March Madness: When Engagement beats exposure.

The NCAA March Madness tournaments are more than a cultural moment, they’re a strategic opportunity for advertisers. But relying on traditional metrics like viewership tells only part of the story.

Mediaprobe, went deeper.

This case study shows that emotional engagement is a significantly more powerful driver of advertising effectiveness than raw reach. By measuring the Emotional Impact Score (EIS) across the Men’s and Women’s tournaments, we uncovered how timing, placement, and sponsorship status directly influenced brand recall and ad performance.

Key Insights:

• Women’s NCAA Tournament outperformed the Men’s by 5% in emotional engagement, making it a rising star in brand impact potential.
• Airbnb’s ad during the Women’s Final delivered 3.2x more Impacted Viewers, even with lower ratings, thanks to higher emotional connection.
• Strategic placement is crucial: Ads in early-game slots and first-in-break positions consistently achieved higher engagement.
• In-game integrations outperformed standard ad slots by 9%, proving that aligning with emotional game moments delivers stronger results.
• Official sponsors won big, with up to 5x higher recall than regular advertisers in both tournaments.