PR Lessons from March Madness

It’s March and for many of us that means March Madness. I’m fortunate this year in that I get to watch the day games while working. While it seems like it’s nothing more than entertainment to most, to me it’s a learning opportunity. Actually, for all PR professionals, it’s a learning opportunity.

It’s the most celebrated tournament in all of sports because of what it offers to the public and how it’s delivered to the public by the NCAA. Here are a few lessons from the event.

1. Emotion is the key to connecting with the public. The NCAA Tournament is chalk full of emotion, and the brilliant marketing and PR minds of CBS, the NCAA and ESPN use it to their advantage. Even those who don’t like basketball can salivate over the tournament because of the underdog. Very little is more powerful than watching a 12-seed, no-name college take down a 5-seed school with traveling fans and shirtless super-fans with painted chests. Then, there’s the song CBS plays every year: “One Shining Moment.” It’s laced with emotion and relevancy for the tournament in that each team gets that one moment (one game) to shine. And if they’re the underdog that eliminates Duke, North Carolina, Kansas or any of the perennial Final Four teams, that moment is huge. 
2. Engagement is powerful. Who doesn’t fill out a bracket? Even the President of the United States fills one out. OK, there are some non-basketball fans who watch without filling out a bracket. But office bracket pools are abundant this time of year and they have a tendency to help the NCAA grow its fan base. How many people do you know in your office pool who know nothing about basketball? I bet there is at least one in small pools and at least 5-10 in large pools. Every year, a new someone or many new someone’s enter every pool. And inevitably there is someone who makes a side bet with a friend who loses and has to buy the jersey of the opposing team to wear it for a day.  There’s your ROI right there.
3. Loyal customers are invaluable to your reputation. No matter what organization you represent, crises are going to happen and something negative is going to hit the news about the organization at some point. If you don’t have a solid reputation, the damage is going to be significant. If you do have a solid reputation, you have loyal customers who will stick with you and help you weather the storm. That truth is most apparent in college sports. Many of the teams in the tourney have been hit with NCAA sanctions at one point or another because of how difficult it is to oversee the complex system, but they’ve weathered the storms because they have loyal fans – fans who will forgive them and stick with them through almost anything. Loyal customers and fans accept that the organization isn’t perfect and when someone within the organization makes a mistake, the organization will fix the problem and make it right.

There are so many more lessons PR professionals can learn from the tournament. Feel free to share them here.

If you need help using emotion to reach your customers, developing ways to engage your customers or securing loyal customers, Jakel Communications can help. Contact our Denver PR agency today.