October 2007

These days the University is a place where you go for a few hours each day, attend a couple of classes then go home. http://games.internode.on.net. (Forum). 

Students are busy  - most work part-time, an economic necessity and vital to getting a job after graduation.   Many classes are online, cheaper to deliver for cash-strapped unis and convenient for the ‘education consumer’.  In short, students are off-campus.  It has been a long time since the average student has had the time to enjoy the societies, newspapers and activities provided by student organisations.  The fact that these resources are fast disappearing has barely registered for the majority.

Students are on the bus, the train, the web, the beach, in the malls, in pubs and clubs, at their jobs and at their mates.  So  - how best to reach this most mobile of consumer group?   The demise of the student paper has seen the street press category resurgent.  Live music has made a comeback and street press titles provide the most comprehensive local What’s On information to young readers across Australia.  Street press is easily available with free distribution via the venues frequented by the target audience.  It is a trusted medium; the big capital titles have been published since the eighties and are CAB-audited.  Perth’s Xpress magazine, published since 1985 has an audited circulation of 40,000 copies per week, the biggest in Australia.   New titles for regional centres such as Tasmania, Newcastle and the Sunshine Coast have successfully launched in the past few years.

University is a time of self-discovery, and students do not want to feel they are part of a production line. They want to be the first to hear something new, and to share this knowledge with their peers.    Community radio plays the new music first and early adopters (students fit this profile) reject the repetitive FM radio playlist.

I don’t really think in terms of students, says Celia Donovan, a former Marketing Manager for the University of New South Wales Student Union and now the Marketing Manager for Spots & Space, media representatives for street press nationally.   I think in terms of 18-25 year olds, typically living at home, who are working or studying, often doing both.  They meet at events, or online.  Marketers need to look at the community of interest, not where they study.  Street press and community radio catch this demographic on the move, and add valuable reach and relevance to national campaigns that can include ambient, experiential, online and mainstream media.

In terms of on-campus corporate marketing opportunities, O-Week remains a significant annual event that captures the attention of many students.  After that, events and activities are highly fragmented and tend to attract small numbers of the same students over and over throughout the year, according to Donovan. 

It would be wrong to say the Federal Government’s VSU legislation is responsible for the death of campus life.  In truth, the ‘hollow’ campus has been a long time coming.  The process started with the introduction of HECS fees in 1989 - a move that made being a student a suddenly serious undertaking.  By 2005, when Voluntary Student Unionism legislation was passed, the majority of students were frankly relieved that student organisations could no longer collect their hefty annual levy. 

Written by Celia Donovan

Former Marketing Manager and Commercial Services Manager for the UNSW Student Union from (1999-2003)

Currently Marketing Manager for media sales representation company Spots & Space Pty Ltd

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