The UConn Huskies dominated the 2025 NCAA Women’s Championship, and with millions watching, advertisers seized the moment to compete for attention and impact. We’re breaking down the top-performing ads from the tournament using MarketCast’s Brand Effect solution, which reveals which spots resonated most with real viewers—and why.
While Top 5 brands like Geico and Capital One scored in both tournaments, The Home Depot, Nike, and Apple found their engaged audiences on the women’s side—proving the power and rising impact of women’s college basketball on fans and advertisers alike.
In fact, MarketCast’s Top 5 Ad Breakthrough winners during the Women’s College Hoops Tournament all scored well above the Ad Breakthrough norm—measuring how well audiences remembered the ad and correctly linked it to the brand.
Characters Still Break Through
GEICO’s Gecko and Capital One’s star trio (Jackson, Barkley, Lee, and “Cap One Bank Guy”) showed that beloved celebrities and brand personalities still pack a punch. Their charm, familiarity, and sharp comedic timing helped these spots soar past MarketCast’s Ad Breakthrough and Branding norms.
Context is Everything
Nike’s “So Win” delivered emotional storytelling at one of the biggest moments in women’s sports. By spotlighting the power and resiliency of female athletes, the ad struck a powerful chord—and proved that purpose-driven creative can still perform even in politically divided times.
Other ads that tapped into the moment—whether through basketball nods, NCAA branding, timely TurboTax reminders, or The Home Depot product spotlights—felt perfectly at home during the tournament.
Style and Sound
Apple’s vibrant, Pedro Pascal–led dance ad “Someday” brought the energy with bold visuals and a bumping soundtrack. It’s a reminder that strong aesthetics and well-curated music can elevate a simple product benefit into a norm-busting ad.
Other standout performances include Degree’s “Work It,” which pumped up audiences and scored 5 percentage points above the Ad Breakthrough norm, and Nissan’s “Bear,” a quest for the perfect fishing spot, which exceeded the norm by 3 percentage points.
Get the full playbook. Contact us for a detailed look at March Madness ad performance and learn how MarketCast’s Brand Effect can elevate your next campaign.