Over the course of the 2014 NCAA March Madness tournament from March 16th to April 6th, there were over 5.5 million total mentions on social media. Conversation peaked during the opening rounds but declined with each subsequent weekend. The most popular hashtags were official tournament tags along with non-sports related tags from sponsors. The most mentioned teams were Kentucky, Florida, and Michigan while the most discussed users were MTV News and the NCAA. Several brands benefited from sponsored contests during the tournament.

1. Social Media Trends from
NCAA March Madness
2014
March 16-April 6, 2014

2. Total March Madness Mentions:
5,583,821
That’s 253,810 mentions per day!
Total Mentions of Targeted Brands during
March Madness:
69,340

3. Turns in Conversation
Despite a significant drop in
conversation midweek, there were still
over 100,000 posts daily until the
conclusion of the Elite Eight round.
The weekend of the Final Four
boosted daily volume back over
100,000. However, each weekend
of the tournament had fewer posts
than the one before it.
The tournament’s opening days
provided the most discussion as
brackets were submitted and the
rounds of 64 and 32 kicked off.
0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
700,000
800,000
900,000
16/03/2014 21/03/2014 26/03/2014 31/03/2014 05/04/2014

4. Top Hashtags Mentioned
• Official tournament hashtags took the top spots, but
MTV pulled off a coup by injecting a non-sports-related
hashtag into the conversation with their Musical March
Madness contest (#MMM), which pitted 64 bands
against each other in a bracket-style competition.
• If Monday night’s game between Kentucky and
Connecticut is anything like their battle for hashtag
supremacy, viewers should be in for a heck of a game. As
of Sunday evening, Kentucky had a slim lead over their
Husky counterparts. However, Kentucky fans are also
causing #BBN (Big Blue Nation) to shoot up the hashtag
ranks.
• Dove’s #TournamentDecisions contest allowed them to
be the only tournament-related brand to find a place in
the top ten for hashtags used.3,680
5,840
6,220
8,271
8,838
9,468
16,311
31,934
64,286
88,530
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000
#woodenaward
#badgers
#tournamentdecisions
#bbn
#uconn
#kentucky
#mmm
#ncaa
#finalfour
#marchmadness

5. Add Art
Top 5 Most Mentioned Users
@MTVNews
15,825 Mentions
@MarchMadness
10,356 Mentions
@TokioHotel
9,765 Mentions
@NCAA
5,684 Mentions
@UConnHuskies
4,952 Mentions

6. Add Art
Top 10 Most Mentioned Teams
Kentucky
263,078 Mentions
Florida
227,734 Mentions
Michigan
191,953 Mentions
Dayton
189,421 Mentions
Connecticut
166,366 Mentions
Wisconsin
146,918 Mentions
Duke
118,787 Mentions
Arizona
109,353 Mentions
Louisville
93,758 Mentions
Mercer
83,956 Mentions

7. Add Art
There were 17 brands that served as corporate sponsors to
March Madness. Their names were mentioned 69,340 times
over the course of the tournament. That makes for 3,301
NCAA-related brand mentions per day.
• AT&T had the most mentions, but benefitted from having
its name on AT&T Stadium in Arlington Texas, which hosted
the Final Four. Prior to those games, the company
sponsored courtside photos which were shared heavily
over Twitter.
• Brands such as Burger King, Capital One, Reese’s and
Enterprise accumulated mentions through contests that
encouraged social sharing.
• Buffalo Wild Wings seemed to benefit the most from
organic mentions, with people talking about eating there
while watching games or mentioning their commercials.
Official Sponsor Share Of Voice
154
305
501
516
594
708
739
1,432
2,093
2,593
2,615
2,672
3,468
3,576
4,164
5,671
37,546
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000
AT&T
Capital One
UPS
Reese's
Burger King
Buffalo Wild Wings
Enterprise
LG
Lowe's
Coca-Cola
Northwestern Mutual
Infiniti
Buick
Kindle Fire
Nabisco
Allstate
Unilever

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Pizza Hut vs. Papa John’s: The battle over pizza
• Neither Pizza Hut nor Papa John’s are official sponsors of
March Madness. But like many brands, that didn’t stop them
from trying to ambush their way into advertising around the
tournament.
• Despite not being able to use any official NCAA language in
their campaigns, both brands picked up some mentions
alongside the phrases “March Madness,” “Final Four,” and
“NCAA,” with Pizza Hut grabbing 977 mentions and Papa
John’s collecting 413.
• A search for brand names over the same period (without
“March Madness,” “NCAA,” or “Final Four”) saw Pizza Hut
pick up 352,312 mentions and Papa John’s collect 83,769.
413
977
0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200
Papa John's
Pizza Hut
83,769
352,312
0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000
Papa John's
Pizza Hut
Total Brand Mentions
March Madness Brand Mentions