Last season’s March Madness proved why men’s and women’s NCAA basketball present such valuable opportunities to advertisers. In fact. a single, 30-second spot during the 2025 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship equaled the engagement of 82 regular primetime advertisements.
Meanwhile, EDO’s Basketball TV Outcomes Report found that the women's title game posted 35% year-over-year growth in ad effectiveness despite superstar Caitlin Clark’s ascendance to the professional ranks.
These results aren't outliers — they represent the sustained advertising power of college basketball programming. With the 2025-26 season fast approaching, let’s take a look at how college basketball’s intensity, cultural moments, and passionate fanbases combine to create maximum-impact advertising environments.
NCAA men's championship outperforms the NBA Finals
Men's college basketball delivered the most impressive single-game basketball advertising performance we measured last season. The 2025 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament championship beat out even the NBA Finals as the most effective basketball media of the year, with ads that were 158% more likely to generate consumer engagement than the average primetime program.
Given the large viewership for the men's finals, a single ad airing generated the same amount of total engagement as approximately 82 primetime spots — an exceptional performance in an increasingly fragmented media landscape.
Our analysis also found that the broader NCAA tournament maintained strong performance, with Sweet Sixteen games across both men's and women's tournaments achieving 14% better effectiveness than average primetime programming.
Emerging brands break through at the college level
As a proving ground for young talent, college basketball has also shown a unique ability to elevate emerging brands. The 2024-25 season saw several up-and-coming companies crack the top 10 most engaging advertisers, from Jaxxon jewelry (+1,174% effectiveness) and OOFOS footwear in men’s programming (+969%) to Vuori apparel (+788%) and Poppi (+520%) during women’s games.
Established advertisers also saw success, especially when leaning into innovative creative strategies. Cadillac’s promotion of its refreshed 2025 Escalade IQ all-electric SUV achieved 532% better performance than the NCAA men's basketball average. In one of the season’s most memorable ads, “My Whole Life is a Commercial,” Dr. Pepper humorously critiqued the commercialization of college sports, outperforming the men’s tournament average by 680%.
Women’s hoops proves post-Clark resilience
Despite losing its biggest star in Caitlin Clark to the WNBA, NCAA women's basketball advertising proved resilient during the 2024-25 season. Championship game ads were 57% more likely to drive consumer engagement than the average primetime program — representing a 35% improvement from the previous year.
This performance suggests that women's college basketball has successfully built a broader foundation beyond individual star power. EDO's analysis shows that advertisers would need to run more than eight ads elsewhere to achieve the same impact as a single ad during the NCAA women’s basketball championship.
While NCAA women’s basketball advertising success spanned multiple categories, from apparel to retail to home-buying, it was CPG that dominated the leaderboard. Top performers included Taco Bell's bold flavor campaigns (664% more effective than the average NCAA women's basketball advertiser) and Popeyes' strategic timing of holiday-themed spots alongside game-time appetite messaging (+404%).
Take your live sports advertising to the next level
College basketball continues to prove its value as a premium advertising environment. From the unprecedented impact of championship games to the sustained performance from the regular season, NCAA programming offers media buyers reliable, measurable results that justify premium investment.
Download our full 2024-25 Basketball TV Outcomes Report to learn:
- The 10 most effective brands across pro and college hoops
- The 22 most memorable TV spots based on ad engagement
- Granular league stats, from ad airings to total TV spend
- Winning creative strategies, from contextual to celebrities
Ready to rethink your live sports strategy? Contact our team to learn how EDO’s real-time outcomes measurement can optimize your TV advertising investments.