March Madness Goes Digital With SportsDesk Media
Chicago, IL (PRWEB) March 17, 2015 -- This week, 68 men’s and 64 women’s college basketball teams aim to survive the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament on the court to make it to the Sweet Sixteen, but many university athletic departments, conferences and even the NCAA itself are discovering championship levels of success at the box office with return-on-investment of 2400%+ by implementing SportsDesk Media.
SportsDesk Media’s college client roster reads like its own Sweet Sixteen with the Atlantic Coast Conference, Ball State University, Big Twelve Conference, East Carolina, Georgia Tech University, Mississippi State University, Mountain West Conference, NCAA, Rice University, University of California-Los Angeles, University of Central Florida, University of North Colorado, University of Oklahoma, University of South Carolina, University of South Florida and the University of Washington.
“Whether you’re a #1 or #16 seed, schools big and small are realizing the power of using SportsDesk Media to better understand their fanbase and create new revenue-generating opportunities,” said SportsDesk Media Founder Eric Fernandez. “The power of harnessing Big Data is changing the engagement strategies for schools in real-time.”
Through its partnership with the NCAA, SportsDesk Media is developing a digital-based ticket sales campaign for the Women’s Final Four including the First and Second Round game. The NCAA will use SportsDesk Media to customize creative ads and push ticket sales for early round games within minutes of bracket selections. With a minimal time span to sell tickets, the schools selected as host sites will now have the ability to begin selling tickets almost instantly. With the Final Four changing locations every year, using digital ads is the most efficient and effective way to get the message out to those fans most likely to buy tickets. The ability to use real-time data allows the NCAA to measure the effectiveness of the messaging and make any necessary adjustments.
“In an effort to continue growing NCAA Women’s Basketball, the last few years focused on research that provided insight into what changes should be made to increase attendance and revenue while providing the best experience for the student-athletes. One of those changes was allowing the Top 16 teams to host the First and Second Rounds of the NCAA Championship, so the schools only have a few days to sell tickets after the bracket is revealed on Selection Monday,” said Tracie Hitz, NCAA Director of Business Operations “Enter SportsDesk Media. With my experience working with them in the past, I knew they would create a plan that would give our schools the tools they needed to sell a lot of tickets in a short amount of time. Having SportsDesk Media on my team makes us confident that we will be successful even though it’s our first year navigating through this new format.”
Fan analysis provided by SportsDesk Media gives colleges information on their fans including demographics, needs, attitudes and purchasing behaviors. The fan analysis has allowed teams to improve marketing decisions, develop new ticketing strategies, and create new sponsorship and athletic department foundation revenue.
“Our core mission is to accelerate fan passion and the digital platforms of SportsDesk Media allows us the ability to more effectively, efficiently and economically reach, engage and monetize Sooner Nation with the push of a button in real-time,” said Charlie Taylor, Assistant Athletic Director for Marketing for the University of Oklahoma athletic department.
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ABOUT SPORTS DESK MEDIA: SportsDesk Media is a next generation digital media, analytics and marketing company. Founded in 2012, SportsDesk Media portfolio of clients include progressive sports brands across professional and collegiate sports; including the Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cricket Australia, Oklahoma City Thunder, Sacramento Kings and more than a dozen college athletic organizations. For more information, please visit http://www.sportsdeskmedia.com or @sportsdeskmedia.
Jim Delaney, SportsDesk Media, http://www.sportsdeskmedia.com/, +1 6178516011, [email protected]
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