Marketing that cuts through to students

Article by Luke Mitchell, Reach Students. Originally published in the book Targeting Students: A Marketing Guide (2005).

In January 2005, Reach Students commissioned the student market research specialists Opinionpanel to find out which marketing campaigns had made the biggest impact on campuses last year. Just over a thousand students from nearly all UK universities were asked what campaign they remembered, whether they liked or disliked it (or had no strong feelings) and whether they had any comments or observations to make. The survey was hosted on Opinionpanel's fortnightly Online Student Omnibus Survey. The results were predictably diverse and required careful analysis to find trends and themes, but there were patterns to be found and they were significant.

From the thousand students polled 196 unique campaigns were mentioned. In many cases specific brands and their marketing were mentioned, but sometimes the answers were generic ("cheap drinks"; "insurance"). 16% of the results fell under three categories: students said they most noticed advertising for "clubs or bars", "students' union events" or "alcohol".

One statistic leapt out immediately: 20% of students said they hadn't noticed any advertising around them at all. They could not remember one particular marketing campaign.

Even if what respondents really meant was they weren't noticing ads or promotions worth mentioning, this is a grim outlook for those desperate to capture students' attention, and it lends credibility to the argument that students are a difficult audience to engage. In a market that is saturated with advertising, from posters in the urinals and plasma screens in the bars, to screensavers on the library computer and leaflets under doors, as well as promotional teams on campuses every month handing out freebies, it is remarkable that a fifth of the audience isn't, apparently, seeing any of it.

Top ten brands
But what brands are getting noticed on campuses this year? How are they cutting through and what can others learn from them? The ten brands most mentioned by students were:

1 Endsleigh
2 Red Bull
3 Barclaycard
4 Malibu
5 Barclays Bank
6 NatWest
7 The Guardian
8 NUS
9 Orange
10 STA Travel

All these names, with the exception of Malibu, have a record of long term, relatively heavy investment in student marketing. They have all spent time creating the marketing mix that suits their products, and they all make use of a number of different channels. The white elephant however is NUS (National Union of Students), an organisation of union affiliates that doesn't really market to students as such; students who answered "NUS" are more likely referring to the marketing of their local students' union - bar promos, welfare campaigns, club events etc. That said, the NUS brand, although somewhat damaged in recent years, undoubtedly retains strong recognition among the student cohort, even if many are unsure what it stands for.

What makes Endsleigh the most recalled brand name so far this year among students? Disappointingly there's no secret or shock explaining their achievements; it's based on long term investment and hard work. Stuart Wartalski of the company says: "Endsleigh has been the official insurance service for NUS since 1965 and during this time the brand has become synonymous amongst students and their parents. We pride ourselves in offering products that are tailor-made for students including car insurance, travel cover as well as possessions insurance.

"For the past 20 years or so we have repositioned our brand and developed our product range so that graduates continue to use Endsleigh throughout their careers. 80% of our clients are now career people, whilst at the same time we insure more students than ever.

"Endsleigh ran its usual freshers campaign in September and October 2004. Our activity has been fine-tuned over the past 40 years and includes every conceivable marketing channel. Having 500 sales staff around the country is the real key to our success. They are able to negotiate significant marketing packages with universities and students' unions. Of course the campus branches themselves play a vital role, not just at freshers but all year round."

The Malibu factor
The presence of Malibu provides a fascinating suggestion as to the source of success for the other top brands mentioned. Malibu are new to the student market. Their campaign, Shake It Like Shaggy, was a high profile piece of experiential marketing that saw a 35 foot inflatable Shaggy (the Jamaican singer who promotes the rum drink) tour the UK's biggest universities by night, encouraging students to compete to see who had the best dance moves. Free Malibu-and-cranberry mixers were served to all who took part. It was a campaign with strong pre-event publicity, which was effectively delivered and enjoyed, and then fondly remembered by students. It created a buzz.

Students who mentioned this campaign as the one they most remembered (they represented a variety of universities) were likely to also make
comments about it: "It was appealing, amusing and I like the drink" said one. "Because it was fun" said another. ""Free stuff, good product, unique style of promotion" said another. 'Fun' was a word often used.

