On-Campus Marketing to College Students - An In-Depth Guide for Brands & Advertisers Looking for Creative Ways to Reach the College Audience
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On-Campus Marketing
to College Students
An In-Depth Guide for Brands & Advertisers Looking
for Creative Ways to Reach the College Audience
WWW.COLLEGEMARKETINGGROUP.COM
Table of Contents
3 Introduction: Why Does On-Campus Marketing Matter?
4 How Your Brand Can Make a Splash On Campus: 6 Year-Round Tips
4 | Set-Up Giveaways and Contests
6 | Create Campus-Exclusive Promotions
6 | Collaborate with Local Businesses
7 | Enlist Student Ambassadors as Influencers
8 | Find the Right Student Clubs
9 | Cause a Scene with Guerilla Marketing
10 Marketing at the Beginning of the Semester: 6 Tips for Welcome Weekend
10 | Market to Each Niche
11 | Fine-Tune Your Message
11 | Connect Beyond the Moment
12 | Be Memorable
12 | Make Use of Student Brand Ambassadors
13 | Give Away Student-Friendly Products
13 | Choose Your Timing Wisely
14 | Don’t Forget the Parents
14 | Document and Optimize
15 Marketing at the End of the Semester: 5 Tips for Finals Week
16 | Don’t Waste College Students’ Time
16 | Don’t Bother with Merchandise Giveaways or Discounts
17 | Don’t Ignore the Allure of Free Food
17 | Don’t Hesitate to Give Away Free Money
18 | Don’t Make College Students Work for Your Coupons and Passes
19 Why Work with College Marketing Group?
2 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.com
Why Does On-Campus Marketing Matter? Two-thirds of college students say that once they fall in love with a brand, they’ll support it for many years into the future. That’s why developing brand loyalty with college students is the best way to make your marketing efforts see long-term returns. At College Marketing Group, our business is helping brands connect with those college students. And yes, digital marketing is a big part of our approach. Email, social media, viral videos, memes, hashtags — we’re all about it. But we also know that a critical part to developing brand loyalty with your target audience is to get out in the real world and interact face-to-face. This is especially true with today’s college students, who are particularly keen to engage with a brand before handing over their hard-earned money, according to a recent study by the National Retail Federation and IBM. Engaging means getting on campus and marketing to college students in the real world. But a booth at an orientation fair is far from original or memorable. Investing in on-campus marketing is an opportunity for your brand to make a meaningful connection with potential lifetime customers. So why not be a bit more ambitious and really make a splash with your next on-campus marketing campaign? 3 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.com
How Your Brand Can Make a Splash On Campus From enlisting brand ambassadors and sponsoring student clubs to setting up contests and giveaways, here’s our guide to promoting your brand on college campuses. TIP #1: Set Up Giveaways and Contests Just like the rest of us, college students love the word “free.” So why not set up a giveaway on campus? If your actual product is affordable to produce, like an energy drink or breakfast bar, give away free samples. A sample gives students the chance to try your product and decide if it’s something they want more of. If you can’t give away free samples of what you’re selling, try free swag emblazoned with your logo and/or slogan. We’re talking shirts, hats, koozies, bags — you name it. Swag operates as a moving billboard every time a student sports it out on the town or in class. You also don’t have to give away something related to your brand or product to build loyalty — you can just give away a great experience in the name of your brand. Buy some pizzas, set up a table on or near campus, and offer free slices to passing students. Say, “Hey, this is courtesy of Brand X. Rock on!” You’re offering college students something they want, and creating a memorable, positive and branded moment while you’re at it. A particularly great place for giveaways on campus is at sporting events, like during tailgating for a football game. > 4 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.com
How to make the most of a giveaway for college sports fans: Offer goodies that students want: Think tickets to the next game, or free food. Go big by giving away dorm room essentials like a mini-fridge, a new TV, or the latest video game system. Tie your giveaway into the game itself: Make a lasting impression by showing you care about the game and understand the fans’ passion. Go with a trivia quiz about the team’s history or the specific day’s rivalry. Another option is a photo caption contest. Display a photo of a crazy play from the previous week and ask for caption submissions. Share submissions on social media during the game for your followers to vote on, and get the double whammy of in-person and online engagement. Use the opportunity to create a lasting connection: This allows you to continue to market to the students you engage with at the game long after the score has been decided. When you’re giving something away, be sure to use it as an opportunity for a small ask. Offer that swag, sample, or freebie in exchange for a follow on Instagram or a quick sign-up for your email newsletter. Stoke some friendly competition: To boost the effectiveness of your giveaways, add a contest element to the promotion. Offer recipients of your giveaway a referral code to use to get their friends to sign up for your newsletter or to follow you on social media. College students who reach a certain number of referrals receive an extra valuable prize! 5 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.com
