Brand consistency? Does such a thing exist? Typically the amount of times a brand image has changed can be counted on one hand. Or in some cases the changes are so small the majority of consumers don’t necessarily recognize a change has been made. Or at least when they notice they aren’t offended.

Yes, there are cases in which branding has become news. Like when the GAP decided to (or not) make changes to its iconic logo.

Most branding conversations are relegated to discussing how the Starbucks siren has changed over the years, but have you ever stopped to think, “How has Batman updated his brand over the last 60+ years?” I never had either until I came across this amazing article on Fast Co. Design. The Batman logo has been updated upwards of 30 times over the years. Take a look at this great infographic that Cathryn Lauer from Calm the Ham created and is featured on Fast Co. Design. What is your favorite? Mine isn’t Batman & Robin.

The post Branding: It’s an Evolution appeared first on Off Campus Media.

Bell explains that although marketing your brand online and through digital media is important, equally as effective is word of mouth. College students spend a great deal of their time socializing, especially about products and places they love. If brands can find one consumer who loves their product, growth will ensue as he or she talks about it to their friends. Eventually, the popularity of the product will grow and results will be seen.

Another important aspect that can really help brands reach out to this group of consumers is a campus ambassador. Just like word of mouth, if a student is really passionate about a product, he or she will spread the word in their institution and promote it in a positive way. This can in turn lead to much more growth and a stronger relationship between seller and consumer.

Lastly, Bell proposes another suggestion that I had not thought of before. College students like giving back, and are drawn to companies selling products that in one way or another are tied to some type of charity organization. A good example is TOMS, through their donations of shoes to those who need them, people feel as though they’re helping others by purchasing a pair. If students feel as though companies care about those In need, it is more likely they will be drawn to the cause being presented and their products.

The article points out some effective tips on how to appeal more to this type of audience. As a college student myself, I definitely see how they can lead to successful marketing planning. I thoroughly value the opinions of my friends, so if they share something they enjoy I will most likely be interested. With that thought in mind, if I really like a product and I am excited about it, I will also talk about it to anyone who will listen. College students can be a tricky group of people to appeal to, but with these helpful suggestions, brands can pave a successful path in accomplishing the task.

To check out the article in it’s entirety visit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leah-bell/misconceptions-of-marketing-to-college-students_b_1877869.html

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Among the list, there were a few in particular that caught my eye. With so many campaign commercials being aired on television, one can’t help but wonder which groups are supporting which ads, and what their purpose is in doing so. With the app Ad Hawk , users can record the ad with their iPhones or Androids, and then get information about sponsorship, how much money was spent in making them, and where they have been aired geographically. This is helpful in figuring out what kind of message each campaign is trying to put out, and whether or not it should influence you, the voter.

For a constantly updated source of news involving both parties and the progress of the election, there is NBC Politics. Although this app is limited to Apple users who own an IPhone or IPad, it brings great insight onto the most recent and popular political events and happenings. Conveniently enough, on election night polls will be updated in real time to keep the user in the know about who is winning.

If you belong to a specific party and want to be informed about one in particular, there is an app for that too! The Obama mobile app features all of Obama’s views and plans from education to the economy. Furthermore, it includes ways to donate and view upcoming Obama events for anyone who would like to participate. Although Romney does not have an app with the same purpose, the Fox News app provides users with shows, live debates and articles with opinions and topics that will draw the interest of those in the Republican Party. Voters can hear, watch, and read all the latest information regarding Romney and his campaign.

Lastly, for those who love polls, there is PollTracker. This app provides all sorts of polls from a large variety of sources that provides awareness in regards to the nation’s opinions regarding each candidate. Constantly being updated, users can always be informed with who is being favored not only in the nation as a whole, but also by state.

With so many election apps being constantly released, it is difficult to decide which ones are for you. However, as someone who always likes being informed on the latest politically, it is exciting to see how the development of technology is helping election news be more accessible to people of all ages. Through these apps voters can make informed decisions that will hopefully ensure the successful future of our nation. Happy voting!

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“Bonfyre redefines sharing in a way that more accurately reflects how people live real life: through shared memories,” said Jim McKelvey, co-founder of Square and a member of Bonfyre’s advisory board. “This focus makes Bonfyre a dynamic social graph built around experiences rather than an accumulation of connections that become less relevant over time.”

Read the full story, here.

The post Bonfyre Takes on Private Mobile Sharing with New App Focused on Real Life, Not Newsfeeds appeared first on Off Campus Media.

The post OCM Monthly Insights – August 2012 appeared first on Off Campus Media.

