NCAA Tournament Basketball Marketing: What we can learn from #3 Seed Baylor

We continue our evaluation of this year's NCAA Tournament field, from a marketing point of view. We're in search of inspiration- things that all of us can take and apply into our worlds. And, for fans, of each team, that's a look into what makes you special.

It's time to check out the South Region.

Thus far, we've looked at top seeded Duke and #2 Villanova.

Let's go.

South Region #3 Seed Baylor (link here)

What's Inspiring about Baylor Athletics Marketing?

We previously broke down Baylor, here. Today I want to elevate three things we can take as inspiration from the Bears.

1. The Baylor Athletics Experience

One thing you are quickly drawn to on the Baylor site is the word "Experience." I love that word. It's what we are all about. What is the experience your program stands for. The link is here, the image is below.

Clicking in, you get access to highlights team info and the Game Day experience, shown below. I'm a fan of elevating the environment you play in, and by portraying the "Bear Pit", you get just that. If you don't know about Baylor basketball, this image and copy gets you a feeling that the program is Big Time.

How could this be better? Well, for starters this experience needs to be updated. It still reflects 08-09 highlights as of now. And this squad just went deep in the NCAAs, nearly making it to the Final Four. I believe putting something out around the experience needs to be updated in real time, as the season goes. As you'll see later, Baylor has great tools to enable this. I also believe the Bear Pit should be portrayed via sounds or video... Let us feel how crazy it is!

2. Strength and Conditioning, in video.

Strength and Conditioning is a key to athletes hitting their potential. And Baylor elevates this in a big way. Not only do they go into the philosophy in words and pictures, but you get a chance to watch their head strength and conditioning guy (who as you'll see below is pretty piped himself!) in video. That's impactful stuff.

How could it be better? I'd love to see strength and conditioning broken out by sport. Show us how your basketball philosophy differs from your football or track philosophy. And then build in success stories. There's no coincidence that the athleticism of Baylor's basketball team helped drive the success of the program. And we should elevate this on the site.

3. A great blog network

I love what Baylor does via blogging. There is literally a network of blogs piped into the home page, shown in the image below.

Clicking into the Baylor Basketball Full court press blog, here, shows us a look at a ridiculously good Basketball blog. This blog is updated often, and comes at it from an authenticly excited tone, which I believe draws fans in. There's talk about the success of the program and the athletes (including the post below on their lottery bound athlete!) The blog gives you a look around the sports world for articles on the Bears and shares them right here. And, if you want to follow their postings, simply follow them on Twitter, here.

How could this be better? My only ask would be to find a way to elevate other writers who are covering the Bears -- be it local media beat reporters or non-Baylor athletics bloggers. Bring them into one space and amp up the energy to a new level.

Hope you dug this... Tune in tomorrow as we keep moving through the region. Or click here to follow me on Twitter.

Andy