Decide on a Sponsorship Model

As with any promotion, you can sell 3 different levels of sponsorship for your basketball promotions – exclusive, category exclusive, and multiple sponsorships models.

Targeting an exclusive sponsor is ideal if the advertiser wants to be the center of the pick’em or if they can afford the exclusivity – like KFMB with Oggi’s. Markets large and small can sell exclusive sponsorships. The key to exclusive sponsorships is offering a package that allows your advertiser to shine.

Another approach to make the offer appealing to your advertisers is to have category exclusive sponsorship, where you only have one sponsor in each advertising category, such as bar and restaurant, sporting goods store, and auto dealer.

Focusing on multiple sponsors allows you to build relationships with several advertisers. This approach works in markets both small and large, like the Evansville Courier and Press’ case study. Targeting multiple advertisers, which allows businesses that can’t afford to sponsor the entire contest to participate can result in driving a large amount of revenue for your media property.

Assembling a College Basketball Bracket Sponsorship Package

While some of your revenue from your basketball promotions will come from traditional media, remember to take full advantage of your digital assets, such as:

• Online run-of-site ads
• Homepage flippers or rotating billboards
• Dropdown & peelaway ads
• Expanding pencils
• Video pre-roll ads
• Posts to social media channels like Facebook & Twitter
• Email

The most valuable digital asset in your arsenal is email. Email is the #1 driver of digital conversions, so it is a tool that you should be using often and using well. If you already have a promotional email list, start there. If you don’t, start building one by including an email opt-in on the registration pages of all of your promotions.

In addition to the traditional and digital assets discussed above, you can also promote your basketball bracket by getting your talent involved. Sportswriters, announcers, DJs, or sportscasters can give your promotions star quality if you make them VIP pickers or the face of the bracket. You can also charge sponsors for the involvement of your talent if you have them promote your bracket through mentions in their articles, blog posts, and broadcasts.

Pricing a College Basketball Bracket Sponsorship Package

Once you have identified your sponsorship type and aligned your bracket with any relevant programming, it’s time to put a price on everything. Start by thinking of the value of each element in the sales package. The best way to figure out what to charge for the package as a whole is to price each element individually and then add it all up to determine the overall value.

Need some inspiration? The following is a sample price package for one sponsor of a college basketball pick’em being run by a mid-size market TV station. For their bracket, the TV network will be looking to get at least four sponsors for a total of $30,000.