Nissan Leans Into March Madness Despite Edict For Fan-Less Games

Perhaps Nissan could have taken over the main automotive sponsorship of March Madness in a more fortunate year. The fresh decision by the NCAA to eliminate everyday fans from admission to games in the men’s basketball tournament because of the coronavirus clearly will crimp the value of the new two-year marketing deal that has the Nissan brand taking over the prime car-advertising spot this month from its sibling luxury brand, Infiniti.

But Nissan marketing chief Allyson Witherspoon believes the brand’s heavy engagement with March Madness will be a great boon at a time when Nissan is in the midst of introducing a stream of refreshed and new models in a bid to reverse the 9-percent U.S. sales decline experienced by Nissan cars, trucks and SUVs last year.

And while Nissan’s plans for a major on-site marketing “activation” during the March Madness Final Four in Atlanta April 4 through April 6 likely will take a hit in the wake of the NCAA’s decree this week, Witherspoon designed the brand’s campaign heavily around TV advertising and digital content anyway.

“It’s such an engaged audience,” Witherspoon told me. “That’s what makes the NCAA audience and fans exciting for us. It’s a great [audience] for a lot of online video content and streaming content.

“What I like about March Madness is that it’s such a condensed amount of time, and everyone is engaged with the game, and the media platforms are strong,” said Witherspoon, who assumed her new role at Nissan a year ago. “So it’s a great way to get the Nissan message out there.”

The “Nissan message” over the next three weeks will be built around the launch of a new version of its Sentra sedan, a heavily refurbished nameplate whose U.S. sales swooned by more than 13 percent last year compared with 2018.

Infiniti, where Witherspoon spent part of her career before coming to Nissan as general manager of global brand engagement, previously was the designated automotive sponsor of March Madness for several years. But the parent of both brands believed that, as a marketing property, the NCAA tournament “was an opportunity where the fit was going to be stronger on the Nissan side.”

One reason was Nissan’s existing multi-year relationship with NCAA football and the Heisman Trust, which sponsors the Heisman Trophy that goes to the game’s best player each year. “We also have relationships through college football with 33 universities,” Witherspoon said. “So it was a natural fit for us to continue in college sports [with Nissan] and with a marquee event like March Madness.”