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BAM secure University of Portsmouth Students’ Union media rights

A landmark partnership has been agreed between one of the UK’s most innovative student media owners and the largest student marketing agency.

The University of Portsmouth Students’ Union and student marketing experts BAM have signed a partnership agreement giving BAM sole rights to deliver media sales that connect both local and national businesses with the 26,000 University students in Portsmouth.

The University of Portsmouth Students’ Union is a registered charity with a fundraising trading arm with an annual turnover of £500,000 per year through various social enterprises.

Tom Worman, Managing Director of the charity’s trading company, has said “We’re at a pivotal time for our business as we broaden our portfolio and this partnership agreement will afford us the flexibility and security to progress our wider ambitions.”

“We’ve worked with BAM for many years and they are the nation’s student marketing experts, we believe that combining their expertise with our expanding media portfolio will create a truly powerful partnership.”

The deal further boosts BAM’s media partnership portfolio, which also includes the University of Southampton Students’ Union, and doubles the agency’s youth market reach in the region.

A spokesperson at BAM said “We have been working with Portsmouth SU for over 12 months to formalise this partnership after many years of working together on one off campaigns. UPSU are an extremely professional organisation who have great ambition to become the most innovative Student Union in the UK. Their media opportunities are extremely strong and fit perfectly with the ever growing client base we have. I am looking forward to working closely with Portsmouth and helping them with their internal growth in the coming years”.

The arrangement is initially for a 1 year trial of the model however both parties are expecting that a longer term agreement will emerge at the end of the trial to strengthen the partnership.

Marketing to millennial’s: Post Brexit effects

How is Brexit affecting the university market?

The vote to leave the European Union has had a huge effect on the UK university sector. Not only will it have an impact on the attitudes of international students and choosing to study abroad in the UK, but university fees have risen to a massive £9,250 a year, along with the cost of living, and could cost a typical undergraduate on a three year course £73,000 to go to university. With the staggering rise of fees and the associated costs of going to university, coupled with the government drive to promote apprentice schemes as another entry point into the working world, this could soon encourage young adults to consider alternative routes to employment. This is a serious situation for universities who need a big focus on marketing to show prospective students that it is worth it to go to university.

How to market post Brexit

Universities need to show prospectives that students are getting more than just a degree when they go to university; they need to promote the university experience and show that they will lead to promising job prospects. Targeting international students should also be a focus, as universities have been seeing enquiries from prospective international students saying they felt that the UK wasn’t going to be as welcoming for them. Because of this it is important to keep international students in the loop and feeling included. Telling real stories of students is a good place to start, people relate to human stories, and it’s a great way to get across the university experience while putting some of the concerns to rest.

Another consideration to take note of is keeping abreast of new developments and trends. Especially when your main target audience are millennials and Generation Z. They are constantly trying out the newest gadgets, social media sites and apps, so it’s important to focus on innovative campaigns that will capture attention.

Another important area of focus post Brexit is employability. It’s extremely important for students to know that they will have that hireable factor after they complete their studies. Not only should this be a marketing focus, but also universities should take note on the courses they are offering and ensure that some real world job experience comes as part of the course. Getting this experience is integral to helping secure a job post-study.

Uni of Sheffield #WeAreInternational

A great example of a tailored marketing campaign in these tough times for universities is the #WeAreInternational campaign from the University of Sheffield. To emphasise diversity and inclusivity in the UK they created a series of videos and images to demonstrate the benefits of studying and working in the UK. The campaign has been supported by over 100 organisations in the UK and not only promotes the message but is also lobbying to help remove international students from its net migration figures.

Another part of the campaign includes ‘micro content’ using emerging influencers who are advocates for the university on channels such as Instagram and Snapchat. They have created a big focus on Snapchat and having a fresh stream of student stories to keep prospective and current students engaged. In an interview with Marketing Week, Head of Digital at the university said, “Our Snapchat engagement levels are through the roof, you’re talking 80-90% in terms of open rates and completion rate within our stories.”

So the key takeaways here are to promote employability, inclusiveness and to stay on top of new developments in the industry, especially now post Brexit where the UK’s position is unstable. But keep it light hearted!

