The backstory for the Ivan Brothers ads may surprise you. Here is what Tanya Irwin thinks about it. (http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=124528)

Capital One Financial Corp. is promoting its role as one of the top NCAA sponsors with an online viral campaign called “The Ivan Brothers — Big Men on Campus.”

The McLean, Va.-based company launched the six-minute video on its Web site featuring the Ivan brothers, two mammoth medieval European men who are recruited to play basketball at the fictitious West Eastern State. The spot feature CBS Sports NCAA basketball studio analyst Seth Davis and special cameo appearances from some of the game’s most visible head coaches, including Jim Boeheim, Tom Izzo and Tubby Smith.

“People consume March Madness in different ways, and we want to meet consumers where they are in a unique way,” Capital One Managing VP/Brand Marketing Marc Mentry tells Marketing Daily. “We’ll be showing ads throughout the tournament for the TV viewing audience, while the Ivans offer branded entertainment that we believe will resonate with the hardcore sports enthusiast who tends to engage online.”

Several 15-second teaser spots feature college basketball coaches playing along with the joke. Michigan State’s Izzo says in one spot: “It’s hard to find talent like the Ivan brothers. I guess I’ve been looking in the wrong century.”

Capital One reached an agreement earlier this week with CBS Sports to become an NCAA Official Corporate Champion, the highest partnership marketing level offered by the NCAA. The multi-year agreement includes exclusive credit card and retail banking category marketing and promotional rights around the NCAA’s 88 Divisions I, II and III men’s and women’s championship events throughout the year. Other corporate champions include AT&T and Coca-Cola.

The company also will present the Capital One NCAA Champions Zone as part of this year’s NCAA Men’s Final Four onsite fan experience at the Indianapolis Convention Center. This interactive area offers fans the chance to learn more about the various NCAA sports championships through hands-on drills and challenges. In addition, Capital One will sponsor the Capital One NCAA Hall of Champions exhibit, which will include unique visual displays that detail the history of NCAA championships, NCAA locker room replicas with uniforms, sports gear, equipment and memorabilia that define the sport. And Capital One will sponsor the Capital One ‘What’s in Your Wallet’ Challenge on the full-court inside of Tourney Town at the Women’s Final Four.

The Capital One NCAA Champions Zone will be promoted on NCAA.com. The sponsorship also includes spots in Men’s NCAA Basketball for both regular season and tournament broadcasts (e.g., Selection Show, March Madness, Final Four, etc.) on CBS and March Madness On Demand (http://MMOD.NCAA.com).

The NCAA partnership, Capital One’s largest sports venture to date, deepens its involvement in college sports. The company has been affiliated with college football since acquiring entitlement of the Capital One Bowl in 2001 and Capital One Bowl Week on ESPN. In addition, Capital One holds an annual Mascot Challenge, which crowns a Mascot of the Year as determined by fan voting.

Will capitol one gain business from these ads? Only time will tell.

This is what David Twiddy said about March Madness and productivity. (http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/blog/2010/03/if_you_cant_beat_em_join_the_march_madness.html)

It’s practically a given that the next two weeks will throw sand in the gears of American productivity.

The annual ritual of March Madness starts Sunday as the NCAA Selection Committee chooses the slate of 65 college teams to play in this year’s tournament and the first two rounds of games consume most of next week — leading many employees to spend work hours perfecting their office pool brackets or surreptitiously monitoring the games online.
Chicago-based employment consultant Challenger Gray and Christmas went so far as to predict that U.S. employers will lose $1.8 billion in productivity in the first week, albeit with a large asterisk.
“Keep in mind that it is nearly impossible to gauge the impact of March Madness on productivity in an information-based economy where workers possess portable technology that allows them to work from anywhere and any time,” John Challenger, the firm’s CEO, said in a release Monday. “This estimate is probably about as accurate as the point spreads computed by Las Vegas bookmakers.”
In any event, the consultants said it may be impossible for managers to stop the Madness. They could embrace it instead as a way to improve morale or help recession-weary workers blow off steam.
“Especially in this economy, when many employees are already anxious about their jobs, there is no reason for employers to make a big deal about what amounts to a blip on the productivity radar,” Challenger said.
One local company is taking advantage of the tournament and getting into the computer app business at the same time.
On Sunday, Lenexa-based AthletixNation released free applications for Apple’s iPhone and phones using Google’s Android software that help users participate in AthletixNation’s annual Bracket Challenge.
The Challenge lets players create brackets for the NCAA Tournament and helps them monitor their teams’ progress and statistics, see how they rank against other Challenge players, send smack talk to their friends and send out updates about their teams via Facebook and Twitter.

