4 ways smart brands turn student attention into long-term loyalty

The student market is tough. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are savvy, price-sensitive, and frankly, have zero patience for marketing fluff. Yet, they represent immense long-term value. We recently held our "Freshers 2025 Retro" webinar to figure out the actual strategies that drive both immediate sales and lasting loyalty.

It’s time to move past the "20% discount and a flyer" playbook. Winning isn’t about the biggest budget; it’s about the sharpest strategy.

Here are the four essential tactics proven to supercharge sales with students.

Meet students where they are (or how they’re feeling)

If you want a student’s attention, you need to show up when they're stressed, hungry, or looking for a win. Generic advertising simply won't cut it. You have to anticipate a moment of friction and offer immediate, tangible relief.

The Subway sneak attack

During Freshers’ week, one panellist highlighted how Subway staff handed out flyers and even free foot-long cookies to students collecting their ID cards. This is genius. It connects the brand to a high-traffic, high-stress moment with a positive physical product, turning a brand interaction into a happy memory.

Deliveroo’s delivery hook

Another excellent example is Deliveroo, which successfully embeds itself into the student lifestyle by offering genuine, relevant utility. They offered a Deliveroo Plus membership for free during Freshers, which made it hugely popular and something students actively used often because it was beneficial. They offered real usefulness, not just a fleeting discount.

The takeaway: Stop advertising and start solving a problem. Identify key friction points in the student journey (like moving day, first loan drop, or a big campus event) and anchor your brand there.

Earn loyalty by gating the goods

Students are driven by value, but giving discounts too freely devalues your brand and only attracts bargain hunters. The secret to building loyalty is turning a discount into an exclusive perk by using a gated offer. This strategy aligns offer strength with consumer group expectations without being excessive.

Make students feel special.

Instead of offering a 10% discount to everyone, offer a 20% discount only to verified students. This makes the customer feel seen and appreciated for their identity, deepening the relationship quickly.

Encourage loyalty schemes.

Students explicitly want more long-term loyalty schemes to build stronger relationships with brands. This moves the relationship from a single transaction to a genuine ongoing partnership.

The takeaway: Use closed-consumer group verification to manage this exclusivity, protecting your margins while elevating your brand's prestige.

Go offline… to supercharge online growth

Despite being digital natives, Gen Z craves authentic, in-person experiences (IRL). Our data shows 63% of students want to get involved in brand activations.

Huel’s fuel tour: 

Brands like Huel ran highly successful, data-driven experiential tours focused on product trial and education, hosting engaging setups at major universities. These events were tailored to the specific campus demographic and objectives, proving that data-driven experiential marketing works.

McDonald’s McClub night: 

The ultimate step is integrating creators, like McDonalds did for their special student club night. Once the offline event is successful, creators take the experience online (e.g., TikTok, Instagram), leading to an explosion of awareness and content. This isn't just a nine-out-of-ten strategy; it's the final ten-out-of-ten awareness boost.

The takeaway: Bring the passion and love of your brand to life in a tangible way and then empower trusted voices (creators) to share that joy with their communities.

Master the "authentic trend" balance

44% of students like it when brands jump on trends and appear on campus, but you must get that trend right. The risk of being "cringe" is real.

Hollister’s match-rocha: 

An example of getting it right was Hollister using a matcha-rocha promotion to tap into the "green drink" trend during Freshers. It was a subtle, culturally aware nod, not a forced brand push.

Domino's and Papa John's free slices of loyalty: 

The implicit objective for pizza brands is to show off why they are the best pizza and get students to taste it. The trend they're tapping into is the cultural currency of being the definitive choice for a communal experience.

The takeaways: Use data-led insights to determine which trends are a genuine cultural fit versus a fleeting fad. Avoid sounding like a corporate trying too hard.

How can Pion help?

Don't let your efforts be siloed. Pion offers a single ecosystem to drive growth with tailored verification strategies.

Fuel reach: Put your exclusive offer directly in front of millions of already verified high-intent users on Pion’s student marketplace Student Beans. This delivers immediate traffic and visibility for your long-term offers.

Secure sales with secure verification: Our verification technology Beans iD verification can be integrated on your own site! This is your core strategy for building genuine loyalty: you verify the customer and capture zero-party data to fuel personalization, ensuring your next communication is a relevant perk, not just noise.

Long-term loyalty: By connecting high-impact experiences (like an IRL event or a perfectly timed Deliveroo perk) with easy, gated access, you turn a single purchase into long-term brand love and continuous revenue growth.

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