Matt Williams of NUS Ents, the entertainments arm of NUS which delivered Malibu's student campaign, provides some further insight:

"Malibu's extensive activity on campuses over the last year provides a fascinating example of successfully using a sophisticated experiential marketing campaign to build a strong relationship with consumers and position the brand's values.

"Over the last two years Allied Domecq [the owner of the Malibu brand] has undertaken a massive campaign to change the perception of the Malibu brand amongst the youth market and encourage reconsideration and new consideration. Core to this activity has been their work within the student market, after Allied Domecq identified this area was key to success.

"Why did they target the student market? Firstly, because it is full of 18 to 21 year-olds - their target audience. Secondly, the student environment allows a brand to own nights in what is a relatively closed, captive audience - and provides the opportunity to reach large audiences of between 500 to 2500 in one night. Thirdly, NUS venues are actively looking to work in partnership with brands to deliver great nights that increase sales, getting fully behind promotions giving best value to brands.

"Allied Domecq and their advertising agency worked closely with NUS Ents/Making Waves, and in consultation with NUS Services and the Portman Group, to design a campaign that would work within the student environment while harnessing relevant aspects from the Malibu global tool kit. Key to this was the use of worldwide pop star Shaggy, who as Malibu's global brand ambassador embodies the brand values of 'Seriously Easy Going'. Finally, following research that showed Malibu and Coke was often considered too sweet, every serving delivered was a more refreshing mix with cranberry, ice and a slice of lime.

"In 2004 the Malibu 'Seriously Easy' campaign took place at 71 universities, consisting of 143 events and had an estimated reach of 568,000 students. Phase one was called Malibu 'Noise' Activity. During the week leading up to the parties, 10 of the largest unions were visited by a 35 foot inflatable Shaggy, that's 4 stories high!, ably assisted by a team of Bo' Selecta!-style Shaggies handing out Shaggy masks promoting the events and an online competition to win a "Seriously Easy Grand'.

"In phase two, students' unions were transformed into 'Seriously Easy Parties'. After being greeted by Malibu promotional staff, students passed through the 'Seriously Easy Going O'Meter'. If 'Seriously Easy Going' enough they were immediately given Malibu VIP passes entitling them to one free and one half price Malibu and cranberry - as well as stick-on Shaggy beards! If the buzzer went off, promotional staff asked tongue-in-cheek questions to check the 'Seriously Easy Going-ness' of students, and then gave them their VIP pass.

"Once inside, Malibu and cranberry flowed from a fast-track bar and the venues and bars were branded as 'Malibu world'. Crowd interaction was key. DJ shout-outs announced games including promotional staff taking pictures of customers with Shaggy (cardboard cut-outs that is) as well as inviting students to 'Shake It Like Shaggy' to win prizes including Malibu coconut lip balm and exclusive Shaggy CDs.

"In phase three, to increase awareness of the events, a comprehensive media campaign was carried out across 75 student publications with a readership of 738,000.

"Phase four saw Malibu post-event activity take place. Immediately following the events a scratchcard promotion began, with prizes ranging from Malibu flip flops and t-shirts and a life-size cardboard 'Shaggy' to a £1000 shopping spree at Topshop.

"The results saw 82,474 students sampled. 35,934 students bought a half price drink; Malibu experienced 9% growth following the beginning of the activity and is now the third biggest brand in the student spirits market, challenging Jack Daniels [NUSSL figures].

"HPI cardinal, the independent research agency, said: 'Of all promotions on campus Malibu had the highest spontaneous recall. 75% of the attendees knew the night was going to take place before attending. 90% of students rated the events excellent, very good or good and 70% of students recognised that Malibu was the brand 'for people who know not to take life too seriously'. 38% of those who attended concluded they were much more likely or more likely to drink Malibu."

