Capital One Financial Corp. today is leveraging its sponsorship of the recent NCAA men’s basketball tournament to score consumer data via Twitter.
In a promoted tweet that is currently live, Capital One is asking Twitter users who “enjoyed March Madness” to click over to an online survey. The survey asks, among other questions, whether the respondent is an active Cap One client, whether the bank’s sponsorship of the tournament “changes your perception of Capital One,” and whether the consumer agrees, disagrees or is “neutral” about the following statements:
- Capital One offers competitive rates
- Capital One offers compelling products
- Capital One is an emerging digital leader
- Capital One meets my needs
- Capital One is a company I can trust
- Capital One is the card I use most often
Formally, Capital One was the “official bank and credit card of the NCAA Men’s Final Four.”
Capital One is using TBG Digital to host the query.
Cap One began leveraging its sponsorship at least a week before the entire basketball tournament even started. For example, if fans purchased tournament tickets through the NCAA with their Capital One card and use code CAPONESAV, they received a 10% discount off selected tickets.
AdWeek put the cost of Capital One’s NCAA sponsorship at north of $35 million annually.
According to ESPN.com, the sponsorship was probably worth it for Capital One:
Data from market researcher Scarborough shows Capital One reaches some key demographics during March Madness that might make that money well spent. A whopping 83 percent of viewers have used a credit card in the past three months, making tournament viewers 12 percent more likely than the average U.S. adult to use a credit card. In addition, nearly one-third of viewers have a household income of $100,000 or more.
Interestingly, Capital One is a) leveraging its sponsorship after the tournament has ended; and b) is actively culling data, in a very public way, on whether that sponsorship was effective. In most cases, sports sponsorships tend to come and go, especially those purchased by financial services companies. In Capital One’s case, it hit the sponsorship shot, and got an “and one” out of it.