Prominent ad spender Geico has gravitated more toward sports sponsorship in recent years, including a deal with MLB.getty images

Geico, a longtime big spender on March Madness advertising, has signed on as an NCAA corporate sponsor in the auto and home insurance categories.

Historically, Geico has been a heavy buyer of sports media, but it has eschewed top-tier sponsorships like this one. An NCAA rights deal is the latest indication that Geico is warming to the idea of paying for sponsorships as well, which for the NCAA can range from $10 million to $20 million and up annually, depending on how much media is included.

Geico already was one of the biggest ad spenders on March Madness last year, ranking ninth, according to iSpot.TV, and that was before it became an official partner.

Over the past year, the Berkshire Hathaway-owned insurance company has bought a sponsorship package from Major League Baseball, a uniform patch deal for the Washington Wizards, along with Monumental Sports’ WNBA and G League teams, and renewed its NHL league sponsorship pact. All of those, plus the NCAA deal, include substantial media assets. As an industry source indicated, “There’s a different approach now to sponsorships” within the company.

With an expansive sponsorship portfolio that already includes more than 70 colleges and conferences, Geico is replacing rival Allstate at the NCAA’s corporate partner level. Allstate was an NCAA sponsor beginning in 2012 and its deal went into 2018, but the Chicago-based business exited prior to the 2018 March Madness season. State Farm previously was an NCAA partner as well.

As with other NCAA deals, Geico’s arrangement packages TV and digital media from Turner Sports and CBS, along with courtside TV-visible signage and activation rights across NCAA championship events. Activation plans are still in the works, but basketball-themed TV ads are expected to be part of Geico’s advertising mix.

Scout Sports and Entertainment brokered the deal and will support activation plans. Neither the agency nor the client would comment for this story.

Will Funk, Turner Sports’ executive vice president of partnerships, wrote in an email: “Geico is a leader in delivering innovative, engaging, contextually relevant messaging in live events and will be a perfect addition to our roster of blue-chip NCAA partner brands.”

The deal underscores the heavy and ongoing marketing ramp-up within home and life insurance, which are two of the most contentious categories in sports marketing, not to mention an area where budgets have been multiplying exponentially.

“It’s an arms race that’s not going to stop, because the biggest brands have incredibly deep pockets,” said Eric Bechtel, whose IdeaQuest agency handles sports marketing for American Family Insurance. “It’s like the arms race for facilities among the biggest college football programs — nothing is big enough and the money just seems unlimited at the high end.”