LSU's championship run earned $200 million in free advertising for the university

BATON ROUGE – LSU raked in more than $200 million in free advertising in the seven weeks the world was watching the university football team complete its record-setting perfect season.

Analysts at Joyce Julius and Associates, an Ann Arbor, Michigan, analytics firm crunched the numbers this week. It found LSU was mentioned 150,061 times across TV, internet and print media from December 1 through January 21.

The chatter – usually on the front pages of newsprint or leading TV newscasts and taking over digital publications everywhere – exceeded $200,000,000 if the reach would have been purchased through traditional advertising, researchers said.

Joyce Julius and Associates aggregated mentions of LSU from throughout the country, it said when sharing the data with WBRZ Wednesday.

Joyce Julius and Associates is a sponsorship analytics firm, which specializes in measuring the scope of sponsorships across all forms of media.

But, that’s not all – LSU was tops this season related to interactions on social media. In December, another firm found the LSU Football team was talked about online more than any other team.

There’s also real money on the table this season: The university is set to rake in high royalties on merchandise sold. After its two previous championships following the 2003 and 2007 seasons, the university generated roughly $1,000,000 in royalties collected from title gear each year. In 2020, the school hopes to not only meet but exceed that mark.

"From a brand perspective, we're at an all-time high," LSU marketing professor Tommy Karam said.

LSU said earlier this week, applications from prospective students also increased amid the championship run.

At Joyce Julius and Associates, analysts said the data itself also set records: "The exposure numbers we calculated surrounding the LSU football team are some the biggest we’ve seen in college athletics," Jeremy Creutz, Director or Sponsorship Analytics, said.

“It was the perfect storm of exposure for LSU football from the SEC Championship game through the Heisman Trophy ceremony and all the way up and beyond the National Championship Game, ending at the White House. Those are some premier events all generating major national coverage," Creutz told WBRZ.

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