What Is Freshers Week Marketing? A Guide for Brands

Freshers Week marketing is brand activity timed to the start of the UK university year, usually mid-September to early October, aimed at students as they arrive and set up their new lives. It matters because students are choosing a bank, a phone network, a supermarket and everyday products, often for the first time without a parent, so the brands they meet in those first days have a real chance of becoming their default.

Key points

• Freshers marketing is defined by timing, not format: sampling, Welcome Bags, fairs, ambassadors and offers all count.

• Students are open to new brands because their habits haven’t formed yet.

• Pair a physical first touch with a digital next step, so the first impression has somewhere to go.

• Measure beyond footfall: redemption, purchase intent and repeat behaviour.

• Freshers is the start. January’s Refreshers and follow-up channels carry the relationship on.

What Freshers Week marketing means

Every September, hundreds of thousands of first-year students move away from home, many for the first time. Within days they decide which brands will be "theirs" for the next few years. Freshers marketing is any campaign built around that window.

It covers a wide range of formats: physical sampling and Welcome Bags, Freshers fair stands, student ambassador programmes, campus signage, digital offers redeemable on campus and society sponsorships. What ties them together is the timing. A discount code in July is just a discount code. The same code, handed to a student unpacking their room for the first time, is a first impression.

Why brands target Freshers

For a short period, students arriving at university are unusually open to trying new products and switching providers. They need a bank, a phone contract, toiletries, snacks and dozens of other everyday products, and they are choosing for themselves.

There is a social effect too. New students live with new flatmates, and early purchases get shared, borrowed and talked about in the kitchen. A product that reaches one student often reaches the flat.

The scale is concentrated. Dig In’s Welcome Bag reaches 500,000 students each September, around 3 in 4 freshers, across 1,000+ halls at 160+ universities. Students rate the moment highly: 88.7% said the Welcome Bag improved their welcome, rating it 4.3 out of 5 (2024, n=48,991).

The formats that work

• Welcome Bags and in-hall sampling: the product lands in a student’s room before they have formed a preference elsewhere. The university Welcome Bag is built for this moment, and trial reduces the friction of a first purchase.

• Freshers fairs: strong for visibility and conversation, but footfall and stand quality vary hugely by university, so results are inconsistent without proper vetting.

• Student ambassadors: a recommendation from a fellow student carries weight that paid media can’t buy, particularly for finance, food and personal care.

• On-campus and digital offers: work best as the follow-up, giving a student who has just tried your product a reason and a QR code to act on it.

The strongest Freshers campaigns combine a physical touchpoint with a digital or offer-based hook. See how Freshers sampling works in practice.

Alcohol brands can take part in Freshers too, provided every activation reaches only students aged 18 or over.

Common Freshers marketing mistakes

1. Treating September like any other promotional window. Students are offered dozens of codes in their first fortnight, and generic ones get ignored.

2. Chasing footfall over fit. A packed fair stand looks good in photos but doesn’t guarantee the right students remember the brand a week later.

3. No plan for measurement. Many brands judge Freshers activity on feel rather than data on how many samples were used, redeemed or bought again.

4. Ignoring the flat. Campaigns built around individual acquisition miss how many early decisions are made socially.

5. Stopping when the week ends. Freshers is an entry point. Without a follow-up, the first impression fades.

What a good Freshers campaign looks like

A well-run Freshers campaign does three things. It reaches students in a real, physical moment, it gives them something to do next, and it is built to be measured from day one.

In practice, that means a tangible touchpoint (a sample, a Welcome Bag insert, an ambassador handout) with a clear call to action (a QR code, a referral offer or a sign-up) and a way of tracking what happens next. Gillette and Venus followed that model at Freshers 2024: 87.4% of students said they were likely to buy Gillette (n=1,703) and 90.2% said the same for Venus (n=3,530). See the Gillette and Venus results.

Then plan the second touch. Refreshers in January reaches students again once they are settled, and Dig In has 300,000 bags planned for January.

How to measure Freshers marketing beyond footfall

Footfall and impressions are the easiest numbers to report and the least useful for judging whether a campaign worked. Better measures:

• Redemption and activation: how many students used a code, scanned a QR or signed up, not just received something.

• Purchase intent and sentiment: what students thought of the product and whether they plan to buy it, surveyed within days. The median brand in Dig In’s surveys saw 85% of students say they were likely to buy again (2025, 24 surveys).

• Repeat behaviour: whether trial led to a second purchase, a referral or continued use.

• Attribution: tying later purchases or sign-ups back to the original Freshers touchpoint.

Purchase intent is a stated measure, so pair it with redemption or retailer data to see what the campaign earned.

Questions brands ask

When does Freshers Week happen in the UK?

Most universities hold Freshers in mid to late September, with some running into early October. Students move into halls in the days before, which is when in-room sampling reaches them.

What is the best way to market to freshers?

Combine a physical first touch, such as a sample in the Welcome Bag, with a simple offer and a digital follow-up. Then measure redemption and purchase intent, not footfall.

Is Freshers Week marketing worth it for brands outside food and drink?

Yes. Students are choosing banks, phone networks, personal care and household brands at the same time as their weekly shop. Gillette, Venus and Santander have all reached students at this moment.

Working with Dig In

Dig In has put brands into the hands of students arriving at university since 2015, through its Welcome Bag, Live Activations and mydigin.com, with student surveys to measure the response. If you are planning for the next intake, talk to us about timing and fit.