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

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, #2 Villanova, and #3 Baylor.

Let's go.

South Region #4 Seed Purdue (link here)

What's Inspiring About Purdue Athletics Marketing?

We broke down the Boilers marketing efforts previously, here. Today I'll go into 3 things we can take as serious inspiration...

1. Basketball virtual guide

Purdue offers a series of virtual publications, shown below and linked here. These publications take the place of the traditional media guide. At their core, they take the standard print media guide and then lay video elements and music over the top of it. I covered this a bit in my description of the impact the iPad will have on college athletics marketing (here), and this is an example of something that will no doubt evolve as technology does.

First, check the menu -- virtual pubs are available for just about every sport.

Then, as you can see here, these are available for multiple years -- an archive of content. That's pretty cool as you have the potential to see things evolve over time. But that will require us to think through what we want to compare over time...

Here's how it all unfolds in the hoops guide -- Coach Painter's video over the top of the print guide. Cool.

How could this be better?

• Do we need both? Why not eliminate the print media guide and focus only on a video and image driven experience? Or perhaps we could flip this -- instead of starting with a print guide and adding video/interactive components, what if we started with video/interactive components and then developed a print guide from it?
• How do we want to compare over time? Could we develop topics that define Purdue Hoops and then having them defined, via this guide, season-by-season. For example, if effort and defense define the program, let's have a feature each year devoted to this topic!

2. Why I became a coach.

This is a fantastic statement. And Purdue puts this into their video guide. Why did Coach Painter become a coach, and what does he like the most about his job? Very insightful things, and the video (illustrated below) is heartfelt and gives you a good feel at what he believes in.

How could this be better? Break this out of the guide! This is great content, but it needs to be elevated and easy to find. The more potential recruits who understand Coach Painter's motivations, the more connected they will become to the Boilers!

3. The Cliz Blog

Purdue elevates the voice of the Boilermakers, Larry "the Cliz" Clisby to his own blog on the program. Linked here and shown below, this gives you inside access to the program, including posts on the summer/offseason outlook for the program. I love seeing the access, and info on the program in the summer is something we have trouble finding elsewhere.

How could this be better? Keep it going. Could Purdue start to become the source of content in the summer about the program? How hard are the guys working? What are they doing? Clinics, camps, weights, and in the community? Building on this starting point could be very impactful stuff, and create a destination that fans (or recruits) simply can't find elsewhere.

That's it. Come back tomorrow as we keep moving through the region!

Andy