Daveyon Ross
AthletixNation CEO Davyeon Ross said his company soon will begin marketing the apps and the Challenge, which this year offers a trip to Las Vegas for the highest-scoring player.
“Right now we need to beat up our code to make sure Sunday we don’t have any issues,” Ross said, referring to the March 14 selection of the 65 teams participating in the tournament. “The whole purpose (of the app) is to let people track their brackets when they’re at the games, at the bars, watching it.”
He said AthletixNation also has signed up “a couple hundred” local publishers, including newspapers, television and radio stations, and sports Web sites to carry the Bracket Challenge. Those local partners, such as Sports Radio 810 in Overland Park, can customize their sites with local advertising and bracket suggestions from their panels of experts.
Which just means more reasons to put off writing that expense report to figure out your No. 5 seed.

Will March Madness effect work place creativity? If so will it effect it more this year than years before? Only time will tell.

This is what Joe Juliano said regarding Villanova’s loss to WVU on Saturday. (http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/sports_breaking/20100306_Villanova_ends_regular_season_with_OT_loss.html)

This was not the way Villanova planned to enter the postseason, which raises questions about the Wildcats’ confidence level as they head to New York for the Big East tournament.

The ninth-ranked Wildcats blew a 13-point halftime lead, got a subpar shooting game from Scottie Reynolds, made only 1 of 8 field-goal attempts in overtime, and lost, 68-66, to No. 10 West Virginia in their regular-season finale Saturday at the Wachovia Center.

Villanova (24-6, 13-5 Big East) dropped into a three-way tie for second with the Mountaineers and Pittsburgh in the standings but enters the conference tournament as the No. 4 seed after the tiebreaker is applied.

The Wildcats open Thursday afternoon at Madison Square Garden, possibly against Marquette, a team they defeated twice this season.

Villanova played Saturday without top reserve Taylor King, its second-leading rebounder, who remained on the bench the entire game for an unspecified disciplinary reason.

“It’s a teaching point, let’s put it that way,” coach Jay Wright said when asked whether King had broken a rule. “I wanted to teach him something. But he’s fine. He had a great attitude out there.”

There was something unsettling about the way ‘Nova played after entering the second half with a 29-16 lead. Then again, committing fouls and getting beaten on the boards have been issues for much of the last three weeks while the Cats have gone 2-4.

Reynolds had the last shot of the game – a three-point attempt from the left corner that would have meant a victory – but he missed and finished 1 of 9 from deep, 5 of 16 overall.

Asked whether his team will lose confidence because of the way it lost, Wright replied, “We won’t.”

“I know what it looks like, but we won’t let that happen. It’s a 40-minute game. We never look at keeping leads, losing leads. We never look at being down, coming back. You’ve got to play 40 minutes, and this one was 45. I thought we competed for 45 minutes.

“We made mistakes. We are who we are. We are what our record is. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it. We’ve got to keep getting better, and I think we can.”

Cocaptain Reggie Redding doesn’t think the Wildcats’ confidence has been affected.

“We’re still a confident team,” he said. “As a team, we’ve got to get better. That’s our goal. We’ve got a couple of practices before the Big East tournament starts, and hopefully we can get better and stay confident.”

In the second half, the Mountaineers (24-6, 13-5) shot 54.5 percent, both from the field and on three-pointers; made 14 of 16 free throws; and held a 15-8 advantage on the boards. They appeared ready to celebrate a regulation victory until Corey Fisher drained a tying three with 7.7 seconds remaining.

Villanova’s only bucket in the extra period, a three-ball by Corey Stokes with 33.6 seconds to play, tied it again, but Da’Sean Butler’s running bank shot in the lane with 5.8 seconds left won it for West Virginia.

Butler, who went 12 of 12 from the line in the second half and overtime, led all players with 21 points and 10 rebounds.

The 6-foot-2 Reynolds struggled against 6-9 Devin Ebanks in WVU’s man-to-man and against its 1-3-1 zone.

“They just did a good job,” said Reynolds, who led ‘Nova with 17 points. “They had a hand in my face. They’re long.”

The idea in the Big East is that you will run into a tough team in any round no matter where you finish in the standings. That will be the Wildcats’ stance no matter which team shows up Thursday afternoon.

“We’re going to take the positives from this,” Wright said. “Obviously, it stings right now, and that’s not always a bad thing. Throughout the beginning of the season, we didn’t have many of these lessons. Now we’re getting them down the stretch, and that’s all right. We’re not going to get down about this . . . [we had] a good regular season.

“Now it’s over. Now it’s a new season. Now it’s Big East tournament time. So we’re really going to make sure we learn from this and be excited about playing in the Big East tournament.”

Will Villanova’s OT loss to WVU affect their Big East or NCAA tournament success? Only time will tell.

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