The £25,000-a-year Attention Economy: Why brands must rethink where they show up

Every student in the UK pays circa £9,250 per year for their university place from a fees perspective. That’s a minimum, three-year, £27,750 personal investment. And that’s before you account for accommodation, travel, tech, books, and daily living. Add that on, and you’re looking at nearer £70K for a 3 year course.

That level of investment? It’s not casual. It’s not background noise. It’s intentional, aspirational, and high-stakes.

Worthy of consideration is this: What other advertising environment do people invest in personally, emotionally and financially, before they even show up?

This is why campus advertising is different.

Students aren’t just passing through.

They’ve committed themselves to this space, and that commitment unlocks a different kind of attention: focused, present, and open to influence.

Which brings me to a new lens we should be looking through:

Return on Attention (RoA).

The real value of a media channel isn’t just reach. It’s receptivity. And when someone has spent thousands of pounds to be in a space, their attention becomes active. That means every second your brand spends in that environment has multiplied value.

Environment is key: A University campus is chosen, invested in and emotionally connected to.

And the data backs it up:

• UK students have a combined spending power of £29.1 billion
• 81% of students leave Freshers with the intention to buy from a brand they saw
• 77% of students are eager to engage with brands seen on campus

When your brand shows up in students’ union buildings on campus, you’re not just seen.

You’re seen in a space of trust, at a moment of openness, by a deeply invested audience.

That’s not just advertising.

That’s high-yield attention.

So what’s your Freshers plan? Are you simply buying impressions in a place that doesn’t require any emotional or real investment from the audience you are targeting? Or do you want to gain memorable attention from within a place that really matters to students?

#StudentMarketing #ReturnOnAttention #Freshers2025 #DigitalOOH #GenZAdvertising #BrandStrategy #UniversityMedia #MarketingInnovation #AudienceEngagement

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