3 media business lessons to learn from March Madness 2024

Two Words – Caitlin Clark. I don't know if anyone in the entire cultural world, especially America, has come close to attracting the attention of such a rabid fan base…well…Eclipse? Taylor Swift? Either way, it's been a special month for March Madness, also known as the NCAA college basketball tournament, for both men and women. When dealing with withdrawals after a tournament, I have to focus on: baseball now? – We have found it helpful to reflect on how this remarkable movement and cultural transformation has provided valuable lessons for the broader media ecosystem.

You may not need a village, but you do need a team.

Viewer numbers for the Women's NCAA Tournament far exceeded viewership records for women's basketball and far exceeded viewership for each game of the 2023 World Series and NBA Finals, among many other landmarks. No hockey game in the past 50 years had higher ratings.

It may be easy to think that Caitlin Clark is alone in the midst of this huge success, but at the end of the day, the tournament's success for both men and women highlighted the contributions of many key contributors. In the end, neither Caitlin Clark of Iowa State nor Zach Eady of Purdue were able to lead their respective teams to victory. It was a group of less obsessive stars and complementary role players that led South Carolina and UW to women's and men's championships and made history.

It's not a far-fetched analogy, but for years the media industry has placed too much emphasis on investing in and placing high hopes on a few properties and a few stars in the hopes of driving a company's big successes.I love this quote from Walt Disney.
DIS
: “We don't make movies to make money. We make money to make more movies.” We may have passed the peak of television. However, spreading your investment assets around is still a better path forward.

The proliferation of media choices continues to reduce the likelihood of a single cultural breakthrough. barbie and oppenheimer It's not a new rule, it's an exception. In fact, even those giants needed cooperation to achieve explosive success.It wasn't Margot Robbie's. barbie That alone required collaboration with director Greta Gerwig, Ryan Gosling's Ken, and a brilliantly written monologue passionately delivered by America Ferrara.and oppenheimer's Cillian Murphy (with a hard 'C') was an average tongue-in-cheek and barely known name. The biggest draw was the film itself (and its director, Christopher Nolan). Real stars make everyone around them stronger.

“Nobody corners the baby” – good leaders are essential, but they must embrace young people

March Madness continued to demonstrate the importance of good coaching in the college game. South Carolina's Dawn Staley coached her third women's championship in the past eight years. UW's Dan Hurley led the school to its second straight men's championship and is proud of his father, legendary high school coach Bob Hurley Sr., and older brother Bobby Hurley, current coach at Arizona State University. Born into a family. In the women's semifinals, UConn was led by six-time champion Geno Auriemma, who pushed an injury-ravaged team to the brink of the women's final.

Media desperately needs visionary leadership, and media businesses often obsess over it. I think far more people know about Rupert Murdoch than the CEOs of Nvidia and Microsoft.
MSFT
And the media was fascinated and dragged into the furore surrounding Bob Iger's leadership at Disney, his “retirement,” his unexpectedly short-lived replacement (Bob Chapek), and his subsequent return to power. It has become rare. But look at Staley's leadership style as the University of South Carolina coach. Staley showed incredible confidence and trust in the freshmen on the team. These freshmen women weren't just waiting their turn and making time for their seniors. The biggest difference in their victory was their fearless and confident play on the biggest stage. How well are media CEOs developing the next generation of leaders? Are they putting their lieutenants on the throne under the ultimate microscope and in a position to truly learn what it takes to succeed? I wonder?

Make it easier for consumers to find you

One of the joys of March Madness for consumers is how easy it is to find and watch broadcast radio and television (other than slate), the oldest media formats, and its integration with cable networks and relative newcomers. is. From mobile apps to streaming. Kudos to the NCAA (unusual), CBS, and Warner Bros. Discovery for this one. We were always cross-promoting where you could find the games you were looking for. You can leave your house, hop in your car, stand in line at the grocery store, or sit down at Starbucks.
SBUX
Without missing a beat. It's like his old TV Everywhere – in his own mind. It's time for media companies to think about a more integrated user experience across platforms and bring March Madness-like experiences to entertainment programming.

The first move major media companies made when building their own direct-to-consumer streaming platforms was to terminate content licensing to streaming competitors like Netflix.
NFLX
. Now that the lure of multi-billion dollar licensing fees has returned (although we're not sure why it disappeared), studio content is once again available on a variety of platforms, albeit in a completely disconnected viewing environment. became. Not only will you get help finding where your favorite content is, but we'll also enhance the viewing experience for your subscribers, including multichannel video (still in more than 60 million U.S. households), streaming, and mobile apps. Why not create a more common user experience across the world? Why not consolidate information about entertainment shows and performers available on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes? This is the same as checking Caitlin Clark's stats in real time. What about the ability to call up information about previous episodes and historical references within the app? In a world with too many undifferentiated streaming outlets, innovation in this area is a huge opportunity and ultimately a necessity. maybe.