NCAA Tournament Basketball Marketing: What we can learn from #5 Seed Texas A&M

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, #3 Baylor, and #4 Purdue.

Let's go.

South Region #5 Seed Texas A&M (link here)

What's Inspiring about Texas A&M Athletics Marketing?

We've broken down the Aggies marketing efforts previously (defined as the best in the Big 12, here). Today I'll call out 3 things we can take as serious inspiration from A&M...

1. Coach Turgeon on Facebook

There is something magical about your head coach on Facebook. Coach Turgeon's page (linked here) has roughly 2,300 fans. The posts here are daily and each one ignites a series of comments and thumbs up -- which shows us something. Putting your leader into a community of fans and then having an active presence can have a big effect on your program. This is great stuff.

How could this be better? I was a little surprised by this text, posted on the page:

"Coach Turgeon is the man and deserves a fan page.... We'll be mostly posting quotes from his Twitter, press conferences, and radio shows."

So... if that's right, it implies Coach isn't actually maintaining this page. And that's a miss. The foundation is here for him not just to leverage Facebook as a place to push out information but to connect with his fans and lift up the program along the way. Coach Turgeon needs to take ownership of this and then we'll see it ignite.

2. The Aggie Fastbreak blog

Another school with a fantastic insider blog. Texas A&M's Aggie Fastbreak blog is great for reasons we've seen before -- consistent posts with a point of view you can't find just anywhere. Linked here and shown below, this also brings a nice design to it and (as you can see in the bottom right hand side of the page), you see the Aggie Twitter feed pumped right into this blog.

How could we make this better? The last post above, March 21, signals the end of the season. But fans don't stop being fans (and recruits don't stop being recruits) when the season ends. How can we evolve this to have not just an in-season but an offseason point of view? You can't get that info anywhere else which only adds to the allure of this blog!

3. The Virtual Guide to Aggie Athletics

We just saw a virtual guide yesterday with Purdue. A&M also has a version, shown below and linked here. Like Purdue, the Aggie guide takes a print guide and inserts relevant video content. It's really a fantastic piece, especially at the start of the season as you hear Coach Turgeon talk about his team, what excites him, and you can even check out a video of their offseason workouts (which is smoking hot!)

How could we make this better? The biggest challenge with this format is it quickly becomes dated. It's an amazing guide but now we look at it and wonder how fast the new version can get up. And that's an opportunity to re-look at these things. Could they be built in a way that actually updated as the season did? If you see the image above you'll note the Twitter and Facebook icons. Those take you out of the guide and into the latest on the Aggies... But what if it was the other way around? What if the latest on the Aggies was the starting point and the fixed content supported it? That could be powerful stuff!

Hope you've enjoyed this ride. Come back on Monday as we unveil our latest project!