Home Depot teams with Shaquille O’Neal, NCAA in March Madness promo

The Home Depot is partnering with a basketball legend and the NCAA for the "March Madness" women's and men's Division I basketball tournaments.

Timed to coincide with the launch of its top-selling spring selling season, the partnership makes Home Depot an official corporate partner of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), providing the retailer rights across all 90 NCAA championships, with participation from college and pro basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal.

The Home Depot will launch its "How to March Madness" campaign on "Selection Sunday," March 17 (when the Division I tournament teams are announced). The campaign includes "Tips from the Tool Shaq," a content series featuring content tying together basketball themes with common spring projects including "How to Protect the Paint" and "How to Clean the Glass."

Beginning Sunday, March 17, a collection of project guides, step-by-step videos and "Tips from the Tool Shaq" will be available in a dedicated section of Home Depot’s e-commerce site. The campaign will feature ads on linear TV including CBS, TBS, TNT, TruTV and ESPN Network; digital and social content; integrations and experiential activations, including an onsite Tool Shaq for attendees at the Men's and Women's Final Four.

Home Depot has previously run omnichannel spring promotions, such as the Countdown to Spring hub and interactive workshops it offered in 2023.

The three-year partnership with the NCAA, CBS Sports and TNT Sports builds on The Home Depot's existing collaborations with college sports, which include a 26-year association with CBS Sports' college football coverage, a 22-season “College GameDay” partnership and sponsorships of all four major Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) sports conferences: Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) and Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).

"The Home Depot's customers are also big sports fans, and March Madness is one of the most exciting times of the year," said Molly Battin, senior VP and chief marketing officer at The Home Depot. "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."

"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," said Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior VP of basketball. "We appreciate Home Depot extending its support of college student-athletes to NCAA Championships, which includes March Madness."

Headquartered in Atlanta, The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer. At the end of fiscal year 2023, the company operated a total of 2,335 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. The company employs approximately 465,000 associates.