Luke Mitchell, Managing Consultant

Reach Students was founded in 2002 by Luke Mitchell, a former content developer at the headquarters of the National Union of Students.

Luke saw a need for honest, independent guidance for businesses and organisations interested in marketing their products and ideas to students.

For too long fly-by-night agencies and unscrupulous marketers had been exploiting the unique, hermetic nature of the student marketing environment by portraying themselves as THE route to students.

Complicated issues that govern success in the sector needed to be explained in the open.

Creatives lacked understanding of modern student attitude and too often resorted to cliches and stereotypes.

And organisations that had been following the same schedule of activities year-on-year had lost touch with the sheer range and potential of opportunities available to them today.

Early days
Reach began as a website and newsletter offering no-nonsense advice on student marketing. We monitored changes in the market and reported new trends, habits and research.

The response was astonishing, with hundreds signing up to the free newsletter and messages of praise and support coming in from those inside and outside of the student marketing sector.

It wasn't long before Luke was being regularly asked to visit businesses and find ways they could increase their success with students. A major commission from a government body followed and the Reach Students consultancy was born.

Serious business
Since then we have grown to employ associate consultants, implementation staff and partners. We have worked for a diverse range of clients in a manner that has been completely bespoke to their needs: we've researched campaigns, planned them, created them and run them on campuses across the UK.

We've introduced new brands to the student market and helped long-standing ones get better results.

Our success comes from our objectivity, experience and knowledge.

We only recommend routes that are precisely suited to our clients' needs and we draw on years of experience at the frontline, working, talking and understanding students and the marketing arena.

And we conduct and publish our own research, as well as other editorial products, to stay ahead of a fast-changing market and encourage a wider view.

Today
The student marketing environment has changed radically in a very short period of time. Fundamental developments - namely the growth of digital as a credible, exclusive alternative for all student marketing - led us to commit 100 per cent to digital strategies in 2006.

We are now the UK's only student marketing consultancy entirely focussed on creating and delivering successful student campaigns through digital channels. And we're very excited about it.

There is a new frontier in student marketing and we're delighted to be there at the frontline, delivering results that were unthinkable only a few years ago and searching for the boundaries to be pushed.

So that's our story so far.

If you like what you've read, get in touch and tell us yours.