Retrieved from iurecsports.org

1. Welcome week – The first week is always a fun time on campus.  Classes have yet to really pick up and everyone is out and about looking for something to do.  This is a great time to access students before they start heading to the library every day.

1. Parent’s weekend – Every school it seems has a parent’s weekend in the fall to help the freshman adjust.  There will be plenty of activities planned, and therefore plenty of opportunities to get involved.

1. Football games – At many schools, the fall is synonymous with football, whether their team is good or bad, big or small.  Football games are events for students.  Piggyback on their school pride and you should fit in perfectly at that tailgate.

1. Homecoming week – Of course every football team will have a homecoming game, and subsequently a homecoming week.  This week is full of spirit-boosting events around campus.  Sponsoring or throwing an event this week will surely attract a lot of eyes.

1. Mid-term & Finals week – These weeks tend to be less fun for students.  Nonetheless, if your company or brand can make the lives of these stressed out students easier, they will be more than willing to listen.

The fall semester is an electric time on any campus.  It’s also a time when students get out, get involved, and are very accessible.  Marketing on campus during these times can make the fall exciting for your company as well.

The post 5 Campus Marketing Opportunities Every Fall appeared first on Off Campus Media.

Check out the infographic below for 5 key insights!

Interesting in working with us to better to understand your college audience? Contact us today and a member of the business development team will reach out soon!

The post OCM Insights: Hottest Brands & Emerging Trends [Infographic] appeared first on Off Campus Media.

These sites have a tremendous capacity for extracting information about you, and they gladly do so to make a profit. Some would say that it is also beneficial to the consumer to only see ads they are likely to be interested in, but many users have begun to feel that what these companies are doing is a violation of their privacy. A recent study shows that people trust their grocery store with their personal information more than internet titans Amazon, Google and Facebook.

An infographic recently posted on mashable.com breaks down the type of data these huge companies gather, how they gather it, and how they use it. It’s very interesting to see what each company does and doesn’t do with your personal information. But it also makes you realize the power and wealth of knowledge they possess.

So, do you have concerns about your social media privacy?  Which companies have your trust and why? Take a look at the infographic below and let us know what you think in the comments!

Retrieved from mashable.com.

The post What is the State of Your Social Media Privacy? appeared first on Off Campus Media.

On June 13^th, 2012, mashable.com posted an article by Matt Silverman about what it would take to kill off Facebook, “the king of social.”  Silverman outlined problematic issues for Facebook in the near future such as adjusting it’s organizational culture as a now public company, their entry into the Chinese market, the ability to monetize their users, and the shifting of their focus to mobilization.

One observation Silverman made that I found to be particularly interesting was the assertion that Facebook has transitioned from just a social network to the ‘online identity’ for its users.  As Silverman puts it, Facebook has become a “critical piece of online infrastructure” for anyone who uses the internet, which in the year of 2012 is just about everyone.

Facebook began, as many of you know, as an online space for Harvard students to connect with each other.  It’s earliest expansion efforts stayed only on college campuses and for college students.  Besides the fact that Zuckerberg & Co. were college students at the time of its inception, they also realized the power of college students’ ability to spread the word and set an example for many of what is to be considered “cool.”  That brings us to today.  Facebook has become extremely saturated, especially in America where its growth is slowing, with parents, employers, and in general just people who it was not originally intended for.  This could end up having a tremendous affect on the college demographic.  College kids seem to value their privacy and being able to live in their own collegiate world, a main reason why Facebook took off the way it did.  With employers now scouring potential employees’ Facebook profiles and parents commenting on everything their child does, Facebook has begun to become uncool for many college kids.  Combine that with the explosion of mobile applications and other online communities, such as Twitter, and the importance of having your “online identity” on Facebook could become very unimportant to college kids.

This leads me to wonder, “What happens to Facebook if it loses the college demographic?”  I think this would leave Facebook with somewhat of a minor organizational identity crisis.  Obviously Facebook has grown large enough to survive without the college demographic, and that demographic does not even apply in many Facebook-popular countries.  But I would have to think that it would be difficult for the founders of Facebook to lose the users they invented this platform for.  Especially because they could be very helpful in Facebook’s monetization dilemma.  Any company wondering how to reach college students would be wise to utilize marketing on Facebook.

The beauty with Facebook, of course, is the ability for college students to share what they are interested in and purchasing with all of their friends.  This dynamic is especially effective among college students, who are still heavily influenced by what other people their age are doing.  How to reach college students?  Facebook has resorted to digital peer pressure, and as Facebook’s exploding popularity showed us, it actually works.

The post Could Facebook Lose the College Market? appeared first on Off Campus Media.

