March Madness is right around the corner and now is the time to start prepping how you’re going to market and engage your guests and basketball fans for the tournament’s duration. In this post, we look at six marketing ideas and tactics to get guests and fans into your sports bar to watch the tournament!
Running a NCAA Basketball Bracket Contest is a great way to engage guests. But most mainstream services bombard your guests with a million ads and any marketing is labor intensive on your end. The STVG HQ: Bracket Program changes that with a fully-automated marketing service and a digital bracket that's branded to your sports bar.
The 2024 March Madness is about to begin. Here's the entire tournament TV schedule for sports bars, broken out by time zone.
It's the most wonderful time of the year -- March Madness! The NCAA basketball tournament is one of the best three-week periods for any bar or restaurant who shows sports on their TVs. A total of 72 teams vying for supremacy in a one & done tournament format. On the men's side, the action starts on Tuesday, March 14th as Southeast Missouri State takes on Texas A&M, and Pittsburgh takes on Mississippi State in the first Play to Get In rounds. Fairleigh Dickinson faces Texas Southern, and Nevada against Arizona State for the two remaining Play-In spots. All four of those games take place on truTV. For the women's tourney, their Play to Get In games start on Wednesday March 15th with Mississippi State vs. Illinois, and Sacred Heart against Southern. Both on ESPNU. Then on Wednesday, St. John's takes [...]
Here we go again, the madness that is March has finally arrived. Some folks say that the holidays are the best time of the year, but those of us in the sports-themed restaurant segment know differently. This is among the best 3-week periods of any year that includes a sports focus. A total of 72 teams vying for supremacy in a one & done tournament format. What could be better? How about two tournaments because the women’s version promises to be just as much fun and to drive its own traffic as spring begins to sprung. 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tourney TV Schedule East | Central | Mountain | Pacific 2022 NCAA Women's Basketball Tourney TV Schedule COMING SOON: SCHEDULE RELEASED 3/14 IN THE EVENING It doesn’t take much imagination to envision seven action-packed days of hoop crazies populating [...]
Here we are again, March has arrived and with it the Madness has begun. The 12 days of tournament play is among the most profitable all year for sports-themed operators. Filling every inch of your restaurant is possible on the first Thursday & Friday, but the rest of the tournament can leave a lot to be desired. But it doesn’t have to be with some creative and effective marketing. Meet the Crack Shack. This chef-owned fried chicken joint does more than just serve some of the best food in San Diego (they have five locations on SoCal and one in Las Vegas), but they appear to be expert marketers. Check out this email they sent to promote their bracket promotion during the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament. Crack Shack March Madness promo email Here’s How It Works! The offer [...]
The field is set, the bracket filled out, now what? Consider this our annual observation that while the tournament is a singular phenomenon in the US sports calendar, it’s also not exactly what we hope in the sports bar biz. The exception, of course, is the Thursday and Friday of the first weekend. With 16 games each day and all 64 teams still hopeful to advance, this can get hectic. The included downloadable schedule is for the full tournament run. We have the teams and rankings for the Play-in and Round of 64 games. We also include the TV schedule for the remainder of the tournament right through until the final game on Monday April 8th. We will not update this schedule during the tournament but you can get future schedule info by signing up for the SportsTV Guide. Many [...]
Sponsored by the maker of Tyson Red Label® Wings Since its expansion to the field of 64 in 1985, the Men’s College Basketball Tournament has become one of the most popular and successful sporting events in the nation. Now with four additional play-in games, the 68 teams play a total of 67 games over the course of three weeks. The hype and fever surrounding the tournament is infectious, spreading to office pools, friendly wagers, and campus rallies throughout the country. For bars and restaurants, this can represent a steady stream of revenue in an otherwise slow time of year. Professional football has recently wrapped its season up, while professional basketball and hockey are playing out their final regular weeks before the playoffs begin. The excitement around the basketball tournament fills this gap and can bring in a slew of new [...]
March Madness 2018 has already been a banner year for upsets, last second shots, and weird tourney happenings. With only two number one seeds surviving, the second weekend it’s a wide-open field. In fact, Virginia was the first number one seed to ever lose in the first round…Go Retrievers, although they lost on Sunday. Just to clarify how many upsets there were: Of the 16 top seeds only seven remain. This is the worst performance of top seeds in tournament history. But have no fear, there are plenty of recognizable names still remaining, including last year’s champion, Villanova. Perennial powerhouses like Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and Syracuse are still alive and looking to knock off Nova. Download Your 2018 March Madness Round 2 TV Schedule Eastern | Central | Mountain | Pacific With all these unpredictable outcomes, this tournament might defy the odds and have the second [...]
And here it comes again…March in all its Madness! For sports-themed operators this is more like Christmas than St. Paddy’s Day. The first two days of full bracket play, featuring 64 teams from every corner of the country. All with the hope they can win it all. Of course, after Thursday and Friday, it calms a bit -- unless your local team is still alive, then the real madness begins. The good news is there are no surprises in this one. You always have a minimum of two days to prepare for whatever happens with your local entrant. Download Your 2018 March Madness TV Schedule Eastern | Central | Mountain | Pacific As far as your schedules are concerned, the games are spread out over the entire day on Thursday and Friday, so that really equalizes the volume. There are [...]
Every year as March approaches, we field inquiries about the schedule for the NCAA March Madness Tournament and how to best prepare for it. Unfortunately, every year we respond by explaining, it’s really just the first two days of full field play that can be called madness. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prepare or promote to get as much from the event as possible. Check out our recent blog with some new ideas for promoting the NCAA Tournament. What makes the tournament great before it starts is also what slows it down as it progresses. With 68 teams making the cut, there is hardly a place in the US that doesn’t have a stake in the tourney before the first tip-off. Unfortunately, once play concludes on Thursday and Friday, that number dwindles to just 32 teams, and by Sunday [...]
March Madness is a huge opportunity for bars and restaurants to seize every year. With several games on almost daily, owners and managers can leverage the madness with promotions and deals for dine-in or take-out customers alike. That said, what are some of the routes to take pharmacieinde.com? We’ve got you covered with some March Madness promotion ideas to use to make your NCAA tourney season a slam dunk (sorry, we know). 1. Brackets Let’s start with the most traditional route – the NCAA March Madness Bracket. Brackets can be a relatively low impact/most bang for your buck option for a promotion. You can go with one big prize for the overall bracket winner, prizes for winners of each round of the tournament, or even mix in discounts for anyone who even chooses a single game correctly to incentivize playing [...]
