College Buzz

Interesting article in The Boston Globe on college buzz marketing campaigns.   It's been a while since I've been a student on a college campus, but I'm pretty sure if some dorky buzz marketing guy approached me with a Microsoft T-shirt promoting some new product I'd tell him to screw himself. Some of these word-of-mouth campaigns sound pretty damn seedy, they just don't sit well with me. 

Microsoft is among a growing number of companies seeking to reach the elusive but critical college market by hiring students to be ambassadors -- or, in more traditional terms, door-to-door salesmen.

In an age when the college demographic is no longer easily reached via television, radio, or newspapers -- as TiVo, satellite radio, iPods, and the Internet crowd out the traditional advertising venues -- a microindustry of campus marketing has emerged. Niche firms have sprung to act as recruiters of students, who then market products on campus for companies such as Microsoft, JetBlue Airways, The Cartoon Network, and Victoria's Secret. (link via Agenda)