Campus Collaborative Marketing: Taking advantage of the university environment

By Morayo Koku

People typically think of Influencer collaborations when they hear the words “Collaborative marketing”, and to a certain extent, they are right.

The idea behind collaborative marketing is that two or more like-minded brands come together to create a campaign. However, there are other ways of participating in collaborative marketing aside from influencer marketing.

Why do brands do this?

Simple, it’s because “No man is an island”. Sometimes they cannot achieve their goals alone. Involving other brands who have similar interests as them helps to reach the target of the campaign.

For example, take how the Barbie brand partnered with several retail brands, amongst others, in raising awareness for its movie. Equally, the retail companies benefitted from this because Barbie fans flocked to their limited-edition Barbie-themed products. Another is the 2014, Spotify and Uber collaboration. The premium Spotify users could control the music played during their Uber rides.

This is not only for the “big brands”. Student Entrepreneurs can leverage this marketing strategy. This is because it is easier to network within a small space compared to bigger audiences outside the university environment. The risk involved is usually less and there are resources for the student seeking guidance. This could be from professors, utilizing the universities library and finding skilled individuals at an affordable rate.

For the student entrepreneurs to do this they need to consider their customers, goals, and which brand will be perfect for a partnership. This article suggests ways student business owners can perform marketing strategy.

4 Ways to Engage in Collaborative Marketing on Campus

Hit up other student business owners for joint promotions or events: The main point is
identifying the goal and using this as a tool. For instance, a student who is a hairstylist collaborates with a student who is a makeup artist. They both create a “Project Glam” project where both of their client bases get access to their hairstyling and makeup. This can increase the number of clients.
Partner up with student media houses and student-led organizations: An example is a student who sells food partnering with student food videographers or bloggers.
Sponsor an event on campus: This can help raise awareness if the branded merchandise of that product is given.
Speak with the planning committee of student programs: When events or parties come up a collaboration where the student who is a digital marketer can offer a few classes on digital marketing for the event and in return the students will register on his/her platform.

Before jumping into collaborative marketing, consider doing enough research about the strategies for creating an effective collaborating marketing campaign also techniques in choosing the right brand to partner with for marketing.

These resources are readily available on learning platforms. Here is an interesting conversation about collaborative marketing to watch https://youtu.be/kL6zaY9vQG0?si=Fuq5JKZX02QurLQD