Why is field marketing better remembered?
Looking again at the top student brands listed, you realise that field, event or 'experiential' marketing forms an important part of all their approaches. These brands all take their products out to the students and attempt to engage their interest face-to-face. Red Bull use similar tasting events to Malibu. Endsleigh and STA are stalwarts of the freshers fair. Barclaycard are on the road up and down the UK all year round, signing up students for accounts and offering incentives. The Guardian and Orange are innovative and often change their strategies, yet they generally include a field element. The banks, Barclays and NatWest, are also regulars on the freshers circuit - though NatWest is generally considered to have a higher profile than Barclays in the student market and it is likely that many of those referring to Barclays actually meant Barclaycard, a far more ubiquitous brand in student marketing.

It would be short-sighted though to assume that field, event or experiential marketing is essential to a brand's success with students - what also unites the top ten names is the fact that they all spend relatively highly on student marketing. But it can obviously play an important role when it comes to brand recall, and the relentless touring of these heavyweight student brands suggests that they have realised this through years of investment.

In some instances this form of marketing may be the difference between making the top ten and missing it. Orange, one of the first into the student market with its music tours and, later, high brow debates, has certainly lost ground since competitors joined them with their own on-campus activities. It has suffered a 9% loss of student custom between Summer 2003 and Spring 2004 according to research by SUBtv/Social Research Associates, conceding the position of favourite student mobile network brand to O2.

Why does face-to-face marketing seem to resonate so strongly among students?
Job Muscroft, a director at student marketing firm Face, says: "Because it's the most personal media channel. It enables brands to engage with students on a one-to-one basis with truly interactive campaigns, where students can experience both the product and brand values of the company first hand and receive immediate feedback to their questions."

It's not only popular with clients because it works with the audience, says Muscroft. "It can also be used to fulfil a range of marketing objectives by all brands that have a quality product that is relevant to students' lifestyles. For example our clients include high street banks that need to sign up new customers, mobile networks that have created music events to increase brand awareness and demonstrate new handsets, and newspaper and drinks companies that sample their products to drive sales growth in conjunction with student price promotions."

Muscroft's tip for making this type of marketing work is to focus on the quality of the message delivered on the day, in the field: "In our experience the brands that get the most out of these types of campaigns are those that are prepared to invest in tailoring their creative and consumer proposition to make it relevant to the student market and those who focus on making their face-to-face campaigns as interactive as possible."

Later in this book Chris Johnstone of the Campus Group, which has run campus events for the likes of O2 and The Times, explains the fundamentals of working with students in the campus environment.

Red Bull still has wings
The continued high profile of Red Bull, a brand operating in a particularly fickle drinks market, seven years after it launched, is remarkable.

Students in the research volunteered comments such as "Fun", "Fun and unusual - made you ask what was going on", "Unique" and "Impressive design on minis" when explaining why they remembered Red Bull marketing before all others.

Elsewhere in this chapter (see page 25) Tony Harbron, who came up with the much-imitated student brand manager idea in 1997 and used it to successfully launch a flagging Red Bull, explains the birth and development of that unique marketing channel.

What students liked and disliked
Of the students asked what campaign they had most noticed, 31% liked the campaign mentioned, 9% disliked it, and 60% said they had no strong feelings. A total of 375 students (38% of the sample) volunteered additional information about the reason for their choice.

Among those that had positive comments to make, the words that most often appeared were: fun or funny (or similar eg amusing); informative; clever; and bright or colourful. The words most often occurring in negative comments included: annoying, pushy, aggressive or intrusive. Most of the negative comments were directed towards those promoting financial services; the ever awkward relationship between students and debt, and the increasing need of students to seek financial services in order to survive their studies, is bound to create tension.

Precise use of humour was clearly the winning factor for many campaigns. Those with serious messages to communicate might have assumed they faced a harder challenge, yet the research showed that public information does get through and even gets recalled first (7% of students questioned remembered public information campaigns above all others). Campaigns that struck a chord included safe sex cautions, mumps vaccine awareness, drinks spiking warnings, anti-smoking initiatives and requests to give blood. Marketing that offered careers advice was also popularly mentioned.

