When it comes to NCAA ratings for 2024, it’s a whole new game.
Sunday’s 2024 NCAA women’s championship between Iowa and South Carolina, a 3 p.m. ET tipoff airing on ABC and ESPN, scored an average of 18.9 million viewers, blowing by the men’s championship game on Monday, which had 14.8 million (live+same-day) across TBS, TNT and TruTV, according to Nielsen.
This is the first time the women’s championship beat the men’s in ratings, and advertisers who got in early are scoring big.
“This week has been absolutely crazy for me, not because of the men’s tournament but because of the women’s tournament,” David Solomon, director of sports partnerships, Ampersand, told ADWEEK ahead of the game.
Ampersand is a national sales arm for Comcast, Charter and Cox, and Solomon said advertisers were clamoring to get into the Final Four and the championship after Caitlin Clark and Iowa’s win over LSU drew viewership of 12.3 million in an Elite 8 matchup.
“Everyone’s been scrambling,” Solomon said. “Cultural moments really drive this.”
However, when advertisers are scrambling, they’re often paying a premium. Meanwhile, several marketers have had women’s tournament plans as far back as last year’s TV upfront, and the investment is paying off.
For instance, through a deal at the last upfront, Omnicom Media Group’s Optimum Sports had buys that amounted to 35% of all broadcast inventory across the Women’s Regional Finals from Albany and Portland, which included the Iowa and LSU game.
The deal supported custom creative for clients such as AT&T, State Farm, Gatorade and The Home Depot.
Though industry spending on the Women’s NCAA was up 50% this year, according to OMG, Optimum Sports spending was up 88%.
Another early mover, Aflac has shown up throughout the women’s tournament, shifting its spending from the men’s Final Four to the women’s Final Four in 2023 and teaming with South Carolina coach Dawn Staley long before the tournament to address Dawn’s List of inequities in women’s sports.
The company also partnered with women’s sports bar The Sports Bra and media and commerce company Togethxr to throw a series of March Madness watch parties.
