NCAA Tournament Basketball Marketing: What we can learn from #4 Seed Wisconsin

Today we continue on our journey into the East Region, 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.

Thus far, we've reviewed top seeded Kentucky, #2 West Virginia, and #3 New Mexico.

Let's keep moving.

East #4 Seed Wisconsin (link here)

What's Inspiring about Wisconsin Basketball Marketing?

1. Pre-Filtering the Basketball out of the Blog

Blogs = news. It's kind of interesting if you think about it. Not too long ago we all viewed news as one thing and blogs as more of a gossip kind of thing. But not anymore. Wisconsin brings these together, taking their athletics blog and letting you find all the latest hoops blogs entries right from the comfort of the basketball website.

I love this. Now how could it get better? Really, I like this integration -- but would love two things:

• Integrate more Badgers Blogs!
• Build the opportunity to sign up to get more of these updates

2. Own Game Day with a Blog

One thing Blogs can do is help athletics websites become what they need to be: gathering places for fans all day long on a game day. Why not? Come to the Wisconsin site and sound off, get updates, and connect with others on game day. They have the unique opportunity to be both a connector of fans and one who carries an authentic voice. That's exactly what you'll see below...

Now that you have this gathering place, how can we make it better?

• Live audio. Why not pump in the Wisconsin radio here? Let me listen to the Voice of the Badgers while I chat with my fellow fans!
• Scouting reports. Big opportunity to share the word on who you are facing off with. Let fans learn about those players they'll be taunting soon!

3. Practice Reports inside Facebook!

I've never seen anything like this one before. The Wisconsin Athletics Facebook presence (link here) is the home to just shy of 100,000 passionate Badgers fans. And they are getting a unique message out to fans.

As you can see below, the Badgers are publishing Spring Football updates through their Facebook feed. That's impressive. Come here, and you'll see what happened each day in practice. Then they include a link for highlights. Nice.

This is fantastic, as it allows us access to one thing (practice) that no one gets access to. And limited access = big potential value to fans (and recruits!!!) Besides taking this and moving it onto basketball, how could it get better?

• Video built into Facebook. Why not allow fans to watch the videos right here, right now. Don't make us go somewhere else to watch them.
• Make it super easy to share these with your friends.
• Could there be a Facebook Field Reporter (Court Reporter) who can bring these stories to fellow fans?

That's it.

Come back tomorrow as we keep breaking down the marketing efforts inside the East Region.