‘Capture student spend’ – conference review

I said I’d report back on Haymarket’s student marketing conference. That was back in April and I have since allowed the blog to get covered in cobwebs. My bad.

With feather duster in hand, here goes on what I remember of it…

The good bits
I thought Emily Kortlang’s presentation on Red Bull was excellent. Although overall the conference was disappointingly short on digital insight (see below), in this era of web 2.0 clamour it was refreshing to hear from the brand whose focus remains mainly on face to face, experiential activity.

Red Bull entrusts its people on campus (‘student gliders’) with the job of conveying the personality of the brand, and its all about unique experiences between real people. If that means doing something crazily unaccountable – like rigging a crane up to one students’ dorm window just to give them a free can – then so be it.

It was novel to see an approach that swims confidently against the current mood of ‘must ensure ROI’. Also I enjoyed the fact they are very, very picky about what opportunities they take on. They get dozens of calls a day from media owners and others who want to give away Red Bull in competitions. They turn them down. Why? Because they already have their smiley gliders giving away Red Bull in person every day. It’s about the experience, not the giveaway.

Red Bull created the first ever student brand manager scheme. Hundreds imitated them, but no brand made as big an impact. Since then the schemes have become maligned through over-popularity and bad practices. Yet it was clear to see why Red Bull continue to profit from their on campus activity, such is the conviction and focus of their unique and crafted approach.

Gavin Miller from Universal Pictures gave an interesting presentation packed with stats, insights and experiences, mainly relating to the student as technology user – and particularly as a web user. He case-studied a viral that Universal had put out promoting a horror film.

I was intrigued to find out where the viral had been seeded to reach students specifically. The answer was MySpace (check), BoreMe (check) and a website called…studento.com? In seven years involved in digital marketing to students I have never come across it, or spoken to anyone that knows it.

Steve Shore of Abbey revealed some tidbits from inside student banking; apparently a bank usually only profits from its student customers in the ninth year of their account. He spoke about what makes a good incentive. NatWest’s railcard partnership is looked on enviously by competitors – it delivers something genuinely useful all the time, and puts the brand cleverly in (and out of) the wallet. Lloyds-TSB’s iPod giveaway took a brief ribbing.

It was refreshing to see the unsexy world of higher ed marketing represented and hear Ian Jones of Staffordshire University talk frankly about the tough times ahead for universities and the role that marketing will play in survival. He cited Warwick as the biggest triumph in HE branding – because it is actually located in Coventry, not the charming county town of its name.

The bad bits
I’m not sure the student chairperson idea worked. Not because Oli was a poor communicator – he spoke very well, and no doubt better than I did in 2006 – but because students are not necessarily fantastic observers of themselves as a marketing demographic. I learnt nothing and instead got increasingly cheesed off with the token comments after each presentation.

A sense of authority as well as experience is needed from a chairperson. As I understand, Haymarket effectively lock out any agency type who isn’t prepared to pay money to be at the event. Which is a shame, as I can think of some industry people who would be good in the chair. It’s a tiresome role, and not one anybody should have to pay to do.

On a similar note, the small panel of ‘typical’ students provided entertainment, but were so unrepresentative of the student audience they provided little value in the context of the conference.

But most disappointingly for me, the conference lacked any sense of urgency, vision, analysis or edgy thinking on the subject of reaching students through digital channels. Considering the modern marketing climate, this was a big blow.

On paper there were the brand names and presentation titles to deliver something: MySpace, Microsoft, references to blogging and social networking. Plus of course this is an area of vital relevance to almost all brands represented. Yet in reality I came away with few points of interest or insight on the subject.

Although, to its credit, this conference was heavier than usual on practical approaches and accountability, it was light on trendspotting and cultural? shifts – the kind of material covered by the likes of Sean Pillot de Chenecey in previous years.

A digital marketing-expert version of him would have been good.