One creative team that broke out of their rut to target the elusive student population was the intellectual publication The Economist. During their research they discovered that many students thought that The Economist was difficult to read because it’s strictly content with very few pictures, which was much different from what the target market was used to reading. Traditional weekly news publications in the United States tend to have lots of photos and graphs to break up the reading and make it more easily digestible. The Economist could have easily cut down its publication and made its stories easy for anyone to read, but that would mean compromising its content quality, which is something they pride themselves on. Instead of trying to bend their publication to their target market, they decided to entice the selected demographic with a creative campaign with the tagline “Think Responsibly.” The campaign is comprised of advertising in their own magazine and online that featured their recognizable red background with a bottle cap in the center imprinted with “The Economist” logo where the beverage’s brand would be on the cap and the words “Think Responsibly” below it—a play on the “Drink Responsibly” campaign that the college crowd is used to seeing. They then entice students, or parents in the print version, to subscribe with a more affordable yearly discount and free t-shirt. The Economist took a chance that their marketing would turn off current users, but it didn’t and has been very well received.
Once a company decides to pursue a creative campaign, it’s important to carry that theme through the entire marketing campaign. A personal example of this was when I worked as a marketing manager for a business-to-business services company that helped clients gain the attention of government buyers. The marketing theme likened government contracts to fish and the company would help the client cast their nets and catch contracts. This campaign became a huge draw at an industry trade event when the theme was utilized in the booth. With fisherman’s netting stretched over a 12-foot-high structure and agency names strung through the netting using twisted paperclips to resemble hooks, the theme carried through into a very unique booth. For giveaways, which are always important to attract people, t-shirts just weren’t going to cut it. The fishing theme was continued with small, squeezable, brightly colored fish with the company’s name imprinted on the side. Hundreds of fish were poured into two 10-gallon fish tanks and set on the table.
Before the event even started, people would walk by and snag a few fish out of the tanks. At that point, we knew the fish were going to be huge. They were so popular that word of these fish spread among the fair and within a few hours they were gone. The lesson learned was to always make sure to have sufficient stock, especially if you bring something interesting and new.
Giveaways aside, what had really attracted people was a unique booth that stood out from the rest. Many companies travel to trade shows with the standard pop-up booths that fit neatly into a few hard-plastic cases that can be shipped. Having something different to make the company stand out will make the booth be more visually appealing, which will attract more potential customers through creativity. This can be accomplished through photos or projected video and images that will draw people closer to look at what the booth has to offer.
Another important factor in a successful campaign is promotions. It’s always important to have a giveaway that will attract an audience. Many banks have used creative ways to get college students to sign up for credit cards. By setting up on college campuses to offer free t-shirts or a university branded design, throughout the years, they’ve signed up thousands of new customers through this method. This used to be the most effective way to enroll new credit card holders, but with more and more campuses insisting that no application information be taken on campus, it’s more important than ever to attract students off-campus.
Through creative marketing, a company can offer their credit card options by joining the product with an educational seminar focusing on how to build and maintain excellent credit. Debunking credit myths will inspire young students that haven’t owned a credit card previously to start building their credit. The best way to get students to this seminar is to offer free food. Off-campus food is especially tantalizing towards the middle of the semester when the same old meal plan starts looking like torture. Companies may be temped to do something at the end of the semester when money is running short. But this is a bad time for students as early December is when most of their papers are due or exams take place. They will focus only on their studies during that time, which will decrease attendance.
Offering free food at the end of the seminar will allow time for the applications collected to be looked over for accuracy and entered into the database for a quick credit decision, which saves processing time and money, as well as providing the instant-gratification generation with a decision. Now, in today’s privacy-concerned society, a form asking for a person’s name, address and social security number will raise concerns. But any trained sales associate can mitigate that concern and encourage the person to sign up, which is why it’s so important to hire staff with excellent customer service skills and product knowledge to make the event successful.
Marketers should also try to tap into students’ creative social side. Because variable data is increasingly becoming less costly, many banks allow for unique designs on credit cards. Having a credit card or checks with individualized designs can be extremely important to students. One way to tap into this is through online applications in their social networks like MySpace and Facebook that can not only allow users to create their own design, but to also post it to their personal page and share it with friends. These social networks are strong for Word of Mouth (WOP) as anything new can be published on their news feed, so all their friends will see what they’ve done. When designing this type of application any financial institution would want to have the “apply now” link on the page. It’s important to have, but it cannot be obvious or require the user to sign up their friends or the participation will strongly decline. This generation does not want to be sold to, so by using different, less-obvious phrases like, “Send me the design” a marketer can increase the clickthrough rate. As with any new marketing initiative it’s important to optimize positions, pictures and phrases through examining the results of each different variable.
In our current economy, with consumer confidence in the financial industry on the decline, it’s the perfect time to break away from the usual clutter of direct mailings and eNewsletters. Using new and innovative creative marketing, promotions and giveaways, any financial institution can restore confidence and increase revenue.
