Turner Sports and the National Collegiate Athletic Association declared March 14 National Bracket Day, hoping not only to tap into the popularity of office pool predictions surrounding March Madness, but also draw attention to the partnership between the two companies and the format changes made to this year's college basketball championship. The initiative from the TV entity and the student sports organization represents a new 14-year TV, Internet, and wireless rights agreement that allows Turner to broadcast the March games live on its TBS, TNT, and TruTV networks. And with the expansion of the tournament—from 65 to 68 teams—the window for filling out brackets is shortened, so Turner and the N.C.A.A. deployed street teams and built a lounge at the Time Warner Center to spread awareness.
Tasked with the activation was event marketing agency Gigunda Group, which built the consumer space inside the shopping mall and coordinated the distribution of promotional staffers to Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., as well as the campuses of Duke University, University of Kansas, San Diego State University, and Ohio State University.
Designed as a hub for fans, the bracket lounge is set up in the second-floor area outside the Borders store and furnished with seating areas, interactive stations, and a replica of Turner's broadcast studio in Atlanta. The focus is providing places for visitors to fill out and follow their bracket choices, so the production team created two stations equipped with computers, built a display to show and update the bracket chart, and attached iPads to the armchairs in the lounge for direct access to the N.C.A.A.'s March Madness on Demand app.
To further underscore Turner Sports' live coverage of the championship, the space also included four large-screen TVs showing the games and, in collaboration with CBS (the other company involved in the partnership), a broadcast of the "Boomer & Carton in the Morning" show with TNT's studio analyst and former N.B.A. great Charles Barkley on March 14.
More interactive elements encourage visitors to the lounge to linger, activities such as an opportunity to record a short video behind a replica of Turner's broadcast studio desk, an arcade of basketball shooting games, and a photo booth for posing with virtual images of Turner Sports announcers.
