• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, January 4, 2010

Textbook rental site Chegg.com has launched a series of advertising spots across TV, radio and online to promote renting, rather than buying, as students head back to school after the holiday break.

The campaign is scheduled to run in 31 college markets across the U.S. to drive awareness for the program, which aims to help students cope with rising tuition costs. The spots will appear throughout the year, with the hardest push in January.

College and university professors teach students to question everything, according to Matt Murphy, vice president of marketing at Chegg.com. "There's a revolution going on across campuses to revolt against paying high tuition and textbook costs," he says. "We're trying to tap into that college experience through the campaign."

The campaign, created by NY Creative Director Doug Raboy, pushes a rent -- rather than buy -- mentality. It includes four unique cable television spots, radio advertising, a variety of online pieces, and search engine optimization (SEO).

The TV campaign satirizes the outrageous costs of textbooks by depicting cash-strapped students in a series of story lines that also playfully represent sayings. The spots range from students succumbing to the miserable bookstore prices with a dark yet humorous display of paying an "arm and a leg" to protest the high cost of the books.

The revolt leaves the group "flipping the bird" to the high cost of textbooks, and turning toward Chegg's mascot, Shelly, for help.

The TV spots promoting the service will appear on network and cable television, such as Comedy Central and MTV, as well as online on Hulu and YouTube. The radio spots will run on terrestrial stations and Pandora.

Raboy says display ads have begun running through a variety of online networks supported by digital marketing agency 360i. "We're testing demographic- and geotargeting to focus on age and location," he says. The campaign also includes retargeting through Netmining, the technology and the company acquired by Innovation Interactive in late 2008.

Chegg.com also tapped what it calls "Chegg Champions" to spread the word about the service, and in exchange these "brand ambassadors" get paid. The program offers students a financial reward and marketing experience. Every Chegg Champion who refers someone to the service through a viral marketing video earns $5 when that person places an order.

The videos have a special promotion code at the end that is tied to the Chegg Champion. The code tracks the referrals across social sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. The student who uses the code gets $5 off the book rental price.

Murphy admits the budget for this campaign increased "tenfold," compared with prior efforts, but declined to provide specifics.

Chegg.com also signed a partnership with RateMyProfessors.com, which Viacom owns. The deal allows students to click on a link to rent the textbooks through the site. Textbooks that cost about $100 to buy rent for between $30 and $40 per semester, quarter or 60 days, for example. The company has access to more than 2.4 million book titles.

For each book rented, Chegg.com plants a tree through a relationship with the non-profit American Forest foundation. About 1.5 million trees have been planted through the partnership.