With the participants at next week's Final Four now set, the event's presenting sponsors are now releasing some of their activation plans. It is a big week for Coca-Cola in particular, whose corporate headquarters are based in Atlanta, not far from the Georgia Dome, which will host this weekend's matchups.
Longtime partners of the NCAA, both Coca-Cola and AT&T are extending their presenting sponsorship of this weekend's festivities into the entertainment world. In addition to branding at the actual games and their ancillary events, both Coca-Cola and AT&T will have a large presence at this week's tapings of TBS' "Conan," which will be taped in Atlanta for this week as a lead-up to the hoops action. According to multiple reports, the shows will focus on the Final Four and will feature relavant guests such as Turner basketball analyst Charles Barkley.
The sponsorship makes sense for the brands, both of which utilize the Final Four to target the 18-24 demographic. Conan O'Brien is particularly popular amongst college students and is also very active in social media. As a result, fans can expect that both Coca-Cola and AT&T will be very active throughout the digital space in the coming days.
As another supplement to their presenting sponsorship, both Coca-Cola and AT&T will sponsor concerts featuring star performers. Coca-Cola's concert on Saturday afternoon will include primarily hip-hop and will feature performances by Flo Rida and Ludacris, while AT&T's show on Friday night will be a bit more mellow, featuring Zak Brown Band and My Morning Jacket. Capital One is the sponsor of the third Final Four concert on Sunday, which features Dave Matthews Band.
