Looking for a Break : Annual Gathering of College Kids Is Hard to Pinpoint
Spring break is back, and many of America’s top marketers are once again attempting to cash in on college kids at play. But sponsors share one problem: They don’t know where to go.
Marketing consultants say that no longer can any single American city anoint itself the nation’s spring break capital. That makes the 1994 version of spring break perhaps the most scattered--if not baffling--that corporate sponsors have experienced.
Those who think spring break headquarters is Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., or Palm Springs are a decade behind the times. Those cities aren’t even contenders anymore. Daytona Beach, Fla., is fast losing its spring break luster, marketers say. And while Panama City Beach, Fla., may attract the most student visitors, it is hardly a household name. MTV, meanwhile, is about to try to persuade students that San Diego is the new home to spring break madness.
Today, MTV plans to begin taping its spring break TV specials in San Diego’s Mission Beach area. Joining MTV are 10 marketers--from MCI to MasterCard--that paid millions to get their products in the camera’s eye.
Meanwhile, hundreds of companies will spend about $10 million over the next four weeks handing out freebies--from shampoo to T-shirts--at half a dozen spring break locations, from Panama City Beach to South Padre Island, Tex. But none of them seem to know for certain if they’re in the right place.
“You can’t listen to what the newspapers or TV shows say,” said Richard Tarzian, president of Leonia, N.J.-based Intercollegiate Communications, which links up marketers such as Pepsi, Sprint and Geo with spring break venues. “You’ve got to go where the students go.”
Tarzian estimates that about 530,000 students will flock to Panama City Beach over spring break and 250,000 will migrate to South Padre Island. Those are the spots he’s recommending to marketers.
For eight consecutive years, MTV went to Daytona Beach to film spring break activities, which it broadcasts nationwide. So why switch to San Diego--a city few associate with spring break? MTV officials say they wanted a change of scenery to add some zing to the broadcast. But Daytona Beach city officials say they yanked the welcome mat because the city’s image has suffered while MTV aired year-round programming that depicted it as a party capital.
Since the vast majority of college students don’t even go to these spring break gatherings, a growing number of companies prefer instead to reach students with specific event marketing right on their campuses, said Eric Weil, editor of Ridgewood, N.J.-based Collegiate Trends newsletter. That’s why the amount spent on corporate marketing at spring break has begun to slow in recent years from double-digit to single-digit growth, Weil said.
And some consultants say that the heavy drinking associated with so many spring break activities has always made it the wrong time and place to reach students.
“I tell my clients to stay away from spring break activities,” said Marian Salzman, founder of New York-based consulting firm BKG Youth. “Why shove your latest razor in front of someone if they’re too drunk to even see it?”
Perhaps spring break is more image than reality anyway. San Diego’s universities won’t even be on spring break while MTV is filming. But MTV executives say that doesn’t concern them. “All we need is enough of a crowd to make the backdrop look exciting and enthusiastic,” said John Shea, senior vice president at MTV.
The chief executive at Steel Jeans, a City of Commerce-based women’s jeans maker and a sponsor of the MTV broadcast, said he is disappointed by MTV’s selection of San Diego as its featured site. “You can’t compete with Daytona Beach,” said Danny Lee, whose company created a giant ad balloon that will sit on the side of the stage. “This is a great leap of faith for us.”
Intercollegiate’s Tarzian agrees that San Diego is not the place for sponsors to be at spring break. “San Diego is no threat to anybody,” Tarzian said. “It’s too far west.” That’s why Tarzian is directing his sponsors to Panama City Beach, South Padre Island and Lake Havasu City, Ariz.
Among the sponsors that Intercollegiate has linked up with the spring break hot spots is General Motors’ Geo economy car line, which is expected to spend nearly $1 million on spring break promotions. Last year, Geo amassed a sizable database of prospective college customers when 30,000 students filled out forms requesting information on car financing, Tarzian said.
“We have not found a better way to get our name in front of college students than to show up at spring break,” said Fred Sutherland, assistant manager of strategic marketing at Geo, which this year will oversee student tree -planting events at three spring break sites.
L.A. Gear, another MTV spring break sponsor, will make certain that its name gets plenty of time on camera. Moments before one televised event that it will sponsor, the company will pass out T-shirts bearing slogans promoting its shoes. “We want viewers to see a sea of students wearing L.A. Gear shirts,” said Robert S. Apatoff, senior vice president of marketing services at the company.
Some marketers have also learned what not to do at spring break. Show feature-length movies, for instance. Several years ago, TriStar pictures handed out free tickets to a new film, hoping to influence student opinion leaders. The promotion was not a hit, however, so this year, TriStar will show only previews on video screens at bars in the spring break cities.
“We discovered that you’re infringing on the objectives of most students by screening a movie at spring break,” said Michael Hogan, whose Burbank firm, Hogan Communications, has arranged for previews of TriStar films in three spring break cities.
“The only time a movie works at spring break,” Hogan said, “is if it’s raining.”
Briefly . . .
Just two years after it was embroiled in a lawsuit with former client C&R; Clothiers, the Century City ad agency Admarketing has again picked up the creative portion of the $8-million account, which will be handled by former agency Asher/Gould until August. . . . L.A. Gear is not actively seeking a new agency, but before fall it may look for a new one to handle back-to-school ads, said Apatoff. L.A. Gear’s former agency was the New York office of Ogilvy & Mather, not the Los Angeles office, as previously reported. . . . The Los Angeles agency Robert Elen & Associates has picked up the ad account for Southern California Mitsubishi Dealers, estimated to be worth $3 million. . . . Los Angeles-based Colby Agency has closed its doors, but founder Rick Colby has been hired as chairman of the recently opened Lois, Colby/Los Angeles, the first West Coast venture of New York-based Lois/USA. . . . Herb Cohen, author of “You Can Negotiate Anything,” will speak Friday at a breakfast meeting of the Western States Advertising Agencies Assn. that will take place at Ma Maison Sofitel in Los Angeles.
SPRING BREAK SHUFFLE
Of the estimated $10 million expected to be spent by corporate sponsors on spring break activities over the next few weeks--from volleyball tournaments to rock concerts--auto makers will be the biggest single spender. The cities that are expected to be top draws during spring break this year vary from the most popular single gathering spot, Panama City Beach, Fla., to a surprising bid this year by the city of San Diego to turn itself into a new spring break mecca by permitting MTV to film its spring break TV specials there over the next two weeks.
CATEGORY / SPENDING
AUTOMOTIVE: $ 2.5 million
ENTERTAINMENT: 1.5
CLOTHING: 1.0
FOOD/BEVERAGES: 1.0
COMMUNICATIONS: .8
ELECTRONICS: .8
TOILETRIES: .6
FINANCIAL: .5
CANDY: .2
ALCOHOL: .1
ALL OTHERS: 1.0
San Diego is making a bid to compete with south Florida and Texas for spring break students. Number of college students expected, in thousands:
Panama City Beach, Fla.: 530
South Padre Island, Tex.: 250
Daytona Beach, Fla.: 125
Lake Havasu City, Ariz.: 100
San Diego: 25
Other destinations: 100
Sources: Strategic Marketing Communications Intercollegiate Communications.