Merge

The NCAA men's basketball tournament is now over and I'm sad; it's my favorite three week period of the year.  It is arguably the greatest sporting event every year, but even more, it may be one of the most well branded entities around.  In fact, the word of mouth revolving around the tournament is mind boggling.  For the last three weeks, how many conversations did you have about your Final Four.  How many times did you hear the words March Madness uttered at your office?  Did anyone show up at your office the first Thursday of the tournament? 

How they created this kind of buzz would be another blog altogether. The fact is it is there.  CBS has stepped up their game in the online world as well.  The creation of March Madness on Demand has increased online ad revenue more than eightfold since 2006, but this only equates to about 5% of total revenue (source: Kantar Media, CBS, Business Insider).  While this is growing rapidly, don't expect TV and Online ad revenue to get close in the coming years, and the reason is word of mouth. 

CBS knows its strength lies in conversations of the offline variety.  Sports bars and Final Four get-togethers will  continue to flourish because of our desire to compare brackets with friends and experience the games with others. 

Bottom Line:  The online trends and apps will continue to grow, but this will be a business dominated by good ole word of mouth.