Connecting college students to products they want and need

Like a lot of Washington University undergraduates, Raymond Gobberg and Mark Sawyier found it difficult to locate a decent apartment off campus — a problem that’s not particularly unique.

Their solution certainly was.

Today, Movingoffcampus.com, the website the pair created, helps about 2 million college students every year track down suitable housing.

But the duo came away with more than a successful business experience. They also learned a lesson.

“What we realized from Moving Off Campus … is that that wasn’t an isolated incident,” said Sawyier, 27. “In fact, college students have very different problems and search for information differently than everyone else.”

And that epiphany marked the birth of a new concept, Off Campus Media, a unique “bottom-up” approach to marketing that provides media strategy, feedback and product development to clients so they can tailor their wares to meet the needs of an increasingly mobile university audience.

“We work with clients to really help them understand how their products and their tools can actually help college students and create value for them,” said Sawyier.

The pair said that if a company doesn’t create value, they won’t take it on as a client.

Or as their website puts it: “It’s not about college students supporting your brand; it’s about your brand supporting college students.”

Gobberg, 25, said Off Campus Media knows how to connect students “with the brands they care about” and create “a feedback loop” to help clients develop their programs.

Much of OCM’s heavy lifting is done by its “ambassadors,” a cadre of students, spread across more than 100 campuses nationwide, who advance client interests while learning to create effective campaigns to promote products.

They do all the traditional stuff like guerilla marketing, event planning and social media. But in deference to its roots of helping college kids find apartments, the company, tucked behind Interstate 44 in a comfortable 6,500 square foot office along Shaw Boulevard, sees itself as a service as much for students as for clients.

Gobberg and Sawyier wince when the word “promotions” enters the conversation. That implies a “push,” they say and OCM doesn’t push students to buy products. Rather, it provides ways for products to solve needs that students have.

Sawyier posits a hypothetical suit maker as a client.

“What our ambassadors would help us achieve is developing a program around helping college students better prepare for the interview they will wear the suit for,” he said. “Through that process of education and saying, ‘Here are tips to land the job,’ you are going to be creating value for college students and achieve your objective of selling more suits.”

In some ways, the pair represent the new breed of marketer who, in the age of the internet when everyone is a content provider, sees marketing not as a message but as a conversation.

It’s not “the gimmicky marketing tactics you see on a lot of college campuses, handing out flyers or throwing around product. We are able to leverage our connections in our hiring process on campus to build programs that connect in credible and authentic ways.”

Sawyier agrees. He said that students who lack the “social capital” that authenticity brings aren’t going to be of much use to anyone.

“A big brand can run an ambassador program and mandate, ‘OK, update your Facebook status 20 times a day with our 25-percent-off special on whatever it might be,’” he said. “That is going to reduce and erode an individual’s social capital because they are just spamming their friends. We put value at the center (and) that enables our ambassadors to build social capital on campus.”

That can also mean teaming up with student groups or charities.

“We do a lot of partnerships with philanthropies where we can bring a big grant to the local level to support causes students care about at that particular campus,” Sawyier said.

And now OCM is generating buzz in a different way. The company just closed a $750,000 funding round for its latest project, Bonfyre, a location-based app launched last year. Sawyier said that in the first few months nearly 18 percent of the Washington University campus signed up. Today, a quarter of all Wash U students have an account.

Reserved exclusively for a college audience, Bonfyre allows users to put together events online instead of mass texting or calling dozens of individual invitees.

“Our mission is to be the best tool for college students to better organize and share the best experiences of their college lives with the people they care about, and no one else,” Sawyier said.

A “what’s hot” map shows popular locations based on check-ins; local businesses can target special offers to the younger demographic they hope to attract.

“Merchants knows exactly to whom they are talking,” Sawyier said. “What that achieves is this wonderful harmony with both college students and merchants.”

So far, that harmony has been kind to Off Campus Media. It doesn’t release specific numbers, but Gobberg and Sawyier said the company is profitable and recently tripled its office square footage. This year, it’s nearly doubled its staff, going from seven full-time employees to 13.

“What we are really focused on now is building a model we can scale,” said Gobberg.

Gobberg, who spent time on active duty in Afghanistan, is a native of the Chicago area and Sawyier is from Manhattan. Though neither were born here, both say St. Louis is a great place to start a business. Gobberg notes the support the pair received from Wash U’s Skandalaris Center.

Sawyier said the community is ripe for innovative ideas.

“One of the best things about St. Louis is the depth of talent that exists here,” he said. “There are a number of huge companies that call St. Louis home and hire some of the best and brightest. When you combine that with the burgeoning tech/entrepreneurial community bubbling up over the last year or two, there are some exciting things happening and we’re proud to be a part of that.”

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