What makes a top student brand?
In the book preceding Targeting Students, the Reach Students Handbook, we published a list of the top ten students brands. The list was based on the opinion of those working in the market: brands that communicate their message precisely; brands that invest in the right media at the right times; brands that students talk about; brands that are prepared to invest money and energy to get results. It was an unscientific poll, yet six of those that featured also appear in this more methodical top ten: Orange, The Guardian, STA Travel, Barclaycard, NatWest and Red Bull. Students and student marketers are recognising the same brands as successful. Tellingly, the brands on both student marketing lists have good budgets; no brand slips in through the back door.

So what campaigns did students refer to? In the case of Orange, it seems that - once again - it was the on-campus activity that stuck in the minds of students. Most comments referred to a wallet giveaway promotion: "I found the promotional material handed to me useful, as the wallet previously holding my ID had broken"; "Because they gave us free wallets"; "Free stuff". There were also positive comments about use of humour in Orange ad campaigns: "Comedy content"; "The characters were funny and likeable - made me look"; "Funny".

Sheraz Dar, Senior Acquisition Manager at Orange, provides an insight into the brand's approach: "What we try and do is give something to students without there being any catch involved. We don't approach them wanting to sell them something, we want to create a relationship so that next time they decide to buy a phone they will have empathy with our brand and think of Orange.

"We put on music events with artists who students can relate to. We will have examples of our technology on display at the events for students to find out about, but we won't have sales staff there trying to sign up new customers. The students have come out for a good time and we want to help them enjoy themselves; they won't change their mobile on the night - it doesn't work like that - but they should go away feeling positive about the brand.

"We don't want to put on an event that students really look forward to and then spoil it for them by selling."

Orange talks to students, no strings attached. When the student is ready to buy, Orange ensures the products they need are there. "You do have to back up your marketing with a product that students actually want," says Dar. "It's not all about creating awareness and empathy, it's also about making sure you offer the right product and services. Today the phone is more than something for making calls on.

“Many people don't wear a watch because they have the time on their phone. Mobile phones are for texting, for sending pictures, for getting information. New services are joining the list all the time. Students readily adopt and want to engage with these services, so long as they find them useful. We deliver products that students want."

Meanwhile over at The Guardian, the marketing ethos is grounded in the newspaper's liberal agenda. Marc Sands, marketing director, explains: "In my view it would be a disappointing and scary world if everybody only read either the Telegraph or the Mail. The Guardian has a remit about reach and influence, we're about ensuring a more progressive, liberal perspective is conveyed to as wide an audience as possible.

"Newspapers clearly have a role in shaping opinion. The point at which a person leaves home and goes to college is a period when they are at their most influential and influenceable. It's a time when they make decisions that are key, some of which stick with them for many, many years. So there is a window when people are making massive decisions. Students are an audience to whom our message should be receptive.

"From an ideological perspective, it's crucial that the student audience is open to the message of the Guardian, even if they choose not to adopt it."

The Guardian relied for several years on a student brand manager programme to deliver results on campus. Student sales eventually started to drop, but it seems a fresh approach (the scheme has been dropped in favour of a unique 'Guardian Student' newspaper, available at students' unions) has stimulated interest. Student comments on Guardian marketing included: "It was interesting, informative and not patronising"; "It was a free, decent paper"; "It is informative but not pushy"; "Well represented, offer cheaper newspaper"; "It was clever".

At STA Travel, PR manager Louise Clark summarises the leading student travel agent's approach very simply: "We're young at heart." Students in the survey said about STA marketing: "It offered deals that appealed to me in a fun, young and vibrant way"; "I love travelling so it allowed me to see what is out there"; "I just don't mind [their] advertising".

"We are one of the biggest investors in student media," says Clark. Indeed, it often seems that wherever there is a student-orientated publication, event or promotion there is an STA presence. "We'll be at 150 freshers fairs this year. We'll be running Student Travel Week again - that's a solely student-focused promotion that we promote heavily through student media. And I will be offering some more press trips - I took six student media editors to Brussels recently. I should get six articles out of that."

Few marketers would think to take a group of student journalists on a European jolly. Although things are changing, they too often expect to satisfy student media with the scrappiest of scraps. The only exception is in music plugging where it is common for student journalists to be offered one-to-one interviews with high-profile acts and receive advance CDs at the same time as the regular music hacks. STA's enlightened take on student market PR - essentially treating student media with respect - brings them rewards.

