Indeed, which touts itself as the world’s No. 1 job site, is the newest NCAA corporate partner. Indeed advertising launched last night on TBS’ NCAA Tournament selection show and will continue through March Madness. The job search platform is the NCAA’s 18th corporate partner and joins Google Cloud as new sponsors for '18. Turner and CBS jointly manage the NCAA’s partner program. LG, an NCAA partner since '09, decided not to return after last year. The company promoted its home entertainment, appliances and mobile phones through the NCAA deal (Michael Smith, Staff Writer).
ON CLOUD NINE: AD AGE's George Slefo notes Google, the official cloud of the NCAA, has begun the "first ad campaign for its cloud computing product with commercials in March Madness coverage." Google Cloud VP/Marketing Alison Wagonfeld said that questions such as, "Do players dunk more if they have 50,000 followers?" and, "Are math majors better at analyzing the court?" are featured in two 30-second spots created by Eleven, S.F. Google Cloud will also use artificial intelligence to "create several additional 15-second spots at the start of the second half during the Final Four." The activation will "specifically use Google technology and NCAA historically data to create real-time ads that attempt to answer questions such as whether the game might 'come down to the wire.'" Google has put together a team of "rabid basketball fans and data scientists it's dubbed 'The Wolfpack.'" This team will also provide questions like, "What mascots have the most Final Four appearances: cats or dogs?" for Google Cloud to "surface on social media." It will also be "responsible for all data analyzing behind the scenes and better inform Google as its marketing campaign expands in the future." Wagonfeld said that Google Cloud "chose the NCAA because it allows the company to reach massive amounts of people included in its target audience, which include chief information officers, IT decision makers, students and developers" (ADAGE.com, 3/12).