TIP #2: Create Campus-Exclusive Promotions To get college students more excited about your promotion, customize it to their school. Refer to the school’s logo, mascot, hometown, slogan, and other unique traits in your signage and marketing language. Say you’re a brand that sells a drink called Crazy Bomb and your slogan is “It’s What Heroes Drink.” You’re about to promote your drink at a college whose mascot is a water buffalo. Make an alternative shirt design that says, “Crazy Bomb: It’s What Water Buffaloes Drink.” Maybe not the most inspiring mental image, but you get the idea. You can also create a discount code or offer exclusive to that campus. Print coupons in collaboration with a local convenience store offering “Buy One Get One Crazy Bombs for Water Buffaloes Only!” TIP #3: Collaborate with Local Businesses If your business isn’t based in the same city as the college campuses where you’re advertising, coordinate your efforts with a local business that can benefit from a collaborative promotion. Like the example above, you might partner with local convenience stores to sell your product to college students at a discount. But collaboration can extend beyond direct retail promotions. Say you’re promoting a new dating app. Find the coffee shop or ice cream place near campus that best fits the app’s brand vibe, and set up a co-promo: Your first date set up on the app gets you a BOGO deal at the establishment. Your app has a selling point, and the local business gets more customers. It’s a win-win. 6 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.com
TIP #4: Enlist Student Ambassadors as Influencers
Even if your hired marketing team makes a good impression during an on-campus marketing
campaign, they can easily be forgotten the very next day. When it comes down to it, college students
are more likely to trust their friends over an outsider.
Student brand ambassadors are a key to building brand trust with college students. They’re
persuasive when talking to their peers about the brands and products they love, and they’re physically
present on campus all year.
Any student that’s passionate about your brand can make a great ambassador, but it’s especially
helpful if they’re a bit of an influencer. Look for students with a large number of followers on social
media. And if you’re focused on establishing a higher grade of loyalty with a more specific group of
students, look for those in positions of power on campus — club presidents, sorority leaders, student
council members, etc.
For example, concert promoters regularly use street teams to distribute show flyers. In exchange,
street team members get free tickets to shows.
Here are a few ways to leverage on-campus college student ambassadors:
1. Put student ambassadors in charge of those giveaways we mentioned earlier. Let them tell
other students about what makes your brand so great — 92% of people say they trust their
friends’ recommendations more than any form of advertising.
2. Arm your on-campus brand ambassadors with branded apparel to wear to class and at
campus events. Think of your student brand ambassadors as your on-campus street team.
3. Send your ambassador a bunch of stickers and ask them to put them in visible spots around
campus, posting a photo of each with a pre-determined hashtag to their social media story.
10 photos gets them a cool prize!
7 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.com
TIP #5: Find the Right Student Clubs
One way to inspire students to become word-of-mouth ambassadors for your brand is to support and
collaborate with on-campus, student-run clubs and organizations that are relevant to your brand in
some way.
For example, gamers and coders love to stay up all night in front of their computers, chugging energy
drinks to keep the fun going until sunrise. Why shouldn’t that energy drink be Crazy Bomb? Well, if you
sponsor their next 72-hour hack-a-thon, it will be!
Or maybe part of your branding is passion for a social issue. Donating products, services, or cash in
the form of a grant to a student organization that works on that specific issue is an excellent way to
engender loyalty and trust between your brand and the students in that organization.
Another option is sponsoring a club’s on-campus event. If you take this route, think beyond a vinyl
banner with your logo on it.
Ideas for taking college event sponsorship to the next level:
Parties, Mixers, and More
• Host a branded on-site mixer with free food and drinks where people can network and dance.
• An option for an audience at a professional conference would be to host wellness breaks with
meditation, yoga, massages, quiet spaces, etc.
Branded Gift Bags
• Many events give “swag bags” to attendees, especially if there are VIP guests. Your logo front
and center on each bag is a great way to get exposure.
