Youth forms the single most switched on, focused, smart and widely passionate audience with its

own cares and issues. Young people do have money to burn, but they are highly selective when

deciding where to burn it.

Jack Wallington, Director of Community, shared tips and insights from recent

successful campaigns at The Brand Engagement & Innovation Theatre at

Marketing Week Live in April 2015.

We all have a stream of engagement:

If you tune into a young persons stream, you can…

• – Target relevant banner ads.

• - Inform with research, ask questions and collect data.

• – This is hard and involves insight, PR, viral, emotional

entertainment or long term social content.

• – Join in the social conversations and add useful content.

• – Help them swim faster and better.

Or get it wrong and wee in it – we don’t have a cat photo for that!

Being a youngster is one of the craziest times of

anyone's life.

No one has a spare minute anymore. We have to earn

their attention.

Young people are always changing. Our brains are still

developing until the age of 24, if not later into our

twenties. We are learning every day, and with that,

opinions change in a blink of an eye.

The only way to stay on top of the ever-changing options

is to really listen, and listen often.

Food, lectures, revision on laptops, using

mobiles, and socialising. BUSY BUSY BUSY!

Meticulously research, test and plan with young people in charge. Understand the time, pressures and shifting ideas by really listening.

Learn the stream of engagement. Forget what you know about planning, today’s youth have their own lives and plans – it’s time to work with them, not against them, using data as your guide.

Standard advertising works well, but techniques that are tailor-made for social work so much better. Work out how you can enhance teen’s super powers, in a way that works for them.

The next pages show you five campaigns that nailed these top three tips and generated amazing results.

This campaign surfed the stream of engagement, it ran alongside students’ conversations with targeted ads.

Include strong call to actions, never be too text heavy, andcreate a compelling story.

Getting your message to the right people in the right place.

Don’t waste time in targeting the wrong people.

This campaign drank from the stream of engagement; it put

students in charge using native content and research to

build useful information.

Co-branded ads created trust and value. How and where

you display your message is what matters. Get it right and

you’re winning.

Shake up your research methods to build engaging content

and increase the likelihood of purchase.

Using student ambassadors to test the products, gaining

genuine opinions about how great the product is.

in direct sales

in 3 months

uplift in students

considering HP

This campaign diverted the stream of engagement, by extending the weekly show’s audience on

The Student Room in a forum where young people gain 24/7 support from peers and experts.

By harnessing The Student Room’s audience, the surgery engaged with the right audience, in a

place where students were already talking about their issues and giving advice to others.

Sharing relevant emotive content intrigues the mind. Sharing this enables others to get involved

and starts conversations.

Understanding young peoples’ needs, decisions, and issues and knowing where they come from

is empowering. Give them a voice to help you understand them better.

uplift in students

considering HP

This campaign swam the stream of engagement, with long term content marketing and

social interactions, building stronger relationships.

By using The Student Room’s official rep, Student Finance engaged directly with

students who had concerns over money at university. Student finance navigated

students to their content and provided useful and relevant information.

Providing fresh content in a way students understand, and can relate to, works. Using

language they use every day and avoiding jargon will empower them and make them

feel like they have some control over their day to day stresses.

This campaign sped through the stream of engagement, by helping young

people swim faster and better through the student journey. UEA offered a £9k

fully paid for scholarship to make a student’s business Idea a reality.

By using co-branded creative, users felt more at ease with the competition and

trusted UEA through the whole campaign.

Positioning call-to-actions on the homepage, with announcements running all

over the site, and scheduled articles achieved high profile exposure.

With start-ups booming and entrepreneurial spirit everywhere, this competition

asked students to submit business ideas that would change the world. The

reaction was outstanding even amongst students that weren’t eligible.

Call Jack on: 01273 646 533

Email: Jack.wallington@thestudentroom.com