Smart thinking helps companies click into the student market

Citylets Press releases

A SMART-thinking marketing firm has come up with a novel way of reaching students on a prolonged and regular basis.

MediaMat has now signed exclusive deals with more than 10 of Scotland and Northern Ireland’s top universities to supply them with mousemats for use at all the student computing terminals. The move will allow Mediamat to offer advertisers the option to reach over 150 000 students through one of its 15 ad spaces.

In an era of fast changing consumer behaviour, targeting students though the use of university computing terminals is a powerful route to market- research shows that the average student now spends an average 21.4 hours a term at a university computer work station – notching up almost 17 minutes per sitting.

Barry Smith, Marketing Manager for MediaMat, said: “Given the modern day reliance on computers at university not only for work but also for online banking, job hunting and social networking it is almost impossible for students to avoid repeated exposure to advertisers on our mousemats.

“Wherever you find a university computer you’ll find MediaMat. And there is no dispute that computers are now an almost daily focal point of student life. All of which means the mats are an excellent channel for brands who are trying to reach the student market- particularly brands which utilize the web as the primary trading channel.”

Mediamat had been operating on a not for profit, labour of love basis for some years now traditionally serving Scottish Universities and promoting mostly voluntary organisations.

But the volume of contracts with Universities and the strength of recent testimonials has been such that the decision to commercialise was taken in June of this year. Mediamat is however committed to its roots and will continue to promote at least 6 charitable organisations.

University of Edinburgh’s Fresh Air Radio used the mats as part of their marketing. Tim John, Marketing Officer of Student Radio Association, said: “Having a spot on university mousemats was invaluable for Fresh Air to obtain its very specific goal of attracting students to our website.

“There are no other methods to ‘infiltrate’ the university in such a comprehensive and unique manner, to place your message literally at the fingertips of thousands of students.  Our mousemat advert was hugely successful in driving the student population to visit our website throughout the course of an entire year.”

Volunteer Edinburgh was given a free spot on the mat. Paul Wilson, of the charity, said: “‘We have found MediaMat to be an extremely effective way of repeatedly reaching a large student audience with ease.

“We are a focal point for so many charitable organisations who desperately need volunteer helpers it’s great to know that they are all now connected to this large demographic. Mediamat is pocket dynamite.”

Barry added: “Organisations are always looking for new and innovative ways to promote themselves and MediaMat is an ideal, low-cost way for them to do so. The longevity of exposure to the adverts almost guarantees the advertiser will reach saturation point in the market.”

To find out more about MediaMat contact Barry on 0845 225 0015 or email barry@mediamat.co.uk