The Hindu Business Line : When brands go to college ...

AIRTEL is one of the brands that sees college cultural festivals as a way to connect with youth. At IIT-Madras' Saarang, it kept the approach informal, to blend with the mood.

Think college festivals and one immediately conjures up images of excited students, edge-of-the-seat contests, ear-splitting music and of course, lots of food, fun, noise and chatter. But college festivals are not boogie time for students alone. A hotbed of all things young and vibrant, these fests are proving to be a happy hunting ground for corporates as well. And the role of corporates is not limited to financial sponsorship alone as each company is finding newer and innovative ways to etch its brand name among the young leaders of tomorrow.

Targeting youth

Says Arunav Sinha, Manager, Corporate Communication, i-soft, one of the co-sponsors of Saarang-2006, IIT-Madras' cultural festival, regarded as one of the largest student festivals in the country: "Saarang is a strong brand, attracting a lot of attention not only from students but from parents as well. Cultural festivals such as these help target students, feed and familiarise the brand among them and increase brand recall."

Suresh Kumar, Director, Mindspark Consulting, says most brands see college fests as a vehicle to supplement their core marketing campaign. "So, it works as a reminder medium to enhance a brand's visibility among youth."

For Airtel, the principal sponsor of Saarang, it's all about brand connect. Says Raghunath Mandava, COO, Airtel, Chennai and Tamil Nadu, "Our subscription numbers reveal youth is our touch point. We have 1.7 million customers in Tamil Nadu; about 40 per cent are below 35 years of age. The college segment accounts for 20 per cent of our subscribers. Saarang has a large congregation of youngsters, and the mobile phone being a youth-centric product, it makes sense to associate with them."

Employment base

Some companies look at these festivals as a base for employment opportunities given the large student turnout. i-Soft tested the waters at Saarang last year and realised the "phenomenal recruitment potential" the cultural festival threw up; "there were nearly 30 internship requests."

Cultural festivals are a good platform for below-the-line activities targeted at the youth, "especially those from engineering colleges," which is where we look for our employment needs, says Sinha.

Says Rajesh Dahiya, Head, Tata Administrative Services and Sourcing, Tata Sons Ltd, which has been the principal sponsor of IIM-Ahmedabad's management festival, Confluence, for four years now: "We get involved in events that suit our larger programme — recruitment. We are a premium employment brand and this networking gives us more visibility and long-term connectivity.

"We as a group do not look at youth as consumers but as future employees. These fests help us assess them, it's a good learning experience for us. Last year, I took along 40-50 managers across the seven B-schools. There was a valid association between this and job turnout."

Interaction is key

Going beyond monetary support, sponsors now find innovative ways for greater interaction with their target audience.

i-Soft organised interactive activities and contests for students during Saarang — crosswords and quizzes based on the company, its products and operations. They were a big hit with over 6,000 responses, says Sinha, and the lucky winner walked away with an iPod.

Airtel and Hutch too blended with the informal atmosphere during festivals through interactive sessions. Says K. Sankara Narayanan, COO - Chennai, Hutchison Essar South Ltd, which was associated with the cultural festivals at Ethiraj College and Women's Christian College in Chennai: "We believe in adding value to the festival. We don't indulge in any overt branding or sales pitch since we do not like to interfere with the look and feel of the festival."

The telecom company set up its Mobile Shop at Ethiraj College during Shristi, its cultural festival, to cater to people on campus. There were also a whole lot of games and interactive sessions at its stalls. In another creative effort, the company offered caller tunes to students based on the college's popular anthem or catch phrase.

Hutch is also working on a mobile-based campus initiative — Campus Connect. "This is a college community development activity that we will do with the active participation of the students and the college administration," says Narayanan. But the initiative is still nascent and more news on this front is expected soon.

Adds Airtel's Mandava: "As a brand, we have good recall value, but we need to focus on making people touch and feel the brand and make them realise it's not only for talking, but for music downloads, games, and so on."

Some of the company's key offerings - such as Airtel Live, Blackberry, Hello tunes, music downloads and data cards — were demonstrated at the Airtel Zone during Saarang. At IIT's open air theatre, Airtel put up a huge screen onto which SMSs sent by Airtel customers were displayed.

As for Tata, it believes in interacting with the student community on an intellectual level.

"Apart from monetary aid and showcasing Tata products at stalls, we bring in senior business leaders from Tata group companies as participants in discussions and round tables. When 200 students take part in a round table, the interaction is tremendous. At Confluence, over 200 B-schools took part; about 25 were from abroad. So, this gets us immediate visibility to the overseas markets too," says Dahiya.

The Tata group is involved with seven B-schools in the country - the four IIMs (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow), XLRI, Jamshedpur, Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi, and S. P. Jain Institute of Management Research, Mumbai. It also organises the Tata Crucible quiz at various college campuses - another initiative at striking rich with the youth.

Relevance

So, do these attempts really click? What are the ground rules?

Says Mindspark's Suresh Kumar: "A brand's communication is effective when it's compelling and involving. The fundamental guideline for a brand to participate in a college fest is relevance to the target audience. Who's relevant to the brand? Is it youth in general or specifically medical students or B-school students? Also the location, relevance and type of festival. Do they fit with the brand's marketing programme?"

Says Tata's Dahiya, "While sponsoring an event, the company must be clear about its association — sell yourself or your product. This networking with colleges no doubt helps, but it could be structured and designed better for greater benefits."

As youth marketing takes on more innovative dimensions on campus, it could very well make a subtle but significant difference to the brand's consumer connect.

More Stories on : Brands | Education | Music & Dance

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