Book Smarts

Forget cool. Candid works better.

A recent survey conducted by YouthStream Media Networks found that 90 percent of college students consider “honesty” to be extremely important in a marketer. Only 31 percent of respondents gave any weight to marketing messages and imagery designed for “coolness/edginess,” and just six percent admitted to being influenced by celebrity endorsements.

Today’s young adults know the marketing score better than their predecessors. “College students realize that Dave Matthews isn’t coming on campus unless there’s a banner with some telco’s name behind him,” says Dennis Roche, president of YouthStream, New York City. “They’ll accept it as long as you don’t try to hide it.”

There currently are more than 15 million college students in the U.S. with a combined buying power of $60 billion, according to Ridgewood, NJ-based Student Monitor. The figure doesn’t address the buying power that they’ll have after graduation, but that’s what’s prompting marketers of all types to upgrade their on-campus efforts.

“We find the college market attractive because it provides us with an opportunity to develop a customer relationship early on, with the hopes that this will continue well beyond graduation,” says Brian Zibuda, national account executive at Liberty Mutual, Boston. The insurance company offers special student rates on automobile and renter’s insurance.

“This isn’t really a new market for us, but we never before had a youth group specifically dedicated to this work,” says Katherine Zhang, youth marketing and sales manager for General Motors, Warren, MI.

“In the past, we just offered random youth airfare,” says Jim O’Neal, manager of marketing partnerships and programs for US Airways, Arlington, VA. “We didn’t really have anything comprehensive, but wanted to enhance our place in the student market.” Today, the airline makes exclusive offers to co-eds.

But don’t make the mistake of thinking that the work is finished once you find an offer appealing to any 17- to 24-year-old. “One of the biggest differences in the last year and a half is that [college marketing] has moved to segmentation, rather than just throwing money at a random audience,” says Derek White, general manager of teen specialist 360 Youth, Cranbury, NJ.

“College students really aren’t a community. They’re too diverse,” explains Elaine Burn, owner of Target Market Consulting, Gwinn, MI. “They only share a geographic similarity. You can’t pigeon-hole this demographic.”

“We segment by interest, not by demographic,” concurs Linda Pesonen, marketing director for General Motors’ Pontiac Vibe brand.

“This demographic is a little bit jaded,” adds Suzanne Grimes, vp-publisher of Conde Nast’s Glamour, which runs a Glamour on Campus tour in conjunction with campus TV outfit College Television Network, Atlanta. “They’ve got a lot going on, so you really have to go above and beyond to make an impression.”

Good Vibrations

US Airways has been working with Student Advantage, a Boston-based loyalty program with five million members. The airline offers members access to its E-Savers program, which offers discount fares for short trips (four days or less) that begin on a Saturday. It also is exploring partnerships with entertainment and vacation venues that would provide such travel hooks as a quick trip to a music concert in a neighboring state. “More than any other group, college students have the willingness and the flexibility to do some pretty funky things for a good airfare,” says O’Neal.

Pontiac Vibe has been pumping the market heavily over the past year. “Integrating an event with online and offline support is more important for getting horsepower out of a promotion than nailing down a specific sub-segment,” says Pesonen.

The plan has included a contest in which film students at UCLA produced a promotional film for the brand’s launch; an online Color Your Vibe program that asked students to submit ideas (which is why the car comes in “salsa,” not red); an event tour as sponsor of the Student Advantage FanFest tailgate series; and a Spring Break campaign in which Vibes served as a shuttle service for partiers in Panama City, FL.

This summer, Vibe is hosting a Summer Sound Off that encourages aspiring bands to submit digital recordings to vibessummersoundoff.com. Visitors vote for their favorite group. The winner scores $20,000 and the chance to have a song featured in a future TV spot.

This fall, Young Money, Orlando, FL, starts a major marketing push behind its summer relaunch as a college magazine. (The quarterly launched three years ago as a money management advisor for high schoolers.) The goal is to provide expert advice without sounding like a textbook: The fall 2002 issue, for instance, features financial advice from Miss USA 2002. “Just a straight pitch on money wouldn’t fly,” says director of business development Todd Romer. “You’ve got to go with an entertainment look and feel. That’s what these kids are used to.” The magazine has a circulation of 200,000 distributed free through campus newspapers.

Young Money in October will launch a month-long tour of four campuses. At press time, the publication was working with such sponsors as Motorola, Ford, and AT&T Wireless to determine the destinations. U.S. Marketing & Promotions, Torrance, CA, will handle.

Digital recording service TiVo, which until now has concentrated on older, more affluent consumers, will also hit the quadrangle this fall as part of ThunderDorm, a tour hosted by Arlington, VA-based Consumer Electronics Association designed to give students a hands-on look at the latest technology. “We’re using this as an experiment to see what kind of response we get,” says Doug Bieter, sales manager at Alviso, CA-based TiVo. “Nobody has a busier or more erratic schedule than college students. Combine that with the fact that they’re among the most wired, and we’re expecting good things.”

Launched in 2000 as a California-only program called Buzz Net, ThunderDorm went national last year with a roster comprised exclusively of audio equipment manufacturers. This year, the list will expand to include about 30 companies, mostly with audio or wireless wares to peddle. The tour will stop at 19 schools around the country along with September’s annual College Fest confab in Boston. CEA expects to add another 20,000 attendees to last year’s total of 30,000.

Promotional activity includes The Ultimate Dorm Room, a glass truck (à la Tamiflu’s 2001 PRO Award-winning mobile tour) with a dorm interior decorated by Ikea; the furniture will be given away in a sweeps overlay. YouthStream handles.