NCAA Builds Official Alliance With The Home Depot, Brings Shaq Along For Support
Tuesday, March 12, 2024 at 04:26PM By Barry Janoff
March 12, 2024: With momentum for the 2024 NCAA Div. 1 Men’s and Women’s March Madness building, the NCAA has signed a multi-year deal naming The Home Depot an official corporate partner.
The Home Depot will have rights across all 90 NCAA championships, including the Men's Div. I and Women's Div. I basketball tournaments, “creating a game-winning combination during spring, the retailer's busiest selling season.”
Financial terms of the three-year alliance were not shared.
The Home Depot already has a presence in college sports, including ESPN’s College GameDay Built by The Home Depot and presenting sponsor for ESPN’s The Home Depot College Football Awards.
The Home Depot will launch a "How to March Madness" campaign on Selection Sunday (March 17) featuring The Home Depot associates and the “ultimate Home Depot fan” Shaquille O'Neal.
The campaign will feature ads on linear TV including CBS, TBS, TNT, TruTV and ESPN Network; digital and social content; and integrations and experiential activations.
Onsite, "Tool Shaq" will allow attendees at the Men's Final Four in Phoenix and Women's Final Four in Cleveland to experience "How to March Madness" firsthand.
"The Home Depot's customers are also big sports fans, and March Madness is one of the most exciting times of the year," Molly Battin, The Home Depot svp and CMO, said via the company
"We've had a long-standing commitment to collegiate sports, and we're excited to add the NCAA and its March Madness tournaments to our roster. We look forward to connecting with our customers in a fun, authentic way and empowering them as they tackle their spring projects."
The campaign includes "Tips from the Tool Shaq," a content series featuring “entertaining content tying together basketball themes with common spring projects including ‘How to Protect the Paint’ and ‘How to Clean the Glass.’”
Photo: Shaquile O'NealIn real life, O’Neal shows up in The Home Depot locations, with posts on social media as the Basketball Hall of Famer buys items for unsuspecting costumers.
"We are thrilled to welcome The Home Depot, one of the most recognized brands in college sports, to the NCAA corporate champions and partners Program," Dan Gavitt, NCAA svp-basketball, said via the organization.”
“We appreciate Home Depot extending its support of college student-athletes to NCAA Championships, which includes March Madness. We look forward to working with Home Depot on its activations engaging fans during our championship events."
This is the second corporate deal for the NCAA entering March Madness.
Earlier this month, the NCAA signed a corporate partnership naming Geico the official home and auto insurance partner of the NCAA.
In 2019 Geico replaced Allstate as an NCAA corporate sponsor in the auto and home insurance categories and was a partner 2019-22 but not in 2023.
NCAA partners now include corporate champions AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola; and Buffalo Wild Wings, Buick, Geico, Great Clips, Intuit turbo Tax, Invesco QQQ, LG, Marriott Bonvoy, Nabisco, Nissan, Pizza Hut, Reese’s, The Home Depot, Unilever and Wendy’s.
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