Following signing a multi-year official corporate partnership with the NCAA earlier in the month, The Home Depot leveraged its new rights around the 2024 NCAA Division 1 Men’s and Women’s March Madness through a Shaquille O’Neal fronted, multichannel ‘How To’ campaign which combines the tournament fandom with the satisfaction of DIY during the retailer’s most important sales period.
Objective
The aim was to leverage the new sponsorship deal, which saw the DIY behemoth assume rights across all 90 NCAA championships (including March Madness) to create what the brand describes as ‘a game-winning marketing campaign during spring’ which is the retailer’s busiest selling season.
Activation
Launched on 17 March to leverage spiking tournament interest on ‘Selection Sunday’, the campaign is fronted by an ambassador the brand described as the “ultimate Home Depot fan” Shaquille O’Neal.
Developed with agency Lerma Advertising, Synergy Films and Charlie Uniform Tango, the activation spans linear TV (including official tourney broadcasters CBS, TBS, TNT, TruTV and ESPN Network), as well as digital and social content, plus integrations , experiential activations and on-site initiatives.
Onsite, the brand ambassador, NBA legend and LA Lakers icon will appear in person with attendees at the Men’s Final Four in Phoenix and Women’s Final Four in Cleveland help them experience ‘How To March Madness’ first hand.
O’Neal will also appear at a number of The Home Depot stores where he will buy items for unsuspecting costumers.
While the ad campaign is spearheaded by a video series titled ‘Tips from the Tool Shaq’: a content series built around comic, entertaining spots which tie together basketball themes with DIY advice about common spring projects.
These 15-second spots rolled out on TV and across owned and paid social channels from 17 March and included: ‘How to Protect the Paint’, ‘How to Clean the Glass’, ‘How To Avoid A One Seed Upset’, ‘How To Score The Winning Bucket’, ‘How To Build A Bench’, ‘How To Run A Drill’ and ‘How To Pick The Right Team’.
The agency was Lerma Advertising (with Principal Jen Taylor and Sharon Chortek), with production handled by Synergy Films (with Director Sam Washington, EP Chad Watkins and Producer Helen Urriola) and Charlie Uniform Tango
“The Home Depot’s customers are also big sports fans, and March Madness is one of the most exciting times of the year. We’ve had a long-standing commitment to collegiate sports, and we’re excited to add the NCAA and its March Madness tournaments to our roster. We look forward to connecting with our customers in a fun, authentic way and empowering them as they tackle their spring projects.”
The Home Depot SVP and CMO Molly Battin
“We are thrilled to welcome The Home Depot, one of the most recognized brands in college sports, to the NCAA corporate champions and partners program. We appreciate Home Depot extending its support of college student-athletes to NCAA Championships, which includes March Madness. We look forward to working with Home Depot on its activations engaging fans during our championship events.”
NCAA SVP Basketball Dan Gavitt
This new partnership adds to The Home Depot existing college sports presence which includes ESPN’s ‘College GameDay Built by The Home Depot’ and presenting sponsor for ESPN’s The Home Depot College Football Awards.
While for the rights owner, the NCAA, this was the second new corporate deal penned immediately ahead of 2024 March Madness following its tie-up with Geico (replacing previous incumbent Allstate) as the ‘official home and auto insurance partner of the NCAA’.
NCAA partners now include corporate champions AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola; and Buffalo Wild Wings, Buick, Geico, Great Clips, Intuit turbo Tax, Invesco QQQ, LG, Marriott Bonvoy, Nabisco, Nissan, Pizza Hut, Reese’s, The Home Depot, Unilever and Wendy’s.