Last month, University junior Kwame Agyeman was hired to work for Island Odyssey, a social and travel network Web site, and a company he had never heard of. He never even applied for the job.
“They came to me,” said Agyeman, also a safety on the Oregon football team. “I really didn’t know if it was legitimate or not at first.”
Agyeman was recruited to represent the company based on what it described as his high visibility and numerous connections he had at the University – basically, he had a lot of friends on Facebook, Agyeman said.
Agyeman took the job, and his hiring was part of an aggressive marketing technique by Island Odyssey to gain as big of a following on college campuses across the country as it could, even before its planned March 23 launch date.
Agyeman also took the job because he liked the idea of making his own promotions for the Web site, and he liked the premise of the business itself.
“That type of marketing seemed cool,” he said. “They allow you a lot of freedom.”
Island Odyssey is a networking site similar to Facebook that also integrates a travel agency, allowing people to book and pay for trips on the same site. Users can also view their friends’ plans on the site through a feature similar to Facebook’s “news feed.”
“Island Odyssey is the first combination of a social network and a travel portal – essentially a Facebook mixed with an Expedia, so you can see where all your friends are traveling to,” said Zachary Lieberman, founder and chief officer at Island Odyssey. “We feel like we’re going to be a completely new market.”
Agyeman said the idea has already generated a lot of interest among those he’s told, and his own marketing ideas are catching on as well. As part of his work, Agyeman placed dozens of shot glasses around campus bearing the company name for students to find. But even if the brand isn’t well-known, his job is already done, Agyeman said.
“You might not know what (Island Odyssey) is, but getting that word in there, that stays with you,” he said.
Agyeman also is planning a promotional party after spring break, and is currently in discussion with Taylor’s Bar and Grille as a potential host location.
When Agyeman was recruited as part of its word-of-mouth marketing campaign, Lieberman said the fact that he happens to be on the football team was not a coincidence. Agyeman is a “connector” student who can generate more buzz than most, he said.
“We tend to recruit from the Greek community and from athletes, because we know those are sort of the big men on campus,” Lieberman said. “A guy like Kwame can spread the word all around campus in just a couple weeks.”
University marketing professor Lynn Kahle said word-of-mouth marketing has gained prominence recently, and it gives a company with a younger target demographic such as Island Odyssey better credibility.
“If you see a fellow student and they say, ‘Hey, this is great,’ you’re more likely to believe it,” he said. “Businesses are figuring out how to make a buzz better than they used to.”
Internet resources such as Facebook and MySpace, each with millions of users, can also make marketing to students much easier today, Kahle said.
“Now if you’re really happy with something or really upset with something, you can go to a blog and tell 100,000 people about it,” he said. “The impact is much greater now.”
Island Odyssey is also connected to its target demographic in ways that most other businesses aren’t. Of Island Odyssey’s 30 or so full-time employees in its California headquarters, not one is even 30 years old, Lieberman said. Lieberman himself, a former student at the University of California at Berkeley, is only 22.
“We all know our demographic, because we’re all essentially our own focus group,” he said. “Any time we choose to move forward, we basically have a focus group just at our office.”
Even with more than 300 student representatives at colleges across the country now, Island Odyssey hopes to have as many as 500 by the time the site is fully operational, Lieberman said. The company has also set the lofty goal of a million registered users within the first month of its launch date this Friday.
“That would really put us in uncharted territory,” Lieberman said.
For Agyeman, Island Odyssey is an opportunity to gain business experience within his busy football workout and practice schedule, which could serve as a career opportunity and backup plan if a football career doesn’t pan out, he said.
“I figured I could just jump into it, and you never know what it could turn out to be later,” he said.
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