Creative communication with students

Article by Luke Mitchell
This article was a chapter in The Reach Students Handbook (2003)

"I went into student marketing," remembers Emily Dubberley, who founded the Student Press Association, "after I received a press release from a well-known drinks brand. It began 'Hey kids! There's a cool new drink on the streets'. I thought: someone got paid to write that? I can do student marketing better."

There are a number of streetwise words and phrases guaranteed to cause guffaws in a student media editor's office. 'Streetwise' is one of them. So is 'on the streets', which appeared in Dubberley's press release, and others include 'funky', 'cool' and, worst of all, 'digs'. Letting one of those slip can leave you looking like grandma at a Tatu gig.

Avoiding a few dated words isn't enough if you want to succeed communicating with students. There are no shortcuts or simple guides tocreating effective communications for the student market. You need to invest time getting into the student mindset.

Students are bombarded with information every day. The messages that have an impact are those that connect with what's in their head at that time."The best creative," says youth-market designer Patrick Lee, "is produced by those who really understand students. They're not necessarily students themselves, but they are people who read the same magazines as them, use the same websites, watch the same TV, know the bands they listen to and notice what makes them laugh…and what they hate.

"It's clear to me," says Lee, "that there are a lot of creative agencies out there who don't spend any time trying to keep up with students but, instead, just wing it. You spot them all the time. They're usually the ones who produce stuff involving kebabs and traffic cones. It's so lazy." Any credible organisation with a stake in the student market should be keeping track of student interests. It's not expensive - as some might think - and it doesn't necessarily mean employing theservices of some down-with-the-kids youth consultant.

Sharon Lougher, editor of the Time Out Student Guide, stays in close touch with what students think. As a result, the Student Guide is usually the most popular freebie given out in London universities' freshers' bags each year. Lougher meets up with students regularly to find out what's on their minds. It doesn't cost her more than the drinks bill. "We have a group of students," says Lougher, "that are affiliated to the marketing department. We hold monthly meetings with them to gather their feedback about what the student section of the community like and dislike, what works, what doesn't, what brands are seeping into theirconsciousness and why, and what issues are keeping them occupied or frustrated at uni.

"As you can imagine - it's immensely helpful for the Student Guide, as I can get feedback from them about the issues that they and their peers are concerned with, such as college mergers,voting in college elections, tuition fees etc. This is where a lot of the ideas come from." What for Lougher are informal, qualitative research meetings, are probably 'focus groups' to others. They're great for new ideas and getting up-to-speed on student issues, which change every year, but according to web maestro Mike Slocombe they should not be a big influence on creative output.

Slocombe, who runs activist website Urban75 and has designed for the likes of Virgin and Channel 4, believes focus groups are often used ineffectively. "They are all very well for some things, like testing the ergonomics of a product, but they're hopeless when it comes to making a creative decision. There is no point asking students, 'which colour do you prefer, red or blue?' because each one will have a their own personal preference." Instead, Slocombe advises businesses to concentrate on appointing quality talent to see through the creative process: "It's better to spend your energies simply creating something that is good!"But Slocombe has more of a problem with thosecreatives that attempt to treat students as ahomogenous group. Unlike gardeners or scientists or beekeepers, says Slocombe, students do not have identifiable interests. Yes, there are a few shared characteristics to do with their situation: many are away from home for the first time; by default they are intelligent; they are mainly young.

But when it comes to lifestyle interests the territory gets rocky. "Students are individuals," says Slocombe, "they are all different in so many ways. Art students are different to Engineering students. Some students think Nike trainers are great, others think they should be boycotted. Every college and university attracts different types of students."

Pursuit of the 'regular' student frequently trips up new businesses in the student market. 2002's high profile failure of the internet venture between ITM Communications and the National Union of Students was due, in part, to ITM's misunderstanding of the student audience. The company spent three years trying to create a website to appeal to the 3 million-strong student community, loading it with everything from recipes to music reviews and travel journalism. With funky orange styling and aniTV-ready platform the intention was for nusonline to be a one-stop shop for every student need. But students hated being clumsily lumped together in this way.

Since ITM went into administration last year NUS has reverted to running a website about the organisation's core interests - campaigns, welfare advice and discounts. It's now the most successful UK student website on the net, attracting large numbers of union officers and active students interested in the work of the movement. While it is every marketer’s instinct to segment young people into targetable tribes, research by the ROAR consortium confirms it's folly to do so nowadays. "Despite the popular belief that today's youth can be pigeonholed by theirchoices in fashion, music and pastimes," said a recent ROAR report, "[research] shows quite the contrary. Unlike previous generations thatfollowed a certain lifestyle (eg Mods or Rockers) as a way of identifying with their peer group, today's youth live in a pick'n'mix society where anything goes."

If stereotyping must take place, Emily Dubberley says creatives should look at the very basicconcerns of this tricky audience. "With students, there are certain things that work on a universal level. They are sex, beer and humour. If you can produce something with those three elements in you're onto a winner."

Mike Slocombe agrees: "A lot of the stereotypes about students are rubbish, and they should be avoided, but there are certain things most young people enjoy - like drinking - that of course can be used."

If creatives are able to recognise the issues,situations and emotions that unite all students, and apply them to a strong idea, successful communication can happen.

According to ROAR, two out of three of today's15-24-year-olds are motivated by the notion of creativity. They appreciate originality. Organisations that understand students and impress them through original thinking will succeed.

Lazy creatives beware: your work is under closer scrutiny than you thought.