Brand communities and millennials

Brand communities have been around pretty much ever since the internet existed, and with the world we live in becoming increasingly globalised, with constantly blurring boundaries, we should surely be more connected than ever? However only a few companies have successfully facilitated a brand community. Millennials are tech-savvy individuals, who live and breath our new digitalised world. Millennials connect with friends, influencers and new social channels more effectively than any other generations, so it’s no surprise that they’re associating themselves with a variety of brands and networks. As a result of this, millenials are prone to connecting with communities rather than the brand itself, so why should brands invest time and budgets into a brand community?

1) Brand communities can be used as business strategies

A brand can identify and consistently communicate values that connect consumers with the brand. Brand community also allows managers to monitor consumers in reality, and even provide feedback. Brand communities are usually ran by the consumer for the consumer, so it can allow brands a real insight to their world. This further reduces marketing costs and authenticates brand meanings. Fresher’s students are a brand’s primary target, as they’re just settling into university and creating their identity. Brands can therefore help students feel as part of a community and create a sense of belonging.

2) Brand communities increase loyalty

Brand communities have been found to increase loyalty amongst consumers. Furthermore research has found that brand communities can also increase purchase intent and repeat purchase of additional products. Ultimately this can turn some consumers into brand ambassadors of the product, which is perfect for spreading positive word of mouth recommendations around campus!

3) Stay relevant

Brand communities allow you to monitor your target audience, and can enable you to build a consumer profile. This will help brands stay updated with their marketing efforts, and also help brands stay relevant to their consumer. Nothing is worse than a brand trying to fit into a crowd where they’re not wanted (cringe!).

Now that all sounds very simple on paper, but what brand has successfully achieved a brand community? Starbucks has created one of the most successful brand communities to date, with millennials rushing to be part of the clique. Starbucks evolved their community with their campaign; My Starbucks Idea. They used a suggestion box concept, by inviting exclusive brand members to come up with new product ideas. In the first year it generated over 70,000 ideas from the campaign! Who knows, the new Unicorn Frappuccino may have come from this campaign!

Brand communities have a variety of benefits, and they’re great for connecting with your consumers. When students start university, they’re creating a whole new identity on their new journey. Students are more receptive to marketing messages, as they’re in a highly stressful environment, at such a critical time in their lives. Ultimately, if brands can connect with students and turn them into advocates of the brand community, they’ve become part of their journey throughout university and have ultimately gained a lifelong customer.

Written by: Emily Mullis, Media Partnership Account Sales Executive, BAM Agency Ltd

Influencer & micro influencer marketing

What is it and who are influencers?

Influencer marketing is a way of targeting a specific audience by working with the people that they love and admire. It’s much like having a celebrity spokesperson but on a smaller and more targeted scale that helps brands to reach and engage niche audiences. The rise (and rise) of the Internet and Social Media has created this ‘online celebrity’. These Internet celebrities are known in modern marketing as influencers and they usually fall under the term blogger, vlogger or social media star. Many of these influencers started up their blogs or channels with the aim of giving honest advice or diarising their lives, but quickly brands picked up on how engaged their audiences were and soon got involved, offering sponsorship and free products in return for promotion to their audiences. And that is how we’ve got to where we are today, with influencers creating partnerships with brands, releasing their own product lines and slowly becoming mainstream celebrities.

There is a subset of influencers who you may call micro-influencers who have much smaller audience bases but they are highly-engaged. The university and student market is a perfect incubator for these influencers and they can work with brands but on a much smaller scale. Brands are increasingly taking advantage of these small up and coming student influencers, as it helps to increase the brand awareness with the product being promoted across many different bloggers channels. It also helps to create long-term relationships with people who are only going to get more influential over time – so forming partnerships with emerging millennial and generation z influencers can offer a greater return on investment in the long-term.

Why it works

Influencer marketing works because it plays to the human desire to form relationships with others (those they admire, in particular) and it also allows brands to target specific audiences who will be interested in their product and/or service.

You know how much you hate Internet adverts? Well this is the clever way that influencer marketing works; it tricks you into thinking you’re not being sold to, as it makes the advertising part of the content. So rather than a pre-roll advert on YouTube selling you the latest toothbrush with turbo power, you’ll instead find yourself watching an influencer talking about their daily routine, including their turbo powered toothbrush in that routine.

