Students and television: the old verses the new

This article on students and TV was originally published in the book Targeting Students: A Marketing Guide (2005)

"Television as a stand alone medium is not actually a great way to reach students," says Jon Kingdon, creative director at SUBtv, the students' union TV network. "The majority of their day is spent at university, in the library, at lectures or in the union. When not there they are out at events or at the bar. If they're at home they're usually congregating at someone's house to watch a DVD or play computer games.

"What we've done with SUBtv is attempt to become part of the fabric of their lives, connecting with them through bespoke content."

SUBtv is a relatively new student media that sees plasma screens in 65 students' unions used to stream content into the bars, cafes and high footfall areas. All linked via broadband technology to a central hub, unions choose the content they wish to download. It's made a significant impact on the student media scene since its arrival in 2003 and has witnessed some innovative student-centric advertising campaigns from the likes of Ubisoft, mobile operator 3 and Sony Ericsson.

Peter Miles, managing director of SUBtv, believes mainstream television has lost its touch when it comes to the youth market. According to BARB (Broadcasters' Audience Research Board), ITV's coverage of 16 to 24 year-old males dropped by 17.2 per cent in 2004. It's because, says Miles, young people have better things to do than sit in front of the TV - and his relatively new media offering targets them in the environments they prefer to spend time.

He explains the background of SUBtv, why it has come about and how it aims to tap into the lifestyle and thinking of today's student: "Students comprise a large slice of the UK youth market, spending £13 billion a year. They no longer go to university with a tin opener and a few posters, but with electronic brands worth anything between £3,000 and £7,000 per person.

"Research by the Royal Bank of Scotland shows that students spend £940 million on alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks per year, £480 million on cigarettes, and similarly large sums on clothes, entertainment and electronic goods. A fifth of them get their own cars while at university. Yet reaching this desirable group is notoriously tough. You need to find media that are close to students both physically and emotionally.

"Students want to be in touch with what's going on 24 hours a day, for example through instant messaging on their PCs or text messages through their mobiles. And they demand flexibility and interactivity.

"The internet, which students increasingly get free through their broadband university networks, lets users select their content and interact directly with the medium. It allows them to feel emotionally linked to, and part of the media, rather than passive consumers of it.

"Our research shows that more than 30 per cent of students want to influence the content of student media on their campuses while 60 per cent would enter text-based promotions that allowed them to select music to be played in the bar.

"Given these characteristics, it is essential to take the media to the student, hence the increasing amount of media content on mobile devices, and the growth of out-of-home media in leisure venues such as bars, shopping malls and student campuses."

Creative director Jon Kingdon explains how this affects programming and how it is directed by student habits: "Students will turn off if the programming is not interesting or goes on too long. At SUBtv we keep everything short - three to four minutes - which allows it to exist in the student bar without disturbing the pace and atmosphere of that environment. A group of students can watch a short feature and it can become a discussion point rather than turning them into gawping zombies and destroying the social dynamics.

"Our programming is tuned into them and life at their university. On a Wednesday afternoon we know that the sports teams are out across the UK. We know that they will all be back in the evening to get lashed and celebrate or commiserate their results. We theme all the content on Wednesday nights so it's sports-related and run the day's results on tickertape so they can compare with other unis. This kind of programming has never been done before.

"We know what sort of programming students like because we hear from them all the time through text messaging. We know, for example, that in London and the south east students prefer hip hop and R'n'B music content, whereas students in the north prefer indie. This gets reflected in the content they receive. We draw on the talents of the student body to enhance programmes and we are keen to develop this area. We're trying to involve clients in the same way.

"The students' unions use the technology for their own marketing messages, which is a sure sign that it works as a media. They wouldn't use it if it wasn't getting through to students."

Although clearly a quite different television media compared to the likes of Channel 4 and, to a lesser extent, MTV, these are the youth brands that SUBtv seeks to compete with for advertising spend. Peter Miles says: "Prior to SUBtv I would argue there didn't exist a simple way of a media planner devising a student campaign on a national basis. We're trying to pull spend over from the big TV, cinema and poster budgets that are spent targeting mainstream youth. We can't survive on the paltry student marketing budgets that are assigned - we're working to convince clients that students are part of the youth audience they are looking for, but a much more easily
targetable part."