The company employs two staff to look after relationships with student media. The staff deal directly with editors and union marketing managers every day and ensure at least one press release is sent to them every week. This direct contact is appreciated by student media, as is - obviously - the large amount of money being driven into the union. An investment in student media is also a donation. It pays for more pages, better resources and training courses. The majority of student media is union-run, meaning they are non profit-making.

Have a long-term strategy
"If you're looking for a quick win," says Sheraz Dar of Orange, "it may not work. Brands that are popular with students have normally had a dialogue with them for some time."

It is a peculiar phenomenon. If any market could provide a quick win, the student market should be it. After all, almost a third of its customer base is replenished every year with fresh imports. In the space of three years the entire student audience has changed. But no, brands that have taken a short-term approach to student marketing have consistently suffered, while those that invest year-on-year have reaped the benefits. The results of this survey prove that.

While students move on after three or four years, the marketing produced for them leaves a legacy. University and students' union personnel - who don't necessarily move on so quickly - are still on campus remembering, for example, the Orange Student Tour or the STA stand at freshers fair. The profile of those brands remains high among the people who run services for students. When Orange turns up to do an event, staff welcome them back. When STA arrives at freshers fairs, new students have been briefed by those who were there last year that the stall is not to be missed. The brands are familiar and everyone on campus is comfortable with them.

Brands that have operated in the student market for a long time have learnt lessons. They have got their marketing down to a fine art. The success of Orange, The Guardian and STA has no doubt come from many years of evaluation. This is certainly the case for The Guardian and STA who, between them, have over 50 years experience marketing to students. Nat West, also on the list of remembered campaigns, has been targeting students seriously since the 1970s.

Understanding of audience
"Students prefer to discover things for themselves," reveals Sheraz Dar. "Be it TV programmes, be it bands, be it the first time they choose a mobile phone, if you try too hard to overtly target them they will look at you and think 'You are overtly targeting me'. They won't like that - they'll look for a brand that's cooler.

"Students are very sharp, very marketing savvy. There's a fine line between engaging with them and appearing to try too hard."

At STA they have used their knowledge of the changing student
demographic to shape the direction of their business. "We're doing packages now," says Louise Clark, "which is revolutionary. We're also offering Global Clubber - trips to the clubbing capitals with discounted entry to the famous clubs. We have to think more widely. Students are so savvy, they've got so much choice. The research we've done shows that students take one independent and one package a year, plus a city break. We have to provide for all their travel needs."

The Guardian's Marc Sands explains the main reason today's students are different: "By the time a student is half way through their second year they're starting to think about what they might do when they finish. It's a fundamental change. When higher education was funded by the state you had time to luxuriate in your student life and get severely into the subject you were studying. If you're being asked to pay such a lot more for education, I think it radically alters why you choose to go to university and what you do when you're there."

Red Bull - a student success story
Tony Harbron of Campus Media explains how Red Bull exploded into the student scene and gave life to a flagging brand

The first launch of Red Bull in the UK in 1996 was a bit of a pig's ear. The brand had achieved considerable success in Europe - specifically Austria, from where it originated - but the UK market just didn't get it to start with. We had Lucozade thank you very much; that was the only 'energy' drink we needed and nobody understood that Red Bull was a different type of product with a different functional difference.

The original advertising campaign, which featured the ubiquitous Chris Evans, didn't articulate what Red Bull was exactly, and consumers were confused. Also the drink was listed originally in supermarkets where there is great commercial pressure - if you don't fly off the shelves it isn't long before you lose your space. For a product all about giving you a mental and physical boost quickly when you need it, this was completely the wrong environment to launch into.

Red Bull were in trouble and they recruited Harry Drnec, who had been behind the Sol phenomenon [the bottled Mexican lager that was hugely popular in the late Eighties and early Nineties, served with a slice of lime]. Harry was an associate of mine and he asked if I could help. I was a brand strategist.

