USA TouchPoints Study insights
March Madness is renowned for its popularity with advertisers; In 2013 alone, the NCAA Basketball Championship generated over $1.15 billion in ad revenue. In a bid to gain an insight into the behavior, media consumption and emotions of the March Madness audience, RealityMine have collected and analysed passive and e-diary data collected via USA TouchPoints from both viewers and non-viewers during the 2014 tournament.
How do March Madness viewers consume media?
The most popular devices used by NCAA fans are TVs, mobile phones and radios – TV use dominated the use of all other devices during March Madness, gaining its highest reach on Selection Sunday. After this time, TV viewing reduced as respondents were more inclined to watch only the teams that they had an interest in. Mobile phone use followed a similar trend to TV viewing and was significantly greater than radio use. Radio use peaked following Selection Sunday and before the start of the tournament.
What ‘second screens’ do March Madness viewers interact with?
An effective way to target viewers is through their second screen when they are watching TV, with this in mind we have conducted analysis into the use of second screens in March Madness viewers. This could be a laptop, mobile phone, games console or tablet.
We found that the majority of second screen viewers were between the ages of 25 to 34 years old. As a generation who have grown up with internet access it is not surprising that they are likely to engage in use of other media devices while viewing TV. Viewers of March Madness between 55 and 64 show a surprisingly high percentage of second screen device use.
Further investigation has revealed which devices are being used as a second screen in March Madness viewers.
Computers and mobile phones are used by March Madness viewers of all age groups. Mobile phones were least popular in viewers aged 35 to 44 and viewers between 25 and 34 used a limited variety of devices during viewing, despite their high use of second screens.
What are viewers doing while watching March Madness?
Our e-diary USA TouchPoints data enabled us to develop in-depth insights about people’s behavior by asking March Madness viewers what they were doing during the time that they viewed the tournament.
The majority of viewers told us that they were relaxing, drinking or having a meal, however a large proportion viewed March Madness while doing other activities such as chores, cooking and travelling. This insight shows the cross over of March Madness and other daily activities in the lives of Americans.
*Analysis based on data collected from USA TouchPoints for a group of 478 panelists from around the United States between March 18th and 24th. RealityMine used mobile passive behavior tools and USA TouchPoints data to monitor participants’ mobile use and daily activities.