• You could also include coupons, gift cards, or branded gifts inside the bag.
• Consider branding a digital swag bag — access to gift cards, coupons, contests, and more, all
through guests’ smartphones.
Epic Signage
• Stair and escalator wraps are printed decals applied to the front-facing surface of
each step, so that when event attendees approach a staircase, they see one big ad or image.
• On escalators, you can also do wraps that cover the inner or outer surface of the side
railing walls. >
8 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.com
Photo Booths
• A photo booth is a surefire hit. Attendees get to take fun photos that are printed or, better yet,
shared via social media, and you can brand the booth, the photo, or both.
Wi-Fi
• This is a smart option for brands in the tech or communications industries.
• “Sponsor” the event wi-fi — when people connect to the network, they’ll see a landing page
branded with your logo and welcome message.
• Include a link directly to your website and a special offer for attendees.
Social Media Display
• Events can include screens that display attendees’ posts on social media, usually through the
use of hashtags. Another splashy place for your logo!
Livestream
• Are the hosts live streaming the festivities? See if you can get your branding on the live video
— a logo in the corner or a “Presented by” message displayed every 30 minutes, in the video
captions, etc.
Reaching out to student clubs is not only effective brand marketing directly to the students most likely
to be interested in what you’re all about — it can also turn those students into brand ambassadors
who’ll tell their friends about how cool your company is.
TIP #6: Cause a Scene with Guerilla Marketing
With all the activity going on each day on a college campus, it can be hard to stand out. A memorable
stunt may be what you need to get the attention of college students on campus.
Setting up a booth on the campus quad to give away samples of your Crazy Bomb energy drink is a
fine idea. But staging a WWF-style stage with a wrestler dressed up as a water buffalo, ready to take
on any student with the guts to enter the ring? Now we’re talking.
Give a free shirt to every student who wrestles the water buffalo, win or lose, and include free
samples to the crowd that will inevitably gather to watch the spectacle. If a student can pin the Crazy
Bomb-fueled beast, they win free Crazy Bomb for a year!
(This goes without saying, but whatever fun stunt you choose, check with the administration first to
make sure it’s allowed, and that you have the right insurance for it.)
9 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.com
Marketing at the Beginning of the Year From targeting the right audience to enlisting student ambassadors, here’s our guide to on-campus marketing during the move-in rush. One of the best times to connect with college students is when they first arrive on campus. Move-in day and Welcome Weekend are an especially exciting time for freshmen. They’re trying to figure out where everything is and how to live on their own. And both new and returning students are ready to try new things and continue to develop their identity as they learn and grow. Leverage your brand’s role in this time of change with the following tips. TIP #1: Market to Each Niche In marketing, we consider a period of change in a customer’s life a key transactional period. The nature of this change is different for a first-year college student versus a senior about to graduate. A freshman needs a bike. A senior needs a job. Before you hit the quad with your marketing team, decide who your different college student personas are, and make a list of their needs, desires, and challenges and how your product can help. The more specifically you target groups, the better. By developing and understanding each persona within your audience, you can design your marketing to speak to them, and get more interest as a result. Without persona development, you’re just shouting into the void and hoping someone listens. 10 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.com
TIP #2: Fine-Tune Your Message
When you set up on campus, your team should know how to talk to passing students to get
their attention.
Say your brand sells a healthy granola bar and you head to campus to give out free granola bars.
Your team and/or signage might say “Free Healthy Breakfast for Your First Week of Class!”
Freshmen are stressed about finding their classes, buying books, making friends and more. They’re
likely to respond to a message that promises one less thing for them to worry about (and pay for).
And when they come to your booth, they can sign up with their email or follow you on social media
in exchange for a 5-bar sample pack.
Another approach is to speak to the needs of students (and their parents) in the moment. Freshmen
are moving into residence halls amidst the chaos of thousands of other students. They’re tired, thirsty,
and hungry, and their phones are probably low on power or already dead.
If you’ve got free water (branded with your logo), energy drinks, food, or just a relaxing place to sit
in the shade and charge a phone, you’re creating an opportunity to connect. It doesn’t matter if your
brand doesn’t sell those types of products. This is simply the messaging that brings students to you
and allows you to engage.
