Building Buzz on Campus
Posted by anastasia on 10-25-2005
Last week I visited the University of Georgia — it’s a huge state school with a sprawling campus in Athens. I was speaking to the undergrad broadcast club about the opportunity to submit their work to Current TV. They were a tough room — quiet, unquestioning, perhaps a bit cynical, processing what I was telling them. I asked them why they didn’t have more questions for me. “Come on — you guys are college students, you must have some tough questions.” One of the young women basically told me, “we’re marketed to all the time.” I realized many, many company “reps” had stood in my place before and as a result, this crowd was slightly non-plussed and very cautious about what I was telling them. I still think I might have won them over and even coaxed out some questions — I guess the truth will be in the video uploads.
Since most marketers realize they have worn out their welcome or administrations have effectively kept them off campus, peer-to-peer marketing has become all the rage at school. For Current, that would mean having “campus reps” who go around and spread the word, hold viewing parties, etc. Best case scenario would be having students who have had a piece air on the network give their own testimonial.
The Boston Globe, reg. required, just did a story about peer-to-peer marketing happening all over the college capital of the northeast. From the article:
“In an age when the college demographic is no longer easily reached via television, radio, or newspapers — as TiVo, satellite radio, iPods, and the Internet crowd out the traditional advertising venues — a microindustry of campus marketing has emerged. Niche firms have sprung to act as recruiters of students, who then market products on campus for companies such as Microsoft, JetBlue Airways, The Cartoon Network, and Victoria’s Secret.
‘There is a paradigm shift in the way that corporations are marketing to college students,” said Matt Britton, a managing partner of Mr. Youth, a New York-based firm that specializes in college student marketing. ‘The student ambassador tactic embraces all the elements that corporations find most effective: It’s peer-to-peer, it’s word of mouth, it’s flexible, and it breaks through the clutter of other media. For all that, it’s growing very quickly.’”
Categorized under: Collegians