Students Want Entertainment From Online Brands

Digital Social
Student audience youth millennial consumer

James Eder from StudentBeans.com has good advice for marketers when it comes to engaging with students. The founder of the student discounts and free stuff hub shared some valuable insights with Marketing magazine from the organisation’s Freshers’ Marketing Report. The results were based on a survey among 1,515 university students in the UK. 

The research revealed that 87% of students want entertainment, information and inspiration when engaging with a brand on social media. Some 50% of 18-24s admit they are not willing to hold conversations with brands on social media, and a third say they don’t follow any brands at all on such platforms.

Students have always been a demographic deemed hard to reach and even more difficult to engage, but the research suggests that with the right message on the right platform, brands could approach this age group and make them loyal. Students now spend more time online than in front of the TV and communicating with friends, with a third of them doing so 20 hours (or even more) a week. According to Eder, students are eager to get services “on demand”; they want to be given the opportunity to choose, starting a new journey as independent consumers and defining themselves through the brands they decide to follow and use. The Internet is the main place where they have the chance to do so, he said.

In addition to the web, mobile is also important, as 36% of respondents say they would be happy to use their device to purchase items in-store. More than 50% of students also treat their mobile phone as their top assistant for reading e-mails and checking social media.