6 Tips for Hiring a College Marketing Agency

It’s not uncommon for companies to take a DIY approach to college marketing—they rely on their younger employees, interns, and “gut” to put together a strategy and piecemeal the execution; that type of approach rarely leaves them in a position of strength. Finding an agency partner that is a college marketing expert should be step one.

The right college marketing agency partner has the necessary experience to avoid common pitfalls of campus marketing and the expertise to successfully reach valuable Millennial and Gen-Z consumers. Luckily for you, we’ve broken down the most important steps to hiring the right partner:

1. Do Your Due Diligence

Plenty of agencies throw buzzwords on their websites: youth, college, campus, Millennial, and Gen-Z. Unless they have a proven track record of working on youth-focused campaigns in the medium that you’re pursuing (creative, digital, peer-to-peer, social, mobile, experiential), they’re probably not right for you. Research the campaigns they’ve executed, ask to speak to past clients, try to talk with students who have worked with them in the past, and understand what percentage of their business is focused on youth.

2. Hire an Expert Directly

Generalist agencies abound, but you need an expert. A lot of the big-box shops will sell everything under the sun, but when they land a campaign, they immediately outsource the execution. College marketing agencies are the secret tool in the toolbox for AoRs across the country. By working with the expert agency directly, you’ll save money, get better service, and cut down on communication delays, resulting in a better campaign.

3. Analyze Student Networks

Check out the Craigslist job or gigs section around any college town, or the campus job boards, and you’ll see countless postings for campus rep positions. The types of students that you want working for your brand—the true influencers—won’t be found there. They know which agencies offer the best experiences, work with the most interesting brands, and have students’ best interests at heart. Like everything in business, relationships and reputation are everything. Challenge potential agency partners to tell you how they’ve developed their student and campus network, how they keep it active, and what quality control they put on the types of students allowed to join.

college marketing agency employees talking

4. Inquire About Campus Relationships

An active college marketing agency will have relationships with stakeholders and decision-makers on campuses across the country. When executing any kind of event (experiential, mobile, pop-up), you want them talking to the right people. College campuses are like cities—talking to the right person will get you access for $1,000/day, while talking to the wrong person could get you outright denied or result in fees of upwards of $20,000/day. College administrators are conservative by nature, so your relationship, reputation, and experience will precede you in the decision-making process.

5. Understand Recruitment

For campus rep programs, it’s imperative to understand how potential partner agencies recruit students. Many agencies engage “full-time” reps or influencers who hop to different brands almost every day of the week. The most successful agencies anchor their strategies in authenticity, which means their campus reps are recruited for a specific brand partner and campaign, only work for that brand during the campaign, and embody the very detailed criteria and DNA outlined by you and your agency partner.

6. Seek Substance Over Style

Unless you’re working with a bottomless budget for awareness-generating stunts, ROI will be part of the conversation. It’s important to find a results-oriented partner that works collaboratively with you and your team to integrate tracking, analytics, and reporting into their strategy from day one. Be wary if they start recommending campaign concepts and tactics that are incredibly cool but don’t have a solid tie-back to your KPIs. A good agency will combine creativity with results, relying on data, best practices, and past experiences to drive success.

Finally, choose a genuine partner. When you hire a college marketing agency, you’re also hiring people—beyond being incredible at their jobs, you want those people to be likable, kind, supportive, fun, and invested. Your agency should adapt to your workflows, internal processes, and dynamic needs. They should be friendly and easy to work with, which will translate directly into how they manage your campaign.

WANT MORE? CHECK OUT THESE BLOGS

HOW CAN YMC HELP?

If you’re looking to engage students on campus, we’re here to help. At YMC, we’ve been connecting brands with 15- to 29-year-old consumers for two decades—we’d be happy to share our wealth of knowledge with you. Contact us today!

Why Your Brand Should Invest in College Marketing

College marketing is a huge opportunity. While big brands like Google and American Eagle have taken notice and launched multifaceted campaigns targeting this demographic, many brands have yet to step foot on campus. And if your brand isn’t trying to authentically connect with students, you’re leaving money on the table.

Not only do college students fall into the coveted Millennial and Gen-Z demographics, they’re also individuals who haven’t yet formed brand loyalties. For many, going to college is the first stage of their independent lives away from their parents. This is their first time making buying decisions for themselves. Maybe a student’s mom always did the laundry with Tide, but when the student stands in front of dozen of laundry detergents at the grocery store, which one will she buy?

Without formed brand loyalties, college students are highly susceptible to new products and services—especially if those products and services are well received by their peers. According to a Nielsen report, the most credible form of advertising comes straight from the people we know and trust. The same report found that 83% of people trust the recommendation of a peer over traditional advertising. Reaching consumers during their college years is an opportunity to win their loyalty by authentically inserting your brand into their lives. By being on campus and building college marketing campaigns around the lives of students, your brand becomes a part of their story and something they want to share with their peers.

