Red Bull have known for some time know how effective peer based recommendation and partnerships with student ambassadors can be. It’s a strategy that isn’t limited to FMCG products.
Airline JetBlue is also trying its hand at leaning on the power of the campus. JetBlue recently launched a programme to promote its cheap fares to college students partnering with Mr. Youth. From Washington Square News:
Yesterday, NYU’s campus representative for JetBlue Airways, SCPS junior Alex Early, hosted an event with prizes including free plane tickets, Dunkin Donuts gift certificates and bags of blue tortilla chips.
Early first got involved with JetBlue when he came across an ad in WSN his freshman year. From there, Early participated in CrewBlue, a program organized by JetBlue that places campus representatives at universities across the country.
At least 700 students stopped by the JetBlue stand outside of Kimmel to try their luck at the raffle, bowling, paper airplane-making and hula-hooping contests.
JetBlue seem to be growing their beachhead of consumer advocates effectively and organically. Seth Godin promotes the company in his book “Small is the New Big”.
Consultants at Next Great Thing draw an interesting analogy.
Student brand ambassadors are the offline equivalent of widgets. Here me out. They are creating branded utility–something useful and fun for their peers to engage with. Friends bring friends, so it also spreads virally. There’s even a rev share component like new social shopping widgets. Of course, brand ambassadors also network online; Early has a facebook groups (natch), JetBlue at NYU.
However, “buzz” and consumer advocacy are often difficult to engineer, more the product of corporate DNA as opposed to a craftily executed marketing campaign. As long as the mobile industry refers to its consumers as “users” and talks about “value chain”, attempts to build consumer advocacy are mere drops in the ocean of misplaced efforts. Here’s BrandChannel reporting on JetBlue’s CEO and his attitude towards their market:
When asked what the greatest offense of the large carriers is, Edmondson-Jones hit the nail on the head by saying “Indifference. Indifference directed at the passenger. It’s easy to feel that you’ve lost your dignity flying the big guys. You are a number and a boarding pass. It’s like a cattle call…. Everyone’s trying to shave three or four cents off a passenger. Passenger expectations are so low that when you help them with their baggage, it’s a real shock from what they’re used to.” He went on to add: “It’s amazing that the level of expectations for airlines in general and especially for discount entrants is so low that if you set your standards high, it’s easy to create a reputation for customer service.”
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