I liked the view better when there was a Coke billboard

A handful of students are now working as “brand ambassadors,” hired by companies to represent their brand, particularly during the first few days of the semester.

You can catch them on campus handing out free VitaminWater or Red Bull. Or, maybe a “street team” will flag you down and let you know of the hottest new cell phone deal.

The attractive and social brand ambassador is one of the booming strategies in marketing. And for beverage companies, radio stations and cellular providers, campus is the perfect market.

“A lot of the major brands target the 18- to 24-year-old demographic. So when you look at places where you can find consumers [between the ages of 18 and 24], one of the highest concentrations of that demographic is university and college students,” said Andrew Au, a partnership manager for Toronto-based Campus Intercept.

Campus Intercept is an agency with a network of hundreds of students on campuses across Canada. They broker partnerships between students and companies hoping to crack the university market.

Au explained that brands have resorted to student ambassadors for two main reasons. First, because of their insight into what’s relevant. And second, as a convenient platform to deliver the marketing to their peers.

“If you can get your target market to advocate for your brand, you don’t get more authentic than that,” said Au. “We also see it as stimulating the student economy because a lot of students are looking for part-time work, and promotional work pays quite well — a lot higher than many part-time jobs.”

Au says Campus Intercept will generally hire well-rounded students with large social networks. They look for students in campus groups, societies and sports teams.

Mary Hipperson is a marketing major at the Edwards School of Business and fifth-year guard for the Huskies women’s basketball team. She works as a brand ambassador for SaskTel on their street team.

They were kept busy working at the U of S in the Bowl during Welcome Week.

“We have a bunch of swag: SaskTel lip balm, SaskTel hand sanitizer, pretty much anything you can think of,” said Hipperson. “We go to local events and do hand-outs, promote the latest deals, give away new BlackBerrys.”

Hipperson has worked on the street team for about five years and says it’s all about being social and comfortable striking up a conversation with strangers. She wouldn’t reveal her hourly wage but said it’s “respectable” and “legit,” and feels lucky to get paid the amount for cruising around town and checking out events.

The street team is managed by Captive Audience, a non-traditional advertising firm from Regina that SaskTel has hired to run their student marketing campaign.

This year’s members of the street team were asked to produce Facebook videos promoting SaskTel’s Giant Student Deals campaign.

Anyone with access to Facebook can watch the videos and vote for their favourite. The team members who create the top videos receive a prize and a cash bonus.

“Yeah, we can walk around and hit people up with pamphlets for the Giant Student Deals, but I think seeing us talk about it on Facebook is a lot cooler than reading it on paper and then throwing it away,” said Hipperson.

Kip Simon is a managing partner at Captive Audience. He originally pitched the street team approach to SaskTel in 2006.

He said the main initiative behind the team is to stay in tune with youth culture and trends by being visible on campus and talking with students. Simon also came up with the Giant Student Deals social networking contest.

“I thought what better concept than get real, influential students putting together their own viral videos that they are encouraging their peers and other students to watch,” said Simon.

Andrew Au of Campus Intercept said blending offline with online campaigns is becoming popular across the country, and noted that currently brands are working to stay visible all year, not just during September.

“Students are so desensitized to traditional media, you know, what makes a real impression? When you scroll over a banner, does that make you actually want to buy the product, versus actually having a conversation on campus about how the product works?” said Au. “While the reach of [brand ambassadors] is smaller, the impact is greater.”

—
graphic: Brianna Whitmore/The Sheaf