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NCAA tabs agency for Final Four events

Strategy shift adds expertise in multicultural marketing

The NCAA tagline “The Road Ends Here” can be found everywhere on Final Four weekend, from the sideline of the basketball court to billboards and merchandise.

Its Spanish translation — El camino se acaba aquí — might become almost as prevalent in the coming years as the NCAA applies a deeper focus to its Hispanic marketing.

Professional Sports Partners

Headquarters: Houston
Founded: 2012
Principals: Alex Lopez Negrete, Cathy Lopez Negrete
CEO: Jason Kohll
Expertise: Advertising, sports marketing, Hispanic marketing, PR, production
Select clients: NCAA, Houston Super Bowl Host Committee, BBVA Compass, Red Bull, Papa John’s

The NCAA has hired Houston-based Professional Sports Partners, an agency with an expertise in Hispanic marketing, to be its go-to strategist for the next two Final Fours in Phoenix and San Antonio, markets where Hispanics make up anywhere from a third to more than half of the overall population.

This comes on the heels of PSP working with the NCAA on the Houston Final Four this past season as well.

PSP is 50 percent owned by Lopez Negrete Communications, the largest independent Hispanic agency in the country — among its many clients is Wal-Mart — giving PSP a competency in Hispanic marketing that helped the Houston firm win the NCAA’s business in a two-year deal that covers the 2017 and 2018 Final Fours.

PSP’s job is to drive attendance at the Final Four’s ancillary events, which include the three-day music fest, four-day fan fest and youth clinics, activities that don’t require a ticket to the games and are accessible to anyone.

The NCAA has from time to time worked with agencies in a local market to generate interest in these events, but PSP represents the first agency to be hired as part of a multiyear deal.

“This is a real shift in strategy for us,” said Jeff Jarnecke, the NCAA’s director of championships and alliances. “We thought we should focus more of our energy on having the message transcend the city and not be so specific to one given city, so we asked PSP to stay on. This gives us a little more of a long-term strategy, as opposed to retooling every year with a different message.”

The relationship between the NCAA and PSP began with the Final Four last month in Houston, where nearly 40 percent of the population is Hispanic.

Houston’s local organizing committee, led by Doug Hall, helped identify a handful of agencies that submitted proposals. The NCAA picked PSP, which is also working on next year’s Super Bowl LI in Houston. PSP won the business primarily because of its expertise in Hispanic marketing but also because it has both marketing and public relations capabilities.

Rapper Pitbull was part of the fun during the March Madness Fan Fest in Houston, which PSP helped promote.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
“That’s not easy to find, even in a market as large as Houston,” Hall said.

The NCAA’s Hispanic marketing effort in Houston included a heavy ad spend on Spanish-language media, an appearance by the Latin American Select basketball team in the March Madness Fan Fest, and a performance by Cuban-American rapper Pitbull during the concert series.

After each of the NCAA’s ancillary events either approached attendance records or broke them, the NCAA was so pleased that it signed PSP for two more years.

“Our ultimate goal is to connect the city to the Final Four,” said Jason Kohll, PSP’s chief executive. “There are a lot of ways to be part of the Final Four besides going to the games. One of the key ways the NCAA judges the success of a city is whether they engage in a meaningful way with those ancillary events.”

PSP, which counts BBVA Compass as one of its largest clients, is composing its plans to spur attendance in Phoenix and San Antonio for both the English- and Spanish-speaking audiences in those markets. The Hispanic community in Phoenix accounts for about a third of the total population; in San Antonio, it’s 56 percent.

By signing PSP to a multiyear deal and not having to go on another agency search in Phoenix, the NCAA figures it is several months ahead in its strategic planning.

The Hispanic community, “as we understand it, is a group that has little avidity for NCAA basketball,” said Jarnecke, the NCAA’s day-to-day contact with PSP. “So, it’s not only translating press releases into Spanish but also coming up with marketing collateral and translating taglines like ‘The Road Ends Here’ for merchandise and other advertising collateral, like billboards.

“We’ve got to be able to speak to the audience that comprises the community.”

Founded in 2012, PSP will work on everything from communications and public relations to creative, strategy, ad buys and research.

Kohll put together what he called a “fan intercept” research team that attended fan events in Houston and interviewed some members of the crowd. The local organizing committee also is seeking feedback from Spanish-language media and Houston’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

When that research is complete, it will give PSP further guidance for its marketing in 2017 and 2018.

“We’re putting the plan together for Phoenix and there will be an even bigger focus on Hispanic marketing,” Kohll said.

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