March Madness Remains Highly Desirable Place For Marketers To Break New Creative

March Madness -- with its "wide appeal to a very young and very desirable audience" -- offers a "marketing mix that advertisers crave but can rarely find," according to Bruce Horovitz of USA TODAY. Not only is the tournament live sports, but it is "a social-media gabfest." Data from Kantar Media shows that the tournament generated more than $1.15B in ad revenue last year and "is expected to easily top that figure this year." 21 Sports & Entertainment Marketing Group Founder & CEO Rob Prazmark said, "March Madness is the right time, right place and continues to grow with no signs of peaking." Several brands are "debuting new ads" this year. Burger King's "new two-for-$5 TV spot stars" former NBAer Chris Webber, while Papa John's has "new spots featuring" CBS' Jim Nantz. Audi "has new ads starring comedian Ricky Gervais," and Pizza Hut "debuts spots to promote its WingStreet wings featuring ESPN's Scott Van Pelt" (USA TODAY, 3/14).