TIP #3: Connect Beyond the Moment
No matter what free swag or snacks you offer college students, you need to make sure your brand’s
first point of contact does double-duty for future marketing efforts. This is your chance to create a
lasting connection that’ll increase your reach after move-in is over.
3 ways to build a connection at college events:
1. Get people to sign up for your email newsletter.
2. Ask students to follow you on Facebook, Instagram, or other social media platforms.
3. Use old-fashioned snail mail! Get a student’s address so you can send them coupons and
other promotional materials.
11 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.comTIP #4: Be Memorable
There are likely dozens or even hundreds of brands on campus during move-in weekend. If you want
to stand out, you need a plan for making a splash on campus.
Students love free stuff. But instead of bringing along the same old boring swag, consider your
brand’s story, values, and overall aesthetic in selecting the right product to give to students.
If you’re a shoe company, you can’t afford to give a pair of running shoes to every student who passes
by. But you could give away a pedometer. Similarly, a computer or software company can’t give away
its product for free, but a USB stick is a great low-cost option.
These examples share three common traits:
1. They’re cheap and easily brandable.
2. They relate to your company’s product.
3. They’re actually useful to college students.
TIP #5: Make Use of Student Brand Ambassadors
Getting a team of students to act as brand ambassadors is a great way to connect with college
students. And not just on move-in day, but throughout the school year.
College students are more likely to trust their peers when it comes to trusting a new brand than
any other form of advertising.
A few ways to get student ambassadors include:
1. Convert your summer interns into ambassadors when they go back to school — they’re
knowledgeable and passionate about your brand.
2. Offer exclusive products and access to special events in exchange for their work.
3. Create resume-building opportunities through ambassador experience and education
programs.
12 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.comTIP #6: Give Away Student-Friendly Products Think about helpful products that you can brand that students will want for their dorm rooms. Examples include: Door Whiteboards: These are low-cost and students like to use them to write themselves reminders or for their friends to leave notes. Fridge Magnets: Students always have coupons, take-out menus, and syllabi to keep organized — a branded fridge magnet helps them out and provides constant visual reminders of your brand. Mini-fans: A lot of dorms don’t have A/C, which isn’t fun in those early hot days of the school year. A small clip-on fan emblazoned with your logo is perfect next to the bed or at a desk. Reading lights: Since many students share dorm rooms, a reading light is handy when one is ready for bed and the other plans to stay up studying. TIP #7: Choose Your Timing Wisely Do a little research before planning the precise dates of your on-campus marketing campaign. Maybe the Saturday of move-in is intensely busy, with a hundred companies doing giveaways and 10,000 students trying to unload cars all at once. While there’s a lot of traffic, this could be a challenging time to stand out. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a presence on the busiest day, but maybe you should stick around past peak traffic time to get some attention. You might find that the day after move-in is far less hectic but those 10,000 students are all still there. This could be the perfect time for you to make your big push and increase your chances of getting noticed. 13 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.com
TIP #8: Don’t Forget the Parents College students usually have their parents by their side on move-in day. Parents are excited to help their kids get settled in, and often are the ones buying groceries, furniture, electronics and more. On top of that, parents also influence their students’ spending habits through the money they give them, their own spending behavior, and through financial advice. If you can convince parents that your product is a good investment, you’re much more likely to make a sale. TIP #9: Document and Optimize Make sure you document as much of your on-campus marketing campaign as possible. Have your staff fill out post-campaign surveys about the effectiveness of signage, questions, giveaways and more. Send surveys to students you connected with about the product samples you gave away. And track your analytics to find out the following: • How much engagement you’re getting from new follows on social media • Your open rate from new email list subscribers • Website leads from on-campus interactions Use this data to figure out what’s working well and what’s under-performing, then apply that information to further optimize your next campaign for even greater success. 14 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.com
Marketing at the End of the Semester From wasting their time to giving college students stuff they don’t really need, here are 5 things not to do when marketing during finals week. Studies show that 86% of students feel overwhelmed during finals week, with nearly as many also reporting physical exhaustion. If you’re a brand trying to engage with college students, this means you should be considerate of their needs and challenges during this stressful time. How can your brand help college students see to their basic needs when they have limited time and limited money? College Marketing Group ran a study with a panel of college students to find out. The first thing we learned is that for college students, finals week is really finals month — exams, papers, and the like are stretched out over a long period at the end of each semester. For students, this only adds to the build-up of stress. For your brand, it presents an even greater opportunity to address students’ needs during this critical time. The following tips will help your marketing succeed during finals week. 15 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.com
