Dive Brief:

• The NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament kicks off on March 15th, and Ran Ben-Yair, co-founder and CEO of mobile programmatic platform Ubimo, told Marketing Dive that making use of real-time data for mobile ad campaigns is essential to making the most of the nearly three-weeklong event.
• Ben-Yair said marketers should get granular when targeting audiences, such as instead of “sports fans,” use “young women at sports bars during game times.” Location can also be used a pivot point for communications by using different messaging for people at the game as opposed to someone watching at home.
• He also suggested making use of real-time data to trigger specific ads, such as “congratulations” ads targeted to fans of winning teams.

Dive Insight:

“March Madness provides a great example of an event that allows national brands to take their campaigns to a granular, local level. Marketers should grab the opportunity to leverage national events which play out on a local stage. The opportunity to appeal on a neighborhood level means that brands should create campaigns which will roll out as each local team progresses in the national competition,” said Ben-Yair.

The tournament is well-suited for mobile campaigns because mobile users check their smartphones on average 150 times a day. Each time they open their device, they’re likely in a different real world environment. Mobile advertising provides opportunities for advertisers who can target audiences by considering the end user’s behavior, locations, and real time local data when determining when to serve mobile ads.

“As fans travel across the country with their teams, advertisers should tap into the mobile opportunity and use dynamic creatives, triggered by the progress of each local team,” Ben-Yair said. “Advertisers should keep their ads relevant by referencing local games, as well as the results. By carefully tying mobile data (first party data, behavioral data and real time local data) with media buying, brands can precisely target mobile audiences at scale and serve them with relevant, engaging ads.”