NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament: Ad Sales Soar to $1.5M Spots

Advertisers are paying record rates to reach viewers during the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, with a 30-second spot in this year’s Championship Game reaching $1.5 million, Disney Advertising announced Friday. The figure represents a recent high for the tournament and underscores the growing commercial value of women’s college basketball.

The increased demand for ad inventory is driven by a surge in viewership and engagement, according to Danielle Brown, senior vice president of sports brand solutions at Disney Advertising. “We sell a lot of it in the upfront, so when you think about it, if there’s only a last few remaining units left, people are willing to place the money behind it to be a part of that momentous occasion,” Brown said.

Overall tournament ad pricing is up by double-digit percentages compared to previous years, Brown added. The tournament is being broadcast across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, ABC, and various streaming platforms. Revenue from the women’s college basketball regular season was up 72% from two years ago, and tournament revenue has increased by 134% over the same period.

This year’s tournament features 151 unique advertisers, including 84 returning sponsors, across 66 categories. Top advertising categories include credit card and banking, finance and insurance, technology, telecommunications, soft drinks, consumer packaged goods, travel and leisure, automotive, and quick-service restaurants. Capital One is the presenting sponsor of the tournament.

Several brands have secured sponsorships for specific rounds of the tournament. Intuit TurboTax is sponsoring the First Four, first round, and second round. Coca-Cola is sponsoring the Sweet 16, and AT&T is sponsoring the Elite Eight and Final Four.

Disney is also leveraging streaming, social media, and content creators to enhance the advertising experience. Fans can access personalized content feeds through the ESPN app. Katie Feeney, a content creator who signed a deal with ESPN last year, will be providing on-site coverage at the Final Four and Championship Game, including the first-ever “creator cam” for college basketball, capturing sights and sounds from the games.

Disney currently has around 500 advertisers across all women’s sports programming and has been adding approximately 100 advertisers annually for the past two years. The company emphasized the accessibility of women’s college basketball through ESPN’s various platforms, allowing advertisers of all sizes to participate through direct deals or programmatic advertising.

The surge in advertising investment coincides with broader trends in women’s sports, as highlighted by a recent report from WPP Media. The report indicated a 79% year-over-year increase in ad impressions for women’s sports and 20% higher engagement with ads compared to non-sports broadcast and cable. Overall investment in women’s sports is estimated to have increased by nearly 70% year-over-year, reaching approximately $127 million.

“The audience is really big in terms of our conversations in the marketplace, and then we’re seeing that effectiveness on the backend,” Brown said. “We’re seeing these games drive search results and drive impact and conversion.”

Nearly ten million viewers tuned in to watch the NCAA women’s title game last year, according to Sports Media Watch.