Turner and CBS Sports today “will tip off a multimedia, marketing campaign to get everybody ready" for the NCAA men's basketball tournament, according to Mike Reynolds of MULTICHANNEL NEWS. The "Brackets Everywhere" campaign includes "TV, digital out-of-home billboards with live score updates, print ads in major publications, radio spots, and programming guide messaging. The TV ads will include "cameos from recognizable faces" like TBS' Conan O'Brien, actors Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, comedian Kevin Hart, musician Big Boi and various CNN anchors, among others. The spots will run across TBS, CBS, TNT and TruTV -- the four networks that televise the tournament -- as well as CNN, HLN, Airport Network, CBS Outernet Partners and across Turner Digital outlets. Turner and CBS will “back the initiative with mega brackets, standing as large as 50-feet by 32-feet in three locations: CNN Center in Atlanta on Mar. 6, Hollywood & Highland in Los Angeles on Mar. 7 and Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal in New York on Mar. 12, which the media company teammates are dubbing National Bracket Day” (MULTICHANNEL NEWS, 2/28 issue). AD AGE’s Jeanine Poggi noted the campaign is “centered on a fashion designer who decides the bracket design is the next big trend, ensuing a nationwide bracket craze.” The Black Keys will “serve as the musical backdrop for the tournament, which will use the band's song ‘Gold on the Ceiling’ in TV ads and around game coverage.” There will also be “significant branding presence throughout New Orleans," the site of the Final Four (ADAGE.com, 2/27).