We believed the European success could be matched in the UK - after all, the promise of quick boost has universal appeal - but to do so we really needed to start the whole process again. Changes were made at every level to communicate what the brand offered functionally, get it into the right kind of distribution, and build the same brand positioning that was being developed in other markets. One fundamental change we made was adding the word 'stimulation' to the name rather than 'energy'. It became 'Red Bull stimulation' and suddenly that said a lot more about what the drink was about and instantly people (especially the trade) started to get the
difference between Red Bull and Lucozade. We recognised that there were two roles for the drink in terms of its relationship with consumers: the role as an energy drink, providing a sugar and caffeine boost when needed; and
the role as a stimulating drink when mixed with a spirit. We built
distribtution in places people would be able to get a cold Red Bull when they needed it including petrol stations, newsagents, clubs and late night convenience stores. And we identified some core consumer groups we thought were ideal targets for the brand including drivers, athletes, commuters, clubbers and students.

We were convinced that students could become a new core audience for Red Bull marketing to complement their 'work hard, play hard' lifestyle. We realised that in order to spread the word it was absolutely essential that we worked with insiders - the brightest, most influential students who could become ambassadors and brand champions for Red Bull within their individual university communities. Our vision was to get together some young marketers who were interested in getting involved in the spirit of the brand, who could help us build an understanding of Red Bull and spread its imagery. At the time this idea had never been considered before and we had no idea if it would work. But, to the credit of Red Bull, the senior
management all the way up to owner Dietrich Mateschitz showed complete faith and backed us on the strength of our gut feeling.

We developed a job description for these brand champions, who we named 'student brand managers'. They would be responsible for building awareness on campus, informing us of student opinion and changing attitudes, improving visibility of the brand, which included talking to outlets and offering them merchandising, and identifying potential new outlets. They would run focus groups and deliver a report of their experiences.

Our idea of a student brand manager was, and still is, someone who will build the brand intelligently. This is not someone who simply puts up posters and hands out flyers - that is straightforward promotion, and when we offer that service to clients we call it that. Our idea of brand managers sees the student get completely involved in the marketing experience, which includes getting the kick backs as well as the successes. It is a relationship of shared investment. In the case of Red Bull, we took a team of students to Austria to learn about the work and see the brand as a success before they began their commissions.

The Red Bull scheme turned the drink into a phenomenon. It's incredible that the brand is still achieving the same recognition and success six years later, and as far as I know the scheme that Red Bull run is still centred on the same principles that we founded it on.

After Red Bull I went on with my business partner to create Get Real!, offering similar schemes to all sorts of brands. We are now part of the Campus Media group.

Brand manager schemes have become huge as everyone has sought to tap into that success, but they have also become quite hard-nosed, with clients sometimes perhaps a little too focused just on measurable results at the expense of some of the amazing but less tangible benefits the programmes can achieve. We find that those who relax and concentrate more on brand perception get far better results. Our current client, Jack Daniels, has much the same holistic and open-minded attitude that Red Bull had and they are doing some fantastic work using student brand managers and getting superb results. They run taster nights and PR events where student opinion formers are invited to an 'Evening with Jack', as well as conducting research, monitoring trends and running promotions in the off-trade. Jack Daniels have integrated the student brand manager programme fully into their wider brand marketing activity and are reaping the benefits, while the student brand managers involved are all entitled to submit their work to the Chartered Institute of Marketing for a career development award.

There are lots of schemes run now on UK campuses, but it doesn't matter how many there are, it's about how well you run your programme and what you do with it. They are difficult things to co-ordinate and require a lot of time and sensitivity. In our opinion, the programmes have to be developed to create a 'win-win' scenario for all parties involved, including the wider student community as well as the brand managers and the clients. You have to bear in mind the role of the students that work for you too - this is not the most important thing in their lives - and offer flexibility around their other commitments. There are lots of factors to consider and you only succeed when you judge them all correctly. But everything I've seen since that original Red Bull programme has reinforced the understanding that if you want to carry out marketing activity in 20, 30 or 40 student locations you need someone who is a real part of your team to provide intelligence, monitor it or carry it out and report back the results. Someone who is completely committed to what you want to achieve. I would never do any activity on a campus without such an available contact.