NCAA Tournament sponsors earn $482 million in brand exposure

Brands earned $482 million in sponsorship exposure value from the 2024 NCAA Men's and Women's Tournaments, SBJ Research Director David Broughton reports off data from Hive, an AI company that measures the presence of branding embedded in media. 

A total of 136 brands (61 during the men's tournament and 75 during the women's) had at least one minute of cumulative in-game screentime during the 134 games played over the past few weeks, generating a total of approximately 232 hours of total screen time.

Official NCAA Corporate Partners and Champions collectively generated 45% of media value earned during the in-game telecasts and accounted for 36% of the estimated spend during the traditional commercial breaks.

State Farm, whose logo was visible on the stanchion during the women's early round games, was the only non-NCAA sponsor to make the top 10 list.

"The pole pad, at the base of the basket, has become a heavily branded asset across pro basketball and regular season college games. This asset only includes the NCAA logo in tournament games, however," said Marshall Fisher, Hive's director of sports, media, and marketing. "The basket stanchion is the only playing area asset that is monetized in the tournaments, with Spalding branding the stanchion for men's games and local partners, such as State Farm or Under Armour, branding the stanchion in arenas hosting the first rounds of the women's tournament. This is a material revenue opportunity that the NCAA could elect in the coming years."

To come at the $482 million assessment, Hive measures the duration and quality (i.e., size, clarity, centrality, or exclusivity) and program-specific advertising costs to assess value to each individual exposure.