It’s like getting a recommendation from a friend, and influencers’ followers trust in what they say and promote. It’s similar to word of mouth but a modern, brand-manipulated, online word of mouth. Influencers spread the word on their blogs/vlogs and social media channels which can often mean there is the chance to be seen by thousands or sometimes millions. If you consider the chance of social media likes and shares, the content can go even further, even delivering solid ROI, including boosting sales – ideal if you are an online retailer!

How to use it

The most important thing in influencer marketing is the initial research. You need to find influencers who are the right fit for your brand, for example, it doesn’t make sense for a travel blogger to be sharing a post about their favourite tomato ketchup. Gather a list of your top influencers that you want to be involved with your marketing campaign and begin to approach them via email. Now this sounds simple enough, but with us and bespoke influencer marketing agencies out there, it’s clear that this can be very time consuming and tricky. Not just finding the right influencers, but also liaising with them to finalise what they can do for your brand that matches your objectives while keeping in theme with their personal brand and channel approach.

When researching influencers, we take into consideration their presence and whether this is genuine – for example, there are tools out there that will help you identify whether influencers have a large proportion of fake followers. In addition, common sense can go a long way. If an influencer has 20k followers, but only gets 50 likes per image on Instagram, there’s a good chance they have paid for followers, so your content isn’t going to go as far as it would seem.

Another tip when approaching influencers is to offer them the creative choice for the content they make; they know their fans and followers best so it makes sense for them to decide how to present the brand to their audience. You will then need to discuss costs with your chosen influencers and write up a contract to secure the content you will be getting from them. Also if you plan to use any of their content in online advertising or beyond the particular campaign, make sure this is agreed beforehand and is written in the contract as extra costs may be involved.

Then simply sit back and relax as they create and share the content about your brand, don’t forget to share from your brands own channels and if you have permissions, reuse the content on your own channels to support advertising or wider campaigns.

Why should local businesses target students?

Educated, tech-savvy and information hungry are a few ways of describing the most powerful generation. Who am I referring too? Millennials of course. This ambitious group of people essentially hold the key to the student market and once unlocked they could forever be a lifetime consumer of yours.

Millennials spend around 23 Billion per year, with this spending power, they cannot be ignored. Spending most of their money on accommodation, socialising and food, local businesses fit well within their bubble of life. If you can influence students to buy into your brand, you will reap the benefits as a result. Students will want to feel part of their local community and whether it’s discounts, rewards or incentives, students will feel more encouraged to repeat purchase from you and also organically spread positivity towards your brand throughout the student population about how well you meet their daily needs and requirements.

So, why should local business target this audience? If you can connect with this diverse group of individuals early on in their student life, you will have a chance at continuing to connect with them as they graduate, start careers, begin families of their own and progress towards retirement. Students make up a huge percentage of the marketplace and with more than 2.5 million students at university this is a massive market that cannot be overlooked. Finding out what matters to millennials is one of the key ways to earn their loyalty. If you can get a student to buy into your brand early this can only benefit your business!

Here are some tips on how to advertise your local business to students:

Have a student discount offer

Student discount offers are a pivotal method to draw students to your brand, anything with a reward, offer or discount code attached will immediately attract their attention. 80% of students agree that an offer/discount would influence them to buy from a brand.

Get social!

With millennials being so tech-savvy you can only imagine how much time is spent on social media channels. 40% of students prefer to be contacted by social media and with so many different channels and platforms available, there is sure to be one that works for you. It’s worth also keeping in mind that 81% of students use Facebook as their main social media channel of choice.

Interact with pinnacle events

Two words – Fresher’s Fair. Introducing your brand to this event is the best decision a local business can make. Our recent survey showed us that 24% of students hadn’t heard of some of the brands at the fair and out of these students, 54% of them stated they would buy from brands after interacting with them during the freshers events. I cannot express how essential it is to bring freebies, offers and some fun and excitement to your stand; 67% of students attend the Fair because of the freebies. Local brands need to come to these events prepared. If you can nail the engagement, over half of the students that did not know you before would buy from you going forward.

