March Madness: AT&T for the win

This week we discussed big ideas that drive integrated marketing campaigns. Most of you have probably seen AT&T’s “It’s not difficult” commercials and if
you have been watching the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament you have probably
noticed a twist in this campaign’s big idea. AT&T came up with a brilliant
idea that entertains, makes us laugh, and remember their message. They adapted
the big idea to fit March Madness and take full advantage of their sponsorship
of the tournament.

AT&T found an improv actor, Beck Bennett, to have discussions with young kids about everyday topics related to key messaging for AT&T. The overall message of the campaign is “It’s not complicated” more is better, faster is better, bigger is better and AT&T has what you’re looking for. The kids are refreshingly hilarious and Bennett’s dry humor is right on target. Best of all, AT&T realized this was a campaign made for March Madness and the commercials have been altered so Bennett asks questions about basketball that also relate to AT&T’s taglines. These commercials have been airing at practically every NCAA basketball game on CBS and ESPN. AT&T took the campaign further by asking 6 year-olds for help with bracket picks, cementing their tie to the game. This week AT&T aired another commercial even more integrated into the March Madness season. This commercial features Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Bill Russell in the same classroom style seating we have grown accustom through the campaign.

BBDO Atlanta was hired by AT&T and Stephen McMennamy, creative director at BBDO, shared their timeline and frequency with the NCAA focused campaign. “We want to further it, keep the spark but at the same time we didn’t want to jump the shark” (Elliott, 2013). The idea is to continue the momentum but not loose quality or overplay it so that it becomes stale (Elliott, 2013). After the NCAA championship on April 8, McMennamy says they will “drop the microphone, leave the stage” (Elliott, 2013).

In 2012, the NCAA championship game received 24 million television viewers (Paulson, 2012). This was ranked as the most watched sporting event after the Superbowl and NFL playoff games (Paulson, 2012). AT&T and BBDO have created a successful campaign integration into March Madness and I would not be surprised if we see AT&T and others implement this idea into future sporting events.

Posted by Erin Spaulding

References

Elliott, S. (2013, March 29). For N.C.A.A., AT&T calls on pro basketball stars. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/for-n-c-a-a-att-calls-on-pro-basketball-stars/

Paulson. (2012, July 11). Halftime: The 50 most-viewed sporting events of 2012 (so far) . Sports Media Watch. Retrieved from http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2012/07/halftime-the-50-most-viewed-sporting-events-of-2012-so-far/