad ranged from $100,000 (for a spot during the opening rounds) to $1.34 million during the tournament's championship game.

For larger advertisers like Coca Cola, AT&T, and Capital One, costs are less of an issue. For example, Capital One is releasing multiple television ads featuring the likes of Alec Baldwin and Charles Barkley as spokesmen, and expects to see a sizable ROI. Of course, for those without the necessary funds to support a national television campaign, a more creative approach is warranted.

Other brands are doing their best to get in on all the action, without having to pay the cost of becoming official sponsors.

Hormel Foods’ current marketing campaign is banking on a miniature animated character dressed in medieval armor who runs about shouting about how excited he is for the “Madness of March” (the phrase “March Madness” is copyrighted). The hope is that the short video and cute character will hit the right notes, become catchy, and go viral with the hashtag #BreaktheMonotony.

One recurring theme among marketing tactics during March Madness is the incorporation of social media into the strategy, both for paying-sponsors and unaffiliated brands.

In addition to offering platforms through which viewers can discuss the games, social media sites also allow brands to dip into trending topics in real time, promoting products and connecting with with potential clients over a shared love of basketball.

Do you have a plan for your social media marketing?

Twitter is taking things a step further. The social networking and microblogging site is hoping to become the digital arena for basketball fans, by providing real-time video highlights as the games progress.

Partnering with SnappyTV, the site is currently posting 15-second clips from the matches, using the handle @marchmadness. Advertisers can get a taste of that pie by becoming tournament sponsors, which will allow them to have their name and logo featured before the clips.

The Billion Dollar Bet that Paid Off

Of course, there are marketers who are willing to invest resources, and then there are the ones who are willing to spend the really big bucks and take a chance. Take Quicken Loans, the third largest mortgage lender in the U.S., partnered with Warren Buffett to create the “Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge.” Basically, the partnership will award $1 billion (yes, billion) to anyone who completes and submits a perfect bracket for the 2014 tournament.

How difficult is it?

Well, let’s just say that the odds of anyone actually winning are fairly slim. No, “slim” probably isn’t the right word. The odds of getting struck by lightning are slim (1:750,000). The chances you'll win the recent Powerball? 1 in 175 million. The odds of winning the Bracket Challenge are quite a bit slimmer, we're talking can-barely-be-seen-under-a-powerful-microscope-thin.

The odds of taking home the 1 billion dollar ultimate prize are statistically nonexistent. To score a perfect bracket, you need to correctly choose the outcomes of 67 games, the odds of doing that would be approximately 1:9,223,372,036,854,775,808.

Of course, not a single bracket survived the first round of games. However, there was still a winner.  Though no one won the challenge itself, the contest was a major success for advertising; Buffett and Quicken enjoyed the publicity, and the valuable information gathered from every contest participant is now in possession of a company that can use it for generating leads and analyzing demographics.

So, in essence, Quicken Loans puts up an all but unattainable prize, and in return received non-stop branding and marketing data from every one of the 8.7 million contestants. That’s a pretty good strategy.

We did some rough, back of the napkin ROI calculations and found that even if just 0.001% of those customers end up going with Quicken Loans for their mortgage, the company comes out as if they won the powerball.

8,700 new customers x $6000 in mortgage interest* = $52 million

To be fair, Quicken pledged to award $100,000 to the top 20 most accurate brackets. Take that $2 million away and associated marketing costs, and Quicken still walks away with roughly $50 million dollars from the Billion Dollar Bracket Challenege. 

And that's just money they make from the first year of mortgage interest; not the full life of the loan. We're also not factoring in all the priceless branding and publicity that Quicken Loans received.  

After it's all said and done, Quicken Loans hit the jackpot with an marketing ROI that's hits 20:1 on the low end and easily reach an ROI of 200:1 (or more) when considering the full life of each new mortgage, the branding, and publicity.

* 30-year loan for a house that costs $127,680 (average home price $152,000 - average down payment 16%) * 4.5 interest rate = $647 mortgage payment where 80% of mortgage payment is interest in first year.

'Tis the Season for Underdogs, Upsets

Of course, not every company has the clout or dollars to take a gambit like the Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge, but that doesn’t mean that even smaller brands can’t take a page from Quicken Loans’ book and think outside of the box.

A small marketing campaign may not have the prestigious brand name or big program dollars, but with the right team, a creative strategy, and a little bit of luck, you can come out of with an upexpected win. It is the season for underdogs and upsets afterall.

March Madness only comes once a year, and within a few short weeks it’s gone again; the marketers who take advantage of those three weeks with a unique-yet-viable strategy are the real winners, no matter which team makes it all the way to end.

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