Students are finding their feet at university, so if they can turn to your brand during their student journey then you’re sure to build a long lasting relationship with them, and gain a lifelong customer.

Written by: Emma Lawrence, Account Sales Executive, BAM Agency Ltd

Get students to listen to you on social media

Modern day students are extremely savvy when it comes to brands and their marketing campaigns. They can tell fake-ness or when they’re being talked down to from a mile off, so perfecting your campaign and your tone-of-voice is seriously important. You don’t want to appear like the uncool relative trying to be ‘down with the kids’ at the family party, instead you need to evoke familiarity and affinity with those that you’re targeting. The rule we always stick with is, if you aren’t sure about your idea, don’t use it, re-think it, rework it and go ahead when you’re confident it’s the right approach for your target audience. Here are four key considerations when planning your marketing campaign:

Approach

Approaching your campaign and brand identity with your audience in mind is integral to a successful brand. When targeting students, as we mentioned above, familiarity is a big part of creating an important connection with your audience. It’s also well known that there is a strong link between familiarity and trust as it creates a feeling of ease that allows your audience to be more open.

To decide on your brand tone-of-voice you need to focus on your audience firstly, and your brand’s core principles in the secondary – yes, when it comes to communications, your audience is paramount. Think in terms of what your audience would want to see and hear. Ask questions such as, would they like to know in-depth information or a more informal approach? What are their other interests online? You could even go as far to include a focus group in your research.

Students want authenticity

Students won’t connect with brands if they feel they underestimate their intelligence or savviness. There can often be a voice in your head that will tell you to oversimplify things for a younger audience, but this is exactly what the modern generation of students doesn’t want or respond well to. The current generation of students want an authentic voice; they want to see and hear someone or something they can trust. They want to connect with brands that think about the environment around them, what their needs and wants are, and consider their impact on the wider world.

Think about these ideas and include them in your messaging and even in your brand ethos to ensure consistency across all the sectors of your business.

A great way of building an air of authenticity in your brand is by getting students involved; your audience is seeing their peer’s engaging with your brand, and we know just how powerful word of mouth is when encouraging decisions or behaviours. Get students involved with a fun activation on social media; the current generation of students love to show off their creative flair, so whether it’s a caption this funny image, or asking them to create a fun short video clip there’s lots of ways to encourage student content which can be shared to their peers (and slyly promotes your brand).

Tone of Voice

We’re not going to tell you the exact tone-of-voice that you need to use to market to students because there is no one-size-fits-all! Your brand’s tone-of-voice completely depends on what sort of product or service you are selling as well as your specific audience – students encompass their own mini-demographics so it’s important to consider these nuances. The age-old examples of brands getting it right are Innocent and Paddy Power. Innocent who thrive on wit, humour and friendly banter and Paddy Power who are a bit more risqué, not afraid to be controversial and talk to you like your mates down the pub, have got it spot on. A good place to start if you are unsure the route your brand should take is by looking at brands you like, brands students like and competitors to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t.

Different mediums

Finally, be sure to keep in mind the platform you are using when putting together your content plans, as different channels require different strategies. For example, the way you talk to your Facebook audience will be drastically different to how you would talk to your Snapchat audience. Snapchat’s is known for attracting a younger demographic for its fun and flash features. You can be really creative and grasp attention quickly as there is a ‘fear of missing out’ as the content disappears after 24 hours. However, on Facebook, the demographic tends to be broader, so there are more mini-demographics to consider – again there is no one-size-fits-all here.

Another key consideration is each platform’s unique algorithms – Facebook currently values video greatly as it expands its proposition, so it allows brands to tap into higher rankings and more frequent organic placement through sharing more native video content.

So, our top advice for talking to students is to always consider your specific audience, ask questions to figure out what they would like to see from your brand, be authentic in your messaging and finally, don’t be afraid to have a bit of fun!

The YMS 2017 blew us away!

Just when we thought the Youth Marketing Strategy (YMS) couldn’t get any better, they simply knocked it out of the park again this year.

