An Overview of Marketing to Gen Z on College Campuses
If you treat college like everything else you’ll fail. You cannot use your traditional marketing playbook. You have to understand how to reach this audience within this unique ecosystem.
1-minute 30-second read (pretty much all bullet points)
If you’re interested in marketing to Gen Z on college campuses, here’s an overview of college marketing:
Key industries that generally market to students on college campuses:
Consumer package goods: think of a buyer making their first [insert product category] purchase on their own.
Financial services: choosing your first credit card, your first bank, etc.
EdTech: study tools and learning aids.
Direct-to-consumer: everything from sexual wellness products to online services to fashion brands.
Politics and advocacy: getting this demographic to vote, promoting an initiative.
Non-profits: health services to green initiatives to volunteer opportunities.
University Recruiting: hiring the next-gen workforce.
Things to know about college marketing:
If you win the college market, you win the LTV of this generation.
College students present the highest customer LTV and the lowest customer acquisition cost.
College is a moment, not a monolith. It is an incredible marketing moment because everyone is in one dense geography—going through the same things and spending all day every day with their peers. Words/beliefs/preferences travel fast.
College is the most important life stage.
In college, marketing to communities is more important than marketing to individuals.
College students are hard to reach. They’re digital natives that grew up ignoring traditional advertising. Most block ads online and on mobile. 80% skip ads on Snapchat and TikTok in under one second.
They don’t see TV ads. Obviously.
If you treat college like everything else you’ll fail. You cannot use your traditional marketing playbook. You have to understand how to reach this audience within this unique ecosystem.
What college marketing looks like:
Out-of-home: on-campus screens, on-campus billboards, posters.
Digital spaces: banner ads on school and department websites, ads on campus newsletters. (These are surprisingly popular with students. Big opportunity. High CTR.)
Student influencers: nano-influencers with 1K-10K social media followers. Peer influence at its peak.
SMS: the capabilities here are very interesting.
Transit media: bus stations, transit shelters, etc.
School newspapers: the back page is seen at scale.
Targeting:
The beauty of marketing to students on campuses is that your targeting can be highly specific: geography, gender, department-focused, school size, sports programs, conferences, demographic preferences, purchasing preferences, party schools, big football schools, outdoorsy schools, religious schools...
You get the picture. There are hundreds of targeting opportunities.
Hope this helps. Feel free to reach out with any questions.
— Nate