In 2021 student freshers events brought footfall numbers of up to 8,250, exceeding all expectations, with not only first-years attending live events but also second-years that missed out in 2020, eager to experience IRL freshers for the first time.
While COVID may have cast a shadow of uncertainty to the start of 2022, we are in constant contact with our whole community and youth network to understand how students are feeling and what their plans are for getting back to campus. Universities have continued with a hybrid approach to lectures, offering students both in-person and virtual learning. As a result, we’ve seen 92%** of students return to campus for the term and 79%** of students are excited to get back to University life without fear of covid.
To help brands navigate 2022, we have combined Seed’s 10 years of student marketing strategy and expertise with the latest on-the-ground student marketing insight to map out the year, outlining key opportunities for brands to engage with this revitalised student market landscape in 2022.
Student Brand Ambassadors (SBA's) are confident, entrepreneurial youngsters who have credibility and influence both online across social platforms and offline within their own peer groups and communities. They offer companies direct access to a wider youth group via their friend groups and followings. Their role is to deliver and support all student focused marketing campaigns at their university.
We select student brand ambassadors (from our roster of over 10,000) who are hyper-relevant to the brand and can achieve the aims and objectives of the brand campaign and marketing strategy. Seed works with them as co-creators and collaborators, offering them ownership of the work that they do, and empowering them to create something authentic to them and their audience.
Students live in dense tight-knit communities with unique lifestyles and schedules. To ensure brand campaigns authentically engage students & resonate with students, it’s imperative for companies and brands to take into account key student moments & the impact these have on the community mindset.
We always recommend using a high-level of combination of financial support & lifestyle incentives to reward & motivate your student brand ambassadors.
To ensure your campaign has impact, you need to build with this audience - which is a balance between your business objective vs student market needs at a given time.
Use student brand ambassadors to consult & co-create ideas for the best results. They are an agile tool, so we use them as such, listening to feedback and adjusting the campaign to deliver the best possible outcome.
SBA’s are an amazing extension of your brand. We recruit SBA’s who are well-connected, genuine brand fans, content creators, marketers and people who are passionate about your company and brand and being an SBA.
Designing campaigns with intrinsic and suitable metrics and clear KPI’s is key to success, ensuring you can track a campaign’s growth and success. With our SBA’s we set them clear missions and key goals to reach, which we track via our bespoke management platform.
SBA is not a channel for mass reach or for a short sharp overnight spike. Instead, it is a channel that rewards over time, SBA’s help to many companies build relationships with audiences, customers and brands that can last way beyond campaign timeframes and even beyond past the time when students leave campus, growing exponentially year on year to increase the reach & impact for your brand.
Seed is a new-generation student marketing agency built around the audience we create for students and youth. Whether it's creating a secret music festival or a touring experience, designing a creative hype-building campaign with TikTok creators or increasing sign-ups through ambassador recruitment, activations and paid social, our knowledge and insights can help brands to build lasting relationships with the world the next generation.
Seed designs, develops, recruits and manages student campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands across the UK, Europe and Globally. Our network of over 10,000 student brand ambassadors connects us directly to the right people in the right places at the right time while providing unique insight into what is relevant to students with the right creative to make an impact.
If you want to discuss your student marketing strategy or brand ambassador recruitment campaign, please reach out to us at hello@seedmarketingagency.com
