The 10 Best Digital Marketing Features in the NCAA Tournament South Region

We've finished our recap of the NCAA Tournament's South Region. If you're late arriving, we looked at top seeded Duke, #2Villanova, #3 Baylor, #4 Purdue, #5 Texas A&M, #6 Notre Dame, #7Richmond, #8 California, #9 Lousiville, #10 Saint Mary's, #11 Old Dominion, #12 Utah State, #13 Siena, #14 Sam Houston State, #15 Robert Morris, and #16 Arkansas Pine Bluff.

Today, I'll wrap with the 10 most inspiring features in the region, regardless of team. If you dig this, you can check out my view of the East Region, here.

Let's go.

10. Notre Dame gives us Coach Kelly miked up.

What? A football item so good it makes the top 10 features? Well, in a word, yes. Notre Dame took football coach Brian Kelly and miked him up for their Spring Practices and then aired it online. Just click in here or look below and you'll get a glimpse into the approach. You definitely feel closer to the program by hearing something normally reserved for players and assistant coaches. It's pretty powerful stuff, and this is something we can all learn from and apply to hoops. There's not much more than hearing how a coach interacts in practice to let you feel a program. Nice!

9. Duke Gives us Coach K's Favorite Quotes

You don't have to go to big extremes to make a big impact. Every coach has quotes that define their philosophy of basketball, player development, relationships, and life. And through Coach K's site, those are all elevated in one spot, linked here. You can't read these without getting a better feel for who Coach is as a teacher and a leader.

8. Baylor's Strength and Conditioning video experience

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. It's impactful stuff - check out the full athletics experience here.

7. Sam Houston State and Utah State deliver great connection via insider blogs.

Insider Blogs are by definition from the inside. Sam Houston State gives us the Bearkat Blog, authored by the coaching staff, while Utah State's USU Hoops Blog comes from a player. Great starting points, huh? The content is fantastic.

Linked here, you'll find the Bearkats blog. It's authentic and personal and just reading an entry connects you...

"There have been a lot of things going on in the world of Bearkat basketball... They have created a Facebook and Twitter page for the program, and we have also installed new recruiting software that I have wanted to do for some time now.... As far as the program is concerned, we have every returner enrolled in the first session of summer school."

Meanwhile, the Utah State blog is here. They leverage photography well - and it's exclusive photos you can't find elsewhere. They leverage a player (Tyler Newbold) to write a good chunk of this. And they give us quick access to all things USU hoops (see the left hand navigation).

These are things we all could do -- and they are executed to an incredible level!

6. Richmond and Arkansas Pine Bluff Elevate Recruits via imagery and video

Richmond pumps new signees through YouTube, linked here. As you'll see below, they have compiled a highlight reel of incoming recruits.

This highlight reel is also accessible via a link that is pasted in the men's basketball section.

Arkansas Pine Bluff gives us their new recruits in visuals and words, linked here and shown below. I love this, as it mimics what we see when a player is drafted into the Pros and announced at his new team. It elevates the act of choosing to be a Golden Lion, and thus makes it a more aspirational move for a prospect!

5. Louisville & Siena show us success in pictures and video

Linked here, you will see that Louisville offers a simple photo recap of their NCAA tourney loss to Cal in photos, both color and black & white. The result is equally touching and powerful.

It's powerful because of the intimacy. No one else gets this level of access. It's powerful because of the simplicity. These are big, powerful images, without words. You draw your own conclusions. And it's powerful because of the storytelling. These images, in succession, tell you the story of what happened. So emotional, and that's what connects us to you.

Meanwhile, Siena reinterprets One Shining Moment. What college hoops fan doesn't fall in love each year with One Shining Moment? (The Luther Vandross version - don't get me started.) Well click in here.... The Saints created a version of One Shining Moment for last year's squad, to the right version of the song! It's hot, and it showcases so many aspects of what goes into the team.

4. It's more than just Basketball.

Villanova gives us Life after Basketball. The

Nova Nation basketball site allows you to navigate the tradition of the program. And, as you see in the image below (or here), the top thing listed under tradition is not the tournament appearances (or last year's Final Four bid)... It is life after basketball.

Wow. Now, when you drill in, you are taken to a page where we hear from Coach Jay Wright. He puts it directly:

"This is Villanova Basketball -- excelling as a player, student, and a man."

That's powerful.

And click on in and you get the image below - a 4 page PDF that shows you all the Nova hoops alumni, their degree, and where they are working, sorted by industry. I love this because it shows the program cares about more than what you do on the hardwood. And I love it because it helps show you that your education and degree at Villanova can literally take you anywhere. It's so simple, but wow this is fantastic.

Similarly, Utah State gives us "Stories about Former Athletes."

As you'll see in the menu below, the Aggies bring us a look into their alums.

Click in (right here) and you can filter alums by decade or sport...

And arrive at a look into each player's time at Utah State, followed by what they're up to now. You can even email them (see the image below). I love this. There is something magical about letting future student athletes see what became of those who wore the jersey years ago. It's not all about the Pros. It's about what the time on campus prepared them for.

3.

Recruits: Have What it Takes to be a Monarch?

I love taking the guesswork out of things. Hit the basketball home page and you are presented with this box, shown below.

How can you not love the branding, linked here. "Have What It Takes to be a Monarch?" That's suggestive copy that immediately presents the Monarchs as as aspirational. It's not about who they can get. It's about who is good enough and tough enough to be chosen.

2. Purdue's Coach Painter tells us "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. This is another case of an easy thing that anyone can do. Tell us why you want to work with student athletes. Why do you love what you do? And answering that question helps prospects answer the question of why they want to play for you.

1. Duke Blue Planet Live (link here)

If you click into Duke Blue Planet Live, you come to the image below. Duke has done a lot amazing here. First, they are aggregating all "Insiders" here. And insiders are coaches, current players, former players, and Duke official sites.

Now, if you look closer (I zoomed in below), you see that Duke has made it very easy to retweet or reply to any of the comments. So now you the Insider get more love for your comments because Duke has made it easy. Fantastic.

Click on "Our Fans" and you are able to see all the chatter from people on Twitter who have identified themselves as a Blue Devil fan. Again, the easy retweet and reply buttons are here. You'll also notice in the upper right the ability to grab the Duke Twitter widget. So you can take this content and put it into your blog -- meaning Duke fans can now take all of this with them, to their site. Crazy.

Finally, the image below shows how easy they make it to share links on the squad. (nothing below, but I'm sure that changes in the heart of the season). I also like the call to action on the right -- Are you a Tweeting Duke fan? Sign up to appear on our Fans page.

So, in sum, Duke gives us access to everything official and authentic around the program and then enables us to share it with a simple click of the mouse.

That's it --

I hope you've enjoyed this recap.

Follow along in the journey of what's hot in college hoops, right here - I'm @pawlow34. I'll be back on Monday as we shift into our new mode: A tour of D-1 Hoops, Conference by Conference.