Darren Ross
Executive Vice President, Solutions
Fluent Group

College students today do not view online and offline as separate channelsto them, its all the same. Darren Ross, executive vice president of solutions at Fluent Group, a marketing agency, recently spoke with eMarketers Yory Wurmser about how college students shop during the back-to-school season and the best way to reach these customers no matter the channel theyre on.

eMarketer: When retailers think of reaching college students, they often start with social media. Which social media platforms are most important?

Darren Ross: College students have really started to use different channels of social media for different types and styles of communication.

They have incredibly broad Facebook networks. They use [Facebook] more organizationally. Theyll log in to things with their Facebook ID, or theyll have a Facebook group that tells them where everybody is going out that night. And then they use Instagram or Snapchat as a more highly curated group of their social circle right now. Theyre using Twitter as sort of a bullhorn. The fact that they could potentially interact with celebrities is also a big draw to Twitter.

eMarketer: When should retailers think about starting their back-to-school campaigns?

Ross: A lot of brands think about back-to-school as starting on July 1 and ending in September. But about two-thirds or three-quarters of [a college] campus are making housing decisions in the spring because they are either moving on campus to another on-campus spot, or theyre making some sort of decision on who theyre living with, what materials they need, etc. Theyre making all of those decisions outside of the back-to-school timeline.

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