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Product sampling: free to forgotten
Today’s brand sampling efforts are inefficient and un-trackable.
I’ve seen it firsthand–Red Bull ambassadors pass out cans in corners of campus. Students walk by, try the product, and then forget about it.
Are brands happy with this outcome?
From interviews with marketing teams across three major CPG brands, the research team identified an emerging theme: brands need a new approach to sponsorships–one with effective targeting, broad reach, and clear ROI without the guesswork.
These insights led us to the question:
How can we enable brands to reliably reach their target audience on a college campus?
Student orgs are untapped
Unlike segmented brand ambassador programs, we found that student org events attract the exact large audiences brands want –but there's no good way to access them.
Instead of partnering with a single representative, brands should be able to choose which events to activate, allowing for organic brand discovery and smarter deployment.
Serving both students and brands
I partnered with the research team to identify features that could address the pain points that emerged.
I designed a solution–called Buzzers–that improved sponsoring efficiency and impact for brands and helped student orgs secure samples to elevate events.
Turning research insights into solutions
Each new student sponsorship requires manually aligning on branding guidelines, expectations, and logistics
One-time setup
Structured onboarding flows for both brands and student orgs to match audiences
Most activations rely on "vibe checks" or manual negotiation, making it hard to justify choices or identify well-aligned events
Tailored discovery
Events listed by match scores–determined from event details and correlation to brand
Brands feel overwhelmed by outdated, high-friction processes like long email chains and inconsistent timelines
Familiar sponsorship flow
Streamlined and efficient sponsorship cart, modeled after e-Commerce checkout
Brands have no consistent way to track engagement, media, and insights from activations or sampling
Streamlined monitoring
Centralized dashboard with status tracking to show what events work and why
Impact and wins
33% student organization retention during beta
Interest from KIND bar, Olipop, and other CPG brands