Held in the quirky industrial Old Truman Brewery, London, delegates were spoilt with over 200 speakers, 65 exhibitors, 5 alternative content streams, 7 creative masterclass’, 2 chill out zones, a live entertainment stage and wonderful cuisines on offer to delight the taste buds. With some of the biggest brands and names in the industry sharing knowledge and insight there was so much on offer making this event a must for experienced and budding marketers alike.

BAM were proud to be Key Sponsors of such a renowned event and we had a pretty jammed packed schedule ourselves, here are some of our highlights:

Wham BAM Whirlwind creates balls of fun

After the success of last years fruit machine installation, this year BAM decided to cause a storm with a new competition – The Wham BAM Whirlwind. Delegates were challenged to take on our cyclone to try and grab as many of our blue balls as possible for the chance to top our leader board. Sounds simple doesn’t it but trust us when we say it as not as easy as it looks (of course we had to try it out for quality control purposes). Check out some of our favourite clips:

Video Player

The champion of the balls was Natalie Turner from Student Beans grabbing an impressive 31 blue balls. Congratulations Natalie!

At BAM we are experts at bringing campaigns to life through gamification, gaining increased interaction and engagement from the audience, but don’t just take our word for it, check out what the delegates of this years YMS had to say:

Are Students all the Same? Tim Bodenham reveals all

Taking centre stage Tim Bodenham, Managing Director wanted to pose the question are students all the same? To a brand, are they different to other millennials and new to the field, Generation Z’s?

Earlier in the year BAM explored concept, conducting in depth research into the student market to understand to gain further understanding of student behaviour and what they expect from a brand. Surveying over 3000 students across the UK, here are some key insights Tim shared:

In terms of social media, Facebook is still leading the way with 81% of students using this platform on a daily basis. Although Snapchat and Instagram are perceived as the much more popular in the current age, Facebook is a necessity, somewhere students can check in on all their family and friend networks

There is a common misconception that students rarely check their University email accounts. BAM has always been advocates of the power of University email sends as an effective channel to market to students. This was endorsed in our latest findings that 76% of students check their University emails daily and when combined with those that check a few times a week this is almost the entire student populace with 96%. With average open rates of 30% and click through rates of up to 10% email marketing should be a serious consideration in any student marketing strategy.

In light of the above findings it’s no surprise that the preferred method to receive brand promotions and offers was through email with 47%. Why? Well an email from a brand is not perceived as an intrusive. Students take the time to specifically look through their emails, they have made this decision, whereas with app notifications and text messages (trailing with 8% in our survey) can be seen as intrusive because they are made to look the message when the brand decides, not the student which can mean they are much less receptive to your message.

Offers and discounts remain the front runner in terms of what influences students to buy from a brand with 90% of students surveyed selecting this option. It is almost an expectation of students that they should get a discount or a special offer for just being a student, something only students can get. Brands should not underestimate the power of bonding with students through making them feel special, simply for being a student.

In answer to the initial questions are students all the same? In short no, of course they are not. Our psychometric profiling has always brought up different student types, yet when you drill down to these types interaction with brands, the metrics are all the same, bar one. The way they want to be spoken too, not the means. Tim advised brands to remember that students want brands to talk to them as an individual, not at them as a group, in a way that they can relate to, showing that they understand them and know what it is they want.

The final note from Tim was to emphasize the value of the student market and why brands should take the time to invest, Why students are the primary target audience for brands that have youth as a key customer segmentation. Brands were advised to remember the 4 value pillars of student marketing outlining that students are early adopters, they live in a community environment, they have access to expendable cash and they are brand loyal making students a key and lucrative demographic for brands look to target the youth market. There will be a more detailed review of the 4 value pillars of student marketing in a forthcoming blog by Tim.

How do you run an awesome student marketing campaign? BAM joins a panel of experts and professionals to shed some light

The Guardian held a discussion to find out what it takes to run an awesome student marketing campaign. They invited 6 experts in this field from Missguided, Deliveroo, NUS, Seed Marketing, HP and most importantly, BAM.

The panel spoke about who in the market was getting it right and also who was just getting it wrong. When planning a student marketing campaign we advised brands that students are much more savvy than they have ever been so it you are paying to attend Freshers Fairs, make sure you invest the time to do it properly.

