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: Donna has over 25 years of experience in assisting brands, agencies and not-for profit organizations develop and implement a wide variety of their marketing communications needs. In 2005 she founded DDC Marketing Group which has specialized in bringing interactive promotional marketing solutions to life for many clients. Today the firm is also dedicated to helping clients integrate blogs and social media into their marketing mix. Her own blog,Donna’s Promo Talk, helps to keep marketing professionals current on today's hottest interactive promotions and trends.

Most recently Donna joined the online team at Butler Till Media Services as Emerging Online Media Supervisor. Donna is responsible for overseeing the agency’s search marketing efforts for a variety of clients as well as integrating emerging online media opportunities such as blogs, social media networks, viral marketing, mobile as well as interactive promotions.

Social Media Is A Slam Dunk With NCAA ‘08 March Madness

Written on: March 11th 2008
Author: by Donna DeClemente |
Feed: XML Feed

Coke Zero’s NCAA March Madness program also includes special packaging and point-of-sale materials with the NCAA Men’s Final Four graphics, branded vignettes that will air during NCAA basketball game broadcasts, and extensive brand sampling and activation in San Antonio.

So, we’ll have to keep an eye on how well these dream job candidates do their job and blog about their experiences from San Antonio. Maybe we’ll end up with a new sports blogger star. You never know.

Another interesting promotion that’s been developed around March Madness this year is also a great example of a promotion that utilized blogs to help get the message out. This was a topic that I recently wrote an article on called Interactive Promotions + Blogs = A Winning Combination. Alltel Wireless is giving fans a chance to compete for college basketball’s dream job in Alltel’s My Circle Pick & Roll Challenge. This promotion is similar to Coke Zero’s “Ultimate Dream Job” NCAA Fan Contest that will “hire” 4 fans to blog about the 2008 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship games. Alltel’s one grand prize winner will be the first-ever Chief Basketball Officer (CBO) of Fans who will earn a six-figure “salary” and spend his/her first weekend “on-the-job” traveling by private jet to the conference tournaments.

The ultimate goal of the promotion was to generate buzz and drive people to FanU.com, an online community for college sports fans, were they were able to register and test their college basketball IQ in a weekly My Circle Pick and Roll game. The game consisted of 5 weekly periods which started back on January 10th and ended on February 22nd. The more correct games picked, the more points earned.

In addition to accumulating these points, registered entrants could receive bonus points by completing various tasks that they were reminded of via e-mail and text messages. For example, they earned 100 points each time they voted in Alltel’s weekly Fan U poll, commented on blogs, trash-talked with rivals as well as some other opportunities.

The player who had the most weekly points won a $1,000 prize, while players scoring 8,000 or more points throughout the five week competition win a free Skinit for their wireless phone. Then the three fans with the highest point total will be traveling tomorrow, March 12th, to Charlotte, N.C. to compete in an interview process conducted by a panel of celebrity judges, including legendary college basketball analyst Dick Vitale. The fan that displays the most spirit and basketball savvy will land the coveted position CBO of Fans. “As the Official Wireless Partner of Fans, selecting our first-ever Chief Basketball Officer is an exciting and important event for Alltel Wireless,” said Laura Cook, senior vice president of marketing communications for Alltel Wireless. “We look forward to rewarding the winner of the My Circle Pick & Roll Challenge with a six-figure salary and all the perks deserving of the CBO of Fans title.”

The finalists have just been announced in the Alltell Wireless “MyCircle Pick & Roll Challenge.” They are: Larry Mastrogianakis from Jacksonvill, Fla. - Florida Gators Fan; Jeff Feller from Gainesville, Fla. - Florida Gators Fan; and Bradley Daniels from Hazelhurst, Miss. - Mississippi Rebels Fan.

The grand prize winner and a guest will spend an action-packed weekend jet-setting to his/her choice of college basketball conference tournaments, keeping in touch with friends and family on the new Samsung Hue handset, collecting a $100,000 “salary” and walking away with bragging rights for life.

Reader Comments.

March Madness is a hot bed for potential marketing success. Millions of brackets are filled out and thousands of hours are spent watching games. It is such an exciting time that I don’t see how anyone wouldn’t be excited during March Madness.