Prepare yourself for March Madness

If you haven’t heard of March Madness and you own a mobile phone, prepare yourself because you’re about to. The three week knockout basketball tournament starts later this week and with it, comes a whole lot of hoopla, from the big boys of sponsorship to special social media features. Not bad considering it’s an NCAA tournament, that is, college basketball…

The US gets behind a sporting event like no other country on the planet and it comes as little surprise that social media platform Twitter is the go-to companion for #MarchMadness news on and off the court.

Twitter has welcomed the start of the tournament with open arms, introducing eight new hashtags ahead of the tournament’s first game that tips off on Thursday. With every hashtag used in a tweet, the corresponding emoji will follow to represent the hashtag. This will encourage fans to use more hashtags in their tweets while watching this sporting event.

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When the 68 team field was announced on Sunday, Twitter also did something very cool soon after, verifying each and every official team Twitter account. Whether it is a major university like North Carolina or smaller university like Stony Brook, every team’s Twitter account will now boast that elusive blue tick.

Apparel sponsors utilize this three week long tournament as a platform to show its products. Companies like Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour often showcase their new ideas through the respective universities. Newly promoted no.2 brand in the US Under Armour has started the #PlayForMore campaign with universities like Maryland and Notre Dame.

Nike has also released a campaign albeit slightly less interactive but just as effective with its “March Madness, Past and Present”. Boasting that it “represents 69%” of athletes performing at this year’s tournament, it also lists off a number of current NBA players and former March Madness players that it did represent.

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Since 2016 is the Presidential election in the US, the Washington D.C.-based newspaper the Washington Post created campaign buttons for each team as a way for fans to add some more flair in their support. Below is a picture of some of the buttons, but to view all the teams’ buttons, click here.

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