The power of executing an awesome campaign was further supported by Xavier from Deliveroo, when reflecting on their recent campaign initiatives that have found that students are extremely valuable customers but they are also valuable promoters of your brand so it is imperative to get students to engage with your brand to create life long advocates.

Our key message was the importance of understanding your objectives and what you want to achieve. At BAM we work closely with our clients to understand their objectives to formulate effective strategies to ensure a successful campaign.

Sweet Tweets

Everyone loves a sugary treat and on the second day of the YMS we gave all delegates a little pick me up with some yummy sweets. Not only did we please the sweet-toothed delegates we also gave them the exciting opportunity to win tickets to an Escape Room activity in London with yours truly. Now whilst we wanted to give the delegates the chance to win an awesome prize, in reality, team BAM are probably going to need all the help they can get to Escape one of these rooms!

We were inundated with entries to the competition with delegates tweeting a picture of the sweets with the hashtag #YMS17 and tagging @bamuk, here are some of our favourite entries:

Drawn at random we had 6 lucky winners:

Megan Timble, Louise Jones, Amy Cooke, Sarah Wallbridge, Victoria Prime and Lisa Benton. All winners have been announced on our twitter page @bamuk.

We look forward to escaping a room… or not as the case may be with these guys later in the year.

Here’s to YMS 2018

We had high hopes for YMS 2017 and it didn’t let us down. A fantastic event with so much advice, insight, knowledge, experience and not to mention a whole load of fun. Check out our video capturing the highlights:

Now we look to next year and wonder what YMS 2018 will have in store and what colour jacket Simon Eder will don on the stage? All we can say is watch this space! If you would to find out more about our insight at the YMS or indeed to talk to us about the youth market, please get in touch.

Insight into BAM Account Management

One of the most enjoyable things about working as an Account Manager at BAM is being able to work closely with clients and share their journey with them. I have been very fortunate to work alongside a travel company StudentUniverse for just over 3 years and I have seen them grow and develop from when they first entered into the UK space into a hugely successful brand.

When I first met with StudentUniverse they were set up in a small office in central London running the UK division almost single handed. Since then the business has expanded massively and now StudentUniverse have a lively office, sales figures are through the roof, the brand is now loved by students right across the UK and StudentUniverse are now part of the multi-billion pound Flight Centre group – it has definitely been an exciting few years!!

At the end of 2016 StudentUniverse approached BAM alongside another travel company called Topdeck who are a bus touring company that design trips for 18-30 year olds. They had a brief where they wanted to target students across the UK to raise the awareness of both brands and what they had to offer.

Over a number of planning meetings we devised an engaging and exciting campaign to roll out across six university locations over a six week duration. Each day we would run a number of activities where students could compete to win a T-Shirt and an invite to the end of week finale – they can do this through unlocking mysterious cases, taking on our cyclone machine or winning our paper aeroplane challenge. At the end of the week finale for all of the winners throughout the week to come on back to take part in an Australian themed quiz, the last student standing will win a trip of a lifetime to Australia.

Behind the scenes there is still lots to do, we have to think about all sorts of logistical aspects such as recruitment for brand ambassadors at 6 locations across the UK, as well as hiring the right event manager for the whole duration of the campaign. This process is highly important and takes some time to ensure we have recruited the right people for the campaign and what it entails.

Alongside this we undertake various site recces, although we are very familiar with the University itself, sometimes it’s easier to be on-site and chat face to face with our University contact to ensure we provide our clients with the best possible location to suit their set-up. As a result of doing so we figured at one location there wouldn’t be access to electricity therefore we had to arrange the hire of a generator.

During the planning process we actually changed the concept of the campaign just a few weeks prior the live date. We felt that something was missing therefore we all got together and filled the gaps that weren’t quite right. Planning an experiential campaign can be a bit of a journey and I think it’s really important to be flexible and adaptable. In this case we were able to reshape a model that wasn’t quite where we wanted it to be and created something bigger and better within the same budget.

Once the plans were in place for such an exciting experiential campaign the challenge of actually delivering it begins! In our case study you can see what happened when it came to executing the campaign and how it went down with the students. Stay tuned!