Trying to Influence the Mums

Chris Parr:

In days past, parents in Britain were often uninterested bystanders when it came to decisions about where their children would go to university. Now they are so important that student recruitment advertising is targeting them directly.

Online forum and social media network the Student Room has partnered with Mumsnet, the online forum for parents, to allow universities to aim advertising directly at parents and their children at the same time.

A marketing pitch by the Student Room sent to universities reads as follows: "Over the past year we've had the pleasure of talking to many of you about reaching the student market ... but one thing we've been asked for time and again is 'how can we reach the parents?' So we've teamed up with ... Mumsnet, to offer you a brilliant parent targeting solution."

Jason Geall, managing director of the Student Room, said the traffic the site receives from parents has "grown substantially" over the past two years, with figures suggesting that there are more than 16,000 parents active on its forums - a 20 percent increase over the past 12 months. "In the parental market, we are seeing people coming on to the site for monitoring purposes: they are able to assess and understand what is being talked about before helping their children make informed decisions," Geall said.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at July 9, 2013 12:56 AM
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