ESPN
When ESPN approached Brownstein Group with an opportunity to promote the Tournament Challenge, an on-line fantasy game tied to building brackets for the 2008 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, they requested that we leverage television. We came back to ESPN with the opportunity to leverage the Internet to further connect with audiences.
We created eight lighthearted caricatures of people who fill out March Madness™ brackets. These “Bracketologists” would be immediately recognizable by the audience as reflections of themselves and their rivals. Three 15-second TV spots worked hand-in-hand with a Flash- and video-animated microsite to introduce the Bracketologists and pit them against ESPN personalities, contrasting long-form Web videos with counterpoint from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. A mini-game on the site allowed users to match up Bracketologists and ESPN personalities for statistical bragging rights. The site also featured ESPN “Smack Cards,” with an option to send smack-talk voicemail and text messages from the Bracketologists to friends and foes alike. ESPN stated that this promotion “beat all numbers” and was “our best year ever.” Unique users increased by 15%, entries increased by 13% and brackets increased by 9%.