Care to Engage Caffeinated Collegiates? Experiential Marketing for the “Non-Fat, White Moccachino” Generation
The newest buzz in marketing is experiential marketing. While many define it as tapping the senses through a variety of marketing tactics, we know it’s more than that. It is about creating a true emotional connection between your customer and your brand. Having worked with college students for more than a decade, we know what makes them tick. Below, we share what we’ve learned about experiential marketing to college students.
The best way to make a lasting connection with consumers is to create a positive, engaging experience with your brand, product or service. Literally thinking out of the box, stepping off the internet screen, coming out of the magazine, jumping out of the radio — and making consumers feel these experiences — is what experiential marketing is all about.
With the 18-24 year old market, this is especially important. Marketing to 18-24 year olds is more challenging today than it has ever been. Why? Because these young consumers are far savvier than previous generations. The upside is greater, because these consumers wield greater spending power.
But the risk is also greater, because any negative interaction with a brand, including a failed campaign, can send you reeling backwards. 18-24 year old consumers are more skeptical of traditional advertising and marketing. (And yes, for this wired group, online advertising is as traditional — read, blah — as say, a cup of black coffee.) When you have a “non-fat-low-whip-white-chocolate-no-froth-mochaccino” mentality, anything less just won’t do.
The collegiate market: 17 million
You’ve heard these stats before, but they are worth repeating: there are 17 million college students. 18-24 year olds make high-impact purchasing decisions and can become consumers of your brand — or your competitors’ —- for life. Add to this the fact that their spending power is on the way up, and you face a tremendous market opportunity. As proof of this last point, Experience, Inc. research shows that college graduates with 3 years or more of work experience have an average annual income of over $90,000 and an average discretionary spend of more than $400 per month (1).
So, if you’re not already, you should be getting into the action. Either through national campaigns that reach the senses and get to the hearts of college students, or by selecting certain geographies, tapping the college student market will help grow your business.
Now, how?
A 2005 survey by Jack Morton Worldwide showed that 72% of 18- to 23-year old consumers say experiential marketing would make them more receptive to the brand/product advertising and 59% say it would lead to quicker purchases.
If experiential marketing works, is your job done? No, while it sounds easy, it’s not. The fact is that 18-24 year olds are a highly elusive demographic that can change their mind on a whim. Even the slightest negative experience (or simply hearing of a friend’s bad experience) can ruin a campaign.
The good news is that through creative campaigns that capture the attention and hearts of these consumers, you can create brand loyalty among college students and influence their purchasing decisions for a lifetime.
What works? Positive, dynamic experiences with a purpose
How can you create experiential marketing programs that trigger brand loyalty with college students and recent graduates? Present your brand, products or services in the context of entertainment and education rather than a traditional sales pitch.
For example, if you sell wash cloths you can host an online contest for college students to submit a stories about their favorite wash cloth, place ads for your wash cloths next to articles about home and dorm décor, host on-campus/mall-based events where students bring their oldest/favorite wash cloth and trade it in for new ones, or even cash prizes, etc. OK, so you don’t sell wash cloths: the point is that product sampling, traditional broadcast, print and banner ads are no longer sufficient for this demographic.
Reader Comments.
No comments yet
Leave a Comment
Pages: 1 2 next page »
Tags: case_study, college_students and demographicsArticle Sponsor
More Features
-
Loading ...
Latest News
- Twitter Knows Where I Am; Gulp March 12th 2010 ADOTAS – I log in to Twitter to share with [...] more »
- WWN Has a Stopwatch on Ad Visibility March 12th 2010 ADOTAS – Considering how much time people spend online, why [...] more »
- Jumptap Offers Self Service Lane March 12th 2010 ADOTAS – Possibly inspired by those neat-o self checkout lanes [...] more »
- AdPix Barges Into the In-Image Market March 12th 2010 ADOTAS – Watch out, Image Space Media — there’s a [...] more »
- Got Funds? Todacell Scores a Cool Million March 11th 2010 ADOTAS – After securing $1 million last summer, Todacell has [...] more »
- A Custom Postcard Thanks to Your Favorite Brand March 11th 2010 ADOTAS – Handwritten letters may have been trounced in the [...] more »
- Display, but Nothing Else, Hops on YouTube Mobile Site March 11th 2010 ADOTAS – Google has officially opened the gate to display [...] more »
Features
- Amazon Leaves Colorado Affiliates Out in the Cold March 12th 2010
- Secret Salsa Recipe: The Best Digital Marketing Mix March 11th 2010
- The Basics of Brand Protection March 10th 2010
- Agencies: Working Hard or Hardly Working? March 9th 2010
- Why Big Brands Will Love the iPad March 8th 2010
Spotlight
AdBidCentral’s CEO, Vivek Veeraraghavan Talks Openly*What was the inspiration to start AdBidCentral? The conditions that inspired AdBidCentral came from a variety of factors in my personal [...] more...
Reader Favorites
Classifieds
- Sr Director, Marketing Services
- Senior Web Analyst
- Account Director
- Director of Analytics
- Manager, Business and Trade Media Relations
Recent Comments
- Bulent: I wonder how many of the clients would accept a media plan, that would -as
- Nickster: How about we just vote out all of these socialist big government politicians and take
- BWB: Why doesn't the legislation target the affiliates directly? Colorado based affiliates are perfectly positioned
- canoe: The law never keeps up with technology but in this case the law already is
