Capital One Financial Corp. is a major sponsor of March Madness again this year, along with Hershey and Coca-Cola, among others, and its marketing has begun to hit the airwaves. This year’s ad series, which started running on YouTube and television screens late last week, features Charles Barkley on a road trip with Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson, the main pitch man for Capital One Quicksilver reward cards.
Advertising Age reported in January that Cap One was boosting its ad budget for 2015, after spending more than $500 million on marketing and adding Jennifer Garner to its list of celebrity spokespeople in the fourth quarter of 2014. Capital One is the 29th biggest spender on marketing in the nation, according to Ad Age.