Luckily for brands, college campuses are the perfect environment for peer-to-peer communications. Because students are concentrated in one place and every semester offers fresh opportunities to meet new people, the awareness of popular brands and services quickly spreads. Word-of-mouth takes on new power in the college environment.

Additionally, college students are digital natives. They never knew a world without smartphones and social media. They have the desire to share their lives and promote the brands and experiences that excite them. This gives your brand the potential to reach a national, and even global, audience.

But wait—aren’t college students poor? Don’t they survive on ramen? Some are—but that doesn’t mean they aren’t buying things. With money from parents, jobs, and student loans, their purchasing power isn’t something to scoff at. In fact, college students spent $523 billion dollars in 2015, 39% of which was discretionary spending (food, entertainment, clothes, transportation).

If brands can successfully connect with students and capture their loyalty during these key years, they will be able to retain their loyalty as they transition into new life phases. And trust us, the students who weren’t rolling in disposable cash will have the potential to spend a lot more after they graduate and enter the workforce.

WANT MORE? CHECK OUT THESE BLOGS

HOW CAN YMC HELP?

You know you want your brand on campus but aren’t sure how to get started—what next? Finding the right partner is key to your success. Here at YMC, we’ve been helping brands connect with 15- to 29-year-old consumers for two decades—we’d be happy to share our wealth of knowledge with you. Contact us about college marketing today!

Top College Marketing Trends of 2017 + Predictions for 2018

For student marketing and college marketing, 2017 was a year of corrections. For the past decade, companies and organizations have been steadily moving marketing dollars towards strategies focused on highly structured, trackable, and analytical channels—and their approach to student and college marketing followed suit. In a macro sense, this trend was a breath of fresh air—with a lot of brands waving goodbye to the sometimes expensive set-it, forget-it, and pray-for-impressions mediums like out-of-home display, television ads, college sports sponsorships, and tracker-less digital display.

An unintended consequence was that long-term brand building took the back seat to immediate returns, especially with publicly traded companies dealing with the pressure of Wall Street. In 2017, we saw a reversion to a more balanced, thoughtful, and long-term approach.

What did this more balanced approach to college and student marketing actually entail? Here were the four main trends in 2017:

1. Investment in the Long-Term

Brands were once again investing time, resources, and budget in the development of experiential and event marketing assets—including mobile tours and pop-up experiences that were active throughout the year and were built to adapt to different needs for years to come. Brands like Aerie took their flagship retail stores on the road, representing different seasons by re-branding their mobile pop-up experience.

2. Social Influencers with Care

After over-investing budget and becoming stretched too thin, brands decided to take a more thoughtful approach to social influencer campaigns in 2017—moving away from massive follower counts and focusing on high engagement with micro-influencer communities. Social influencers with smaller, more involved followers proved to be a winning hand.

3. Grassroots Brand-Building

Companies realized the role their customers have in defining their brands, which resulted in a re-focus on brand-building efforts on grassroots channels—often powered through campus and student, local, and regional brand ambassadors. Ambassadors across the country moved the needle for a lot of big brands by engaging existing brand advocates and collaboratively delivering experiences, meaningful customer conversations, and relevant calls-to-action to their peers (the brand’s customers).

4. Sampling with Purpose

Sampling has long been an integral part of any consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand’s college marketing or student marketing strategy—whether they’re reintroducing a favorite product or launching a brand new line, getting samples into the hands of consumers is an important step to building a customer base. In 2017, brands stepped up their game by sampling with the purpose of creating a meaningful interaction—and being sure that every sample was distributed with a purpose and a message.

Based on the key trends of 2017, we have some predictions about the kinds of college and student marketing we’ll see from brands in 2018—some of which brands are already implementing. Keep a close eye on the following trends and predictions as the year progresses:

Personalization in Everything

Personalization is the biggest trend we’re seeing in student marketing and college marketing heading into 2018. Brands and organizations are personalizing everything including products, experiences, content, messaging, and interactions to create a better user experience. Brands like Levi’s have already incorporated personalization into some of their retail store locations!

This even trickles down to employment marketing and recruiting. Brands like Spotify are working at the individual campus level, through peer-to-peer channels personalized to each school’s culture and environment, to identify and court highly sought after tech talent with a hands-on and fun approach. Most importantly, they’re letting their strong consumer brand play inform their employer brand messaging.

Investment in Live Events

The next logical step to take after investing in long-term experiential assets is to increase investment in live events, which represent another incredible way to build meaningful interactions with end consumers. In the world of college marketing and student marketing, brands like Victoria’s Secret PINK are investing in the development of their own live events like campus concerts and Spring Break parties.

Less Ads, More User-Generated Content

If there’s one thing we know about Millennials, which is even more obvious with Gen-Z, it’s that they hate ads. Even the most relevant, clever, and cool brands are struggling to resonate through traditional channels. That’s why the smartest brands and organizations are empowering their brand ambassadors, social influencers, and customers to create compelling content for them. The value of that content? Just imagine getting 100 amazing pieces of photo and video content for Instagram simply by asking permission. Think about how much you just saved by skipping a few photoshoots!