Commentary

Free Coffee, Bad Grades?

The majority of college students live on a fixed budget, but the demographic is a highly targeted, desirable audience. Except in Amsterdam, where advertisers have found it difficult marketing to students on Dutch campuses and universities.

THEY created a unique campaign for CoffeeCompany that infiltrated campuses and rewarded students with free coffee.

The concept began with word-of-mouth buzz from CoffeeCompany baristas, who informed college students about a CoffeeCompany-branded Web site. The site featured branded slides that students could download and slip into a class PowerPoint presentation.

The slides resemble coffee- and sugar-stained napkins; amusing copy makes it overtly clear why the slide is meshed with schoolwork. "I got free coffee to put this slide in my presentation," reads one slide. Other slides simply read as an ad for CoffeeCompany or inject humor into a sterile presentation: "I finished this presentation at 4 in the morning thanks to CoffeeCompany" and "This slide made my presentation exactly one page longer."

To receive the prize of 10 free coffees, students had to upload a picture from their presentation as proof that they'd used the slides.

Not bad for CoffeeCompany. The brand gets free advertising to a room full of students and it costs CoffeeCompany the price of ten small coffees, worth 21 euros.

Students can only upload a CoffeeCompany presentation takeover once a month and the site states that it "cannot be held responsible for any inconvenience caused by the use of slides provided on this Web site."

If your grade drops, you can cry into your CoffeeCompany cup of java.

Apparently some teachers are not thrilled about the slidevertising tactic and have banned them in their classrooms.

CoffeeCompany is no stranger to targeting the cash-strapped college student.  Last year, the company launched a campaign that encouraged students who were using the store's free WiFi to actually purchase something, like a coffee or muffin.
2 comments about "Free Coffee, Bad Grades?".
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  1. Deacon Webster from walrus, April 20, 2009 at 4:17 p.m.

    I'm really glad I got out of college before they started making students create powerpoint presentations for classes. How positively soul sucking.

  2. John Vickary from l'Attitude Business Development, April 21, 2009 at 9:31 a.m.

    I'm back at school doing my Master of Marketing, and can sympathise with Deacon's dislike of powerpoint.

    HOWEVER, I've attended sufficient presentations to know that Powerpoint can be a valuable tool - if it's used to complement the presentation rather than BE the presentation with the presenter reading out the text on slide. That' to me, is taking Marshall McLuhan's theory that "the medium is the message" to it's illogical extreme.

    As for the Coffee Company's campaign, I say BRAVO! Both the coffee and the inserted slides would help keep participants awake!

    Anyway, that's an antipodean viewpoint.

    JV from l'Attitude in Cairns

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