Meanwhile at Channel 4, Mike Parker, head of client and strategic sales, says he doesn't view students as a segment. To Channel 4, students merely make up a large part of the wider youth audience. Channel 4 may be the favourite TV station among students, but the channel has not found advertisers interested in targeting students especially. That said, the station's ongoing research does show differences between the two audiences that could interest some brands - NatWest, for example, who ran a TV ad campaign in 2004 to recruit student accounts.

Parker explains the differences between students and the wider youth audience as he sees it: "Students in full-time education make up 46% of 15 to 24 year-olds. The things that motivate and interest them are generally the same as all 15 to 24 year-olds and they watch the same amount of TV - the reach of TV over a four week period is 87% of the total youth market.

"If you look at the top youth programmes you've got the likes of Faking It, The OC and other easy viewing like Friends and the Simpsons. It's actually the same TV that comes out top among audiences overall. But when you look at programmes that have the highest student audiences it's often the intellectual comedies like Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Black Books and even Bremner Bird & Fortune, which might surprise some.

"Like the rest of youth, they tend to watch TV in the early evening and late at night. But then with students there are the oddities. Countdown on weekday afternoons has a very strong student following. T4 on a Sunday is very popular: it's hangover TV, easy viewing.

"Commissioning editors are always looking at research to guide programme-making, but I wouldn't pretend that Channel 4 pays attention to the student segment in its planning. I don't think they are an important segmented market for Channel 4, simply because the marketers haven't made it one.

"But my advice to anyone targeting students is that they aren't a homogenous group: engineers are different to geographers. They aren't radically different to youth generally either. But what does characterise them now as opposed to ten years ago is that they are incredibly ambitious about earning big salaries and getting good jobs. The old idea that students loll about being unfocused about their futures, is over now. They're certainly far more ambitious under Blair than they were under Thatcher; they want to own their own home, and a second property, and travel the world. They are far more materialistic nowadays.

Parker believes the youth audience is distinguishable from others by the sophistication of its media literacy: "Young people decode things very quickly. They are a generation that's grown up with soundbite culture, they like advertising that is smart, quick and clever, and they can be very cynical about celebrity. They get tired of ideas very quickly, and that is particularly true of celebrity. Peter Kaye in recent years has been a youth phenomenon but he will go, just like that, when he's seen as mainstream. Young people are very challenging and very media-literate.

"Despite claims to the contrary, they're not apathetic about current affairs either. They're very concerned about certain issues like ethics and environment, but they do feel detached from party politics."

On the subject of student research and new assumptions he is cautious: "Some of the findings on students you wonder about. Take the top student brands. The Guardian clearly positions itself as a popular student paper, but actually The Sun has far more student readers - probably five times as many. And research that shows students believe it's worth paying more for organic food is probably more about their attitude than their actual buying habits."

"Our research shows that young people like Channel 4 because it's seen as non-establishment. The BBC tone is always slightly establishment. The way they approach, for example, a history programme is very much 'this is how it happened', whereas with Channel 4 it is 'this is an opinion of what happened'. Channel 4 is about reflecting society, not making moral judgements."

Advertisers now have an extra choice: they can reach students through
televisual media outside of the home as well as inside it. But perhaps the bigger picture is not about where the media is located, but how it engages the student. SUBtv's Peter Miles is certain that the future will be brighter for those that embed themselves into the audience lifestyle: "Reach needs to be achieved in an emotional as well as physical way. This demands what I would call consensual media, which follows the lead of the internet and constructs an environment that provides choice and interactive flexibility for their audiences. For example, one leading bank teamed up with an ISP [internet service provider] to set up its own dedicated student website providing a range of advice, from finding a flatmate to planning a gap year.

"As these students become adults they will expect to maintain the same degree of control and flexibility that they experience with these consensual media. Other media will have to follow suit and build similarly powerful and interactive relationships with their audiences."