TIP #1: Don’t Waste College Students’ Time At another point in the year, we’d say brands should be hosting engaging, interactive experiences on campus to create memorable marketing that leaves an impression on students. And at the very least, when you do giveaways and the like on campus, you should be collecting email addresses, asking for social media follows, etc. All this goes out the window during finals week. Our panel of students reveal that on-campus marketing that requires any of their time is more of an annoyance than an aid during finals. Instead, when you market on campus during finals week, make it all about the students. If you’re handing out free energy drinks or snacks, be sure the product and your booth are branded with your logo, website, social media handles, QR code, etc., and leave it at that. Allowing students to simply grab and go shows them that you understand they’re busy and that you respect their time, which will create a lasting positive interaction with your brand. TIP #2: Don’t Bother with Merchandise Giveaways or Discounts One interesting thing our study revealed is that students are more likely to buy themselves things like clothes, electronic devices, and other such products during finals week as a sort of retail therapy to help deal with the stress. Think of it as a “treat yo’ self” for a job well done! So, giving away merchandise that falls into these categories is less likely to be effective during finals. Instead of giving away things students might want, you should focus giveaways on things they need during finals — namely, food. That brings us to our next point. 16 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.com
TIP #3: Don’t Ignore the Allure of Free Food As we discussed earlier, college students are often too busy to sit down to a proper meal during finals week. They’re likely to end up downing pizza, fast food, and snacks from the vending machine when they finally realize they haven’t eaten in 12 hours. Research shows that a bad diet and poor nutrition increases stress and has harmful emotional effects — not helpful during finals! Our panel of students say they know they’re likely to eat unhealthy food during finals, and they also express the desire to avoid such eating habits. It makes sense, then, that a great angle for on-campus marketing is to give away healthy foods that’ll boost students’ energy. Consider whole-grain granola bars, fruit and yogurt cups, and string cheese. Make it easy to pick up on their way to class and just be sure to brand the packaging and/or your table. It helps if your ambassadors who are administering giveaways are wearing branded shirts or hats as well. TIP #4: Don’t Hesitate to Give Away Money For college students during finals, time is their biggest stressor, followed closely by money. If you’re doing a promotion that does take any of a student’s time, be prepared to pay for it. You could give away cash or gift cards to local businesses. But there are other alternatives, too. Here are a few ideas of cash-related giveaways for students during finals: Parking passes: One of our student panel’s biggest complaints is dealing with parking on campus during finals. So how about manning parking spots and, when students park, ask them if they’d like free parking? They can sign up for your email list or give you a follow while your ambassador pays their parking. Just be sure that the process is quick! Gym passes: Students say they like to work out as a way to de-stress. Giving away gift cards or day passes to a local gym near off-campus housing could be a good strategy, especially if your target audience is fitness-conscious. More free food: Give away gift cards or vouchers for meals at local restaurants near campus. Straight cash: Give away cash or Visa gift cards. 17 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.com
TIP #5: Don’t Make College Students Work for Your Coupons and Passes Just as you should be mindful of students’ time in your on-campus marketing, you should also be considerate of how long your digital promotions take to engage with. Streamline online promotions targeted to college students during finals week so they don’t fall out of your lead funnel before they reach the end. If you’re giving out promo codes, free downloads, etc. in exchange for a like, follow, email address, or other contact info, be sure to keep it simple! Same goes for any sales targeted to college students during finals. For example, if you run a Facebook ad that offers $10 off to students on a certain product, they shouldn’t have to go through 3 or 4 different pages after clicking on the ad. Instead, clicking on the ad should automatically land them on a checkout page with the product already in the cart. And checking out shouldn’t require setting up an account with a password and all the rest. Additionally, the pages on your site should be clear to read and easily navigable. Students are clicking on your ad while taking a quick break from studying, and they don’t want to go down a rabbit hole trying to take advantage of the promotion you’re offering. 18 | On-Campus Marketing to College Students www.collegemarketinggroup.com
Why Work With College
Marketing Group?
College Marketing Group is your one-stop shop for marketing to
college students. From on-campus experiential marketing and
location media to digital advertising, we do it all. Want to know
what CMG can bring to your college marketing strategy?
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