Why a Student Welcome Pack Works for Brands

A student welcome pack works because it reaches students in their own room on the day they arrive, before they have chosen a brand of anything. There is no auction for the placement and no feed to scroll past. The product is in their hands, and a good one makes it into the first weekly shop.

Key points

• Timing: students receive the pack while they are setting up a new home and new routines.

• Setting: a private room, with no competing stall or advert alongside.

• Trial: students use the product rather than just seeing it.

• Goodwill: the pack helps students in week one. 88.7% said Dig In’s Welcome Bag improved their welcome to university (2024, n=48,991).

• Follow-up: a QR code, an offer and a survey turn a freebie into a measurable campaign.

What is a student welcome pack?

A student welcome pack is a bag of free products, offers and useful information given to students when they arrive at university, usually in their hall room. Dig In’s version is the Welcome Bag. It reaches 500,000 students each September in 1,000+ halls across 160+ universities, which is about 3 in 4 freshers. In 2026 the bag is paper; in 2025 it was a Santander cotton tote.

Why welcome packs work for brands

The timing is right

Moving to university resets almost every routine. Students arrive needing food, toiletries, cleaning products and a way to manage their money, and they have not yet chosen brands for any of them. A product in the welcome pack is often the first of its kind they use in their new home.

The setting is personal

Freshers is noisy, and students are offered a lot of things at once. A welcome pack is opened in the calm of their own room, so the product gets attention that a fair stall or a feed advert rarely gets.

Students welcome it

The pack helps students settle in, and brands inside it share that goodwill. In Dig In’s 2024 Golden Ticket survey, 88.7% of students said the Welcome Bag improved their welcome to university, rating it 4.3 out of 5 (n=48,991).

Flatmates get it at the same time

Every room in a hall receives a pack at once, so students compare, swap and talk about what they got. That is how a product starts to travel through a flat. Our guide to peer influence in university marketing covers this in more detail.

What to include in a student welcome pack

• Product samples that students will use in the first week: food, drinks, toiletries and cleaning products.

• A clear offer, such as a student discount on the full-size product, ideally reached through a QR code.

• Something useful that stays in use, such as a reusable bag.

• A reason to go online: a sign-up, a competition or a link to more offers. Every Dig In Welcome Bag carries mydigin.com, and 64,000+ students signed up at Freshers 2026 (Customer.io, 8 October 2026).

Leave out anything students will bin straight away. Generic leaflets and low-value merchandise add cost and waste without adding attention.

Making the welcome pack pay off

A welcome pack is the start of a campaign. To get full value from it:

• Track it. Use a unique QR code so you can see scans, redemptions and sign-ups.

• Follow up. Email students who opted in, add a Live Activation later in the term, or return in January with Refreshers.

• Ask students. A post-trial survey tells you whether they liked the product and intend to buy it.

• Tell your buyers. Intent and feedback from thousands of students are useful evidence in retailer conversations.

What the results look like

Brands in the Welcome Bag are measured with student surveys after trial. Some recent results:

• Nivea Soft, Freshers 2024: 87.6% likely to buy again and 98% would recommend (n=2,986).

• Hershey’s and Reese’s, Freshers 2024: 89.7% likely to buy again (n=3,381).

• Boots, Freshers 2024: 82.5% likely to shop at Boots (n up to 6,093).

Across 196 brand surveys for 161 brands since 2018, the median brand scored 85% likely to buy again (2025, 24 surveys). These are purchase-intent figures, not sales. See more on the results page.

Which brands suit a welcome pack?

Brands with a product students will use in the first weeks do best: food and drink, personal care and beauty, household products, and finance and mobile brands with a clear student offer. Alcohol brands need a separate route that reaches only students aged 18 or over.

The best fit is a product with a clear role in a student’s first week and a reason to buy it again. If students will use it up, run out and need more, the welcome pack puts your brand first in line when they do. Brands that want a second contact can add a Live Activation in October or a place in the January Refreshers Bag, when students return and reset their routines.

Questions brands ask

What should go in a student welcome pack?

Products students need in the first week, such as food, drinks and toiletries, plus a clear student offer and a QR code that leads to a sign-up or discount.

How many students receive a welcome pack?

Dig In’s Welcome Bag reaches 500,000 students each September across 1,000+ halls, which is about 3 in 4 freshers.

How do you measure a welcome pack campaign?

Track QR scans, redemptions and sign-ups, and survey students after trial for purchase intent and feedback.

Working with Dig In

Dig In puts brands into the Welcome Bag for 500,000 students each September and measures the response with student surveys. To see how your product would fit, read about the university Welcome Bag or talk to the team.