Ready to experience the world with exclusive travel discounts and rewards without breaking your college fund? Well we found just the website to make this process and your travels go much smoother. StudentUniverse is a technology company that offers these incentives and many more through their website. The best part? Membership is free! StudentUniverse is the leading student travel agency with almost one-third of all U.S. college students visiting the site every year. The website and blog offered by this company are operated by college students themselves. This team of students creates and spreads the latest trends so you know the destinations chosen are the “hottest” vacation spots this year.
This travel agency also coordinates campaigns to engage students with brands and destinations, gaining their attention and swaying purchase decisions. StudentUniverse sells exclusive airfares from over 60 airline partners as well as sale rates on hotels and tours all throughout the world. The company also writes a blog, likewise conducted by students, which discuss the latest and greatest deals. They offer apps that you can download that release discounts on hotels, tours and more. The blog posts also offer information and tips about the youth travel market and how this industry is growing. Airline deals are also displayed in the blog along with the benefits for international students. StudetUniverse also gives away free round trip flights to a maximum number of students and scholarships to study abroad.
StudentUniverse recently introduced WeHostels, which is a new application for any smart phone that allows users to book hotels or hostels last-minute all over the world. It also features over 200,000 properties listed within the app. The target audience of this app is for students and young budget-conscious travelers between the ages of 18 and 28. WeHostels is currently one of the most downloaded apps across the globe. It has been called one of the “100 Brilliant Companies of the Year” by Entrepreneur Magazine.
One of the main components of WeHostel’s said brilliance is the emotional appeal of its campaign. Their campaign focuses on the destinations that people would like to travel to before death. This idea heavily utilizes pathos and pulls as the heart-strings of the target audience. WeHostels encourages people to deeply think about where they would love to travel most to before they die by using the hashtag “beforeidie” on Twitter. In turn of promoting the app via hashtag usage, WeHostels has made the promise to send a few lucky travelers on their dream bucket list journey. This is a prize that is sure to be coveted by inspired young travelers.
In addition to promoting #beforeidie on Twitter, WeHostel has also created a video to display their mission of empowering young travelers. The video shows different individuals on the street saying where exactly in the world they would like to go before they die. Once again, pathos is strategically incorporated into this advertisement by providing young dreamers with a sense of empowerment. In the end of the short video, WeHostels encourages audience members to go to their website to take the next step in making their dreams come true.
The promotions and ideas that StudentUniverse provide are endless and the information is very beneficial for the average college student. StudentUniverse’s mission states, “It’s about getting the most out of your time in school. We believe in the positive effects that travel experiences can have on a person’s character and that having those experiences early on in life is critical in personal development”. They are a dedicated company who value the experience to travel and attempt to make the process a little easier. The company even offers a 24/7 customer support line for any comments, questions, or concerns at your convenience! Do you think that their use of pathos was effective in the overall advertisement of the app?
-Briana McWhirter, Hannah Turner, Emily Foulke
IMC Hawks Blog 
After reading your blog I am personally very interested in visiting the StudentUniverse website and browsing the travel deals it offers. Clearly this reiterates to me that its branding techniques are effective because just by me reading about their brand I am already attracted to investing in it. The brand promotes a very “hip” atmosphere with their use of hashtags and phone applications that appeal to their target audience of 18-28 year olds tendencies to want to be a part of what is currently trending. This success has resulted in the brands application WeHostel being one of the currently most downloaded apps across the globe. Therefore, I believe the brand is definitely and effectively appealing to the pathos of its customers. The fact that it is run by college students only further promotes the brands appeal as youthful and relatable. StudentUniverse’s hashtag “#beforeidie” inspires the youthful sentiment of living in the moment and taking advantage of our carefree mindsets. This is effective because it speaks to the “why not now” view of making ones traveling aspirations come to life no matter how spontaneous or unrealistic in the long term. This strong emotional pull is exactly the kind of technique that works to completely negate any appeal to logos that the cost or timing of travel plans can often bring to light. Further as your blog mentions “#beforeidie’s” focus on places that people typically put on their bucket list is also an appeal to pathos because of emphasis it puts on not wanting to die and regret not taking advantage of StudentUniverse’s wonderful resources. The overall advertising of the App in its commercial was effective because through asking the question to the individuals featured in it, the audience watching the commercial feels as though they too are being asked “where would you go before you die?” The many different ethnicities, different genders and types of people shown are also appealing to pathos because they make the app something available and relevant to all sorts of people inspired by one common interest, travel. Lastly the constant scene changes throughout the commercial appeal to the emotion of pathos by subconsciously awakening a sense of how big the world is and how exciting it is to be exposed to all the different wondrous locations it holds. In conclusion and relating back to the company’s collegiate ownership, I believe StudentUniverse knows precisely how to market itself and what medium through which to do it, because they themselves are part of the target audience.