Exploring College Students’ Lives

Challenge

Helping a social media company illuminate the values and perceptions of College students, to identify authentic opportunity areas for its target audience and increase relevance.

As the world of social media continues to evolve, our client wanted to explore ways to remain culturally relevant. We teamed up to uncover insights about one of their key audiences: college students. Our goal was to understand their perspectives and mindset, and to illuminate their everyday experiences, during this important and unique chapter of their lives.

Approach

Before conducting our dynamic discussion groups, we asked students to share their personal event calendar from the last 12 months so we could learn more about the activities they got into and how those changed with the seasons.

We then facilitated 4x, 2-hour virtual discussion groups with an even mix of freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior college students across the US. In our conversations, we uncovered more about their current viewpoints and opinions on their college experience, their hopes for the future and how brands and social media play a role in their lives. We also explored current brand perceptions while evaluating the impact of potential brand narratives.

Impact

In a strategic, designed deck, we illuminated the lives of college students, including their needs, drivers, and barriers when it comes to social media. Our research informed recommendations for how the brand can develop future brand on-campus activations and communications.