May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor

Cover of The Hunger Games

I have never been a fan of fiction/fantasy literature. I read one “Harry Potter” book and about a chapter of the first “Twilight” book before I got bored and turned back to my standard reading fare, which consists of mostly nonfiction from the likes of Jon Krakeurer and Chuck Klosterman. A couple of days ago, I saw the trailer for “The Hunger Games” movie coming out in March, and it piqued my interest enough that I decided to give the first book a go. Forty-eight hours later, I am done and can’t wait to start the sequel; it is one of the most engrossing books I have ever read.

The story revolves around a post-apocalyptic United States with twelve different “districts” that are all ruled by an oppressive government that resides in the “Captiol.” Once a year, two “tributes” — a teenage male and female — are sent to fight in the annual Hunger Games, which is an all-out fight to the death among the 24 tributes; the games do not end until 23 of them are dead.

“The Hunger Games” is just the latest in the young adult (YA) genre literature to gain traction with a wider audience. The YA genre is consistently an area of the publishing world where sales continue to be strong. In 2009, adult hardcover sales were down 17.8%, whereas children’s/YA hardcover sales were up 30.7%. The college market likely had a lot to do with this (Carpenter, 2010).

There are several reasons the YA genre has become so popular, including: easy-to-understand plots, fast-paced character development and nostalgia for one’s own youth. The most common theme in YA literature is the classic coming-of-age story, even if vampires, wizards and fights to the death are mixed in.

The following is a list of the top ten best YA books for those of us who may be long past that YA stage. If you are in youth marketing, burying your nose in one of these books this winter should be part of your homework assignment.

Carpenter, Susan. “Young adult lit comes of age.” The Los Angeles Times 8 March 2010

Related articles

• The Hunger Games Movie Trailer (bookwormsreadmorebooks.com)
• Best Young Adult Books of the Year (omnivoracious.com)

Retail Marketing & Fashion with Polyvore

We’ve been helping our clients expand their presence with social media sites like Facebook. Through this, we have come across some very cool platforms, applications, and add-ons. One of the sites we like for the retail world is Polyvore.com. Clothing retailers and brands should be learning all they can about them and how to incorporate them into your site and social networking strategies. Look at their app for Facebook.

Polyvore defines themselves this way:

Express your style.

Mix & match products from your favorite stores.

Shop looks created by the web’s largest fashion community.

This is what it looks like –

She’s walking down the street, Blind to every eye she meets.. by maya3857 featuring Oasis bags

What does the site do? Polyvore allows people to create “sets” of clothes from different brands. The user/designer of the set is then able to add the set to their blog, share the set with the Polyvore community, buy the products in the set, and in the end, develop followers of the designers of the sets. It’s like having a virtual changing room with all of your favorite clothes from different designers in one place allowing you to mix and match.

Who should be on the site? Clothing brands of all kinds

Why should you be there? Thought leaders in fashion are engaging in the site. It’s primarily women right now.

Who develops the sets? Individual fashion enthusiasts and brands alike.

How to get involved? Contact us and we can help you out.  You can also sign up via their site.

The Process of Building Your Recruitment Brand

I presented the 16 Tools to Build Your Brand and Recruit the Very Best at the NACE National Conference last week. Before we begin discussing each of the points from that presentation, I wanted to give an overview on our strategic process to recruiting so you have a frame of reference.

Campus Media has an internal philosophy about the process needed to be successful with recruitment marketing and advertising. Below is a diagram of the process, but let me explain each of these parts for you.

We see a great deal of companies who look at the college market and start their marketing play with “we want to do ‘x’ or ‘y,'” but haven’t thought through what effect it will have on your organization. Many approach their brand building by doing the same things year after year. With how quickly things are changing these days, it’s  important to be conscious of each step and determine what the net effect is going to be before you start and execute your recruitment plan. Then start the process all over again for your next initiative. This process can be used annually or semi-annual depending on your budget and planning cycles. More often is better than not due to how fast the student mind-sets are changing these days. The economy is having a strong effect on this too. Two years ago a recruitment brand strategy was very different than it is today.

Let’s break apart each step:

1. Company – This is what you more than likely already have in place. It’s what your business, department, etc. has defined as who you are, why you do what you do as a company, what you want your consumers to think of your brand, your key competitive advantages and products.

2. Customer – In a recruitment context the customer is the student you are looking to influence/hire. You need to define what your consumer think of you. Most of the time your brand view doesn’t align with what the public thinks your brand is. This is where research comes in to play. What does the customer think your competitive advantages are? Why do they buy or want to work from you? What do you offer that others don’t? What’s your brand mean versus your competition? If your “Company” elements above don’t align with the “Customer’s” way of thinking and what’s important to them, then your campaign will not likely achieve the goals set out for the program that’s being developed.

3. Planning and Strategy – This stage is where the 16 tools start to come together and your ROI is developed. What message will you use? Where will the message be located? Do you need to make changes to how your teams are dressed or what they talk about when interacting with the students? When does your marketing happen? How does it help effect the disconnect that likely exists between stages 1 and 2 above? Do you need to make changes to your website or Facebook page or YouTube channel or handouts or booth design or videos or…or…or…? Run through everything to ensure each tool you use is on message and in the right places to cause the shift needed in your consumer’s mindset about your brand/company.

4. Execution – This is the “get it done” stage. Execute on the brand message, website strategies, on campus events, speaking, career fairs, social media, etc.

5. 20/20 – In this stage, take a look at what went well… or poorly. Do your follow up consumer research to see if your goals/objectives outlined in the planning and strategy stage occurred. What did you learn? Did you hire the students you expected to hire? Why or why not? In essence, you should be able to define if you hit the ROI elements you outlined in phase 3.

Campus Advertising with SportBoards

SportBoards also contain information about intramural sports and fitness class schedules.

Campus advertising just got easier for national brands. SportBoards are placed in high-traffic areas on campus such as fitness and recreational centers. National brands now have the ability to reach active and health-conscious college students through a channel that is university approved!

Your 21″x31″ ad is placed with info and announcements relevant to intramural sports, aerobics and fitness class schedules, and other campus activities. All production setup and costs are included in a network package, saving you time and money.

SportBoards like this are located in campus recreation & fitness centers

SportBoards by the numbers

• 200 major campuses nationally
• Reach: 10 million+ impressions per posting
• 2.7 million college youth

Custom product sampling opportunities also exist inside the recreation and fitness centers. Be sure to ask us how you can get your product sample in the hands of millions of students in a controlled environment.

Click here or call 952-854-3100 ext. 214 today to request a list of campuses, posting periods, and pricing options.