With March Madness in full swing and the Final Four just a couple weeks away, now is a great time to run a March Madness themed promotion for your business. Your company can capitalize on the excitement with logo souvenirs and basketball-themed items that will put your brand in the spotlight as NCAA buzz reaches its fever pitch! If you’re looking for some fun and effective March Madness promotions, check out this list put together by the Advertising Speciality Institute. It features 11 different products perfect for companies, bars, restaurants, sports teams, and more:

ASI‘s 2012 March Madness Hot List:

• Video-playing basketball. Users upload any video, making it a perfect prize for top performers in the office pool.
• Logoed spatula. Relive tournament highlights this summer with spatulas die-cut with a school or booster club’s logo.
• Device wraps. Users upload their own picture and wrap their favorite device with college mascots and logos.
• Basketball net skull cap. Tie into the tournament with pop-a-shot contest between games and give winners fun items like a funky cap.
• Basketball jersey. Companies can host three-ball competitions and giving away adult-sized moisture-wicking jerseys to organizers and winning teams.
• Square ball stress reliever. Perfect for squeezing during down-to-the-wire games.
• Mini backboard and ball set. Businesses can send reps armed with great giveaways for clients to encourage them to join office pools.
• Basketball helmet. Beverage companies can use as an on-pack promotion for college kids or to reward employees during a company appreciation event.

You can watch the March Madness episode of The Joe Show to see these products in action!

For more than 60 years, promotional swag bags have been a part of NCAA bowl games. These gift bags are intended as keepsakes for the players to remember their seasons by, and are often filled with hot retail items like iPods, Xboxes, Best Buy gift cards, are more. In recent years the swag bags themselves have become the focus of massive media attention, causing big brands to fight for the right to be a part of the prize packages for the biggest bowl games.

Creating prize packages can be a challenge for bowl officials, who must work to find gifts that meet all NCAA rules and limitations, create buzz for the bowl, incorporate the bowl’s logo, and also make the players happy.

“You want the kids to say ‘Oh, I’m going to the Chick-fil-A Bowl. I’m going to get a good gift bag,’” said Derek Martin, the bowl’s vice president of events. “You want them talking like that.”

This year’s bowl swag bags include promotional gifts from giant retail brands like Fossil, Best Buy, Amazon, Apple, Sony, Nike, Oakley, and more. These brands know they’ll get guaranteed media exposure by giving away free stuff. Apparel brands like Nike and Oakley may get something even better if players are photographed wearing their apparel or sunglasses. In the end a classic promotional marketing lesson rings true: free stuff often pays for itself with a flood of positive brand exposure., and you don’t have to be a Fortune 500 company to leverage this strategy. Free gifts will always be an effective way to reach new customers, make your current ones happy, and keep everyone talking and coming back for more.

You can view the full list of 2011 bowl gifts to participants in Sports Business Journal’s annual report.