Great Clips will become the "official hair salon of the NCAA" in a multi-year partnership that "includes all 90 championships and March Madness," according to Nick Halter of the MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL BUSINESS JOURNAL. The company has been a "major sports advertiser" and has current partnerships with the NHL and X Games, having previously been a NASCAR sponsor for more than 15 years before ending the partnership in '18. The deal is a "joint agreement with Turner Sports and CBS Sports." Great Clips VP/Marketing & Communications Lisa Hake "did not disclose terms of the partnership." The Final Four "was in Great Clips' back yard" in '19 at Minneapolis' U.S. Bank Stadium and Hake said that it "would have been ideal to begin the partnership before that, but the company wasn't quite ready." Hake: "We did do some advertising during March Madness last year through TV and digital creative across Turner Properties and we saw really promising results. That's a whole other reason that we decided to really pursue and go deeper starting this year, because last year's campaign did a great job at increasing brand awareness and driving customers to our salons." Great Clips' first national marketing plan "will begin ahead" of this spring's NCAA Tournament (BIZJOURNALS.com, 1/14).
