VK amps up the party for UK freshers

Celebrates ten years as no.1 trad RTD for students

This September, VK is amping up the party, bringing young people together to share unforgettable experiences across a 27-date NUS Late Night Tour.

​​​​​​​The #WEARETHEBEAT Freshers campaign plan is led by events with NUS and key accounts, ensuring brand awareness and engagement during this key party period, as well as driving impressions and sales across channels. Alongside a 27-date NUS Late Night Tour, students will find daytime pop-up events at top VK campuses challenging students to ‘Guess the Beat’ to win VK merch. A further 28 NUS sites will be supported with VK POS kits.

The tour comes alongside a key milestone for the brand – VK has been crowned the number one trad RTD for students, for ten years in a row. The results are measured by volume sold to students across NUS sites.

As well as activating through NUS, VK are supporting two additional key accounts across the busy Freshers period. VK supported nights are running across REKOM, operators of 46 of the UK’s largest nightclubs including ATIK and PRYZM, and Academy Music Group, operators of live music and club venues including O2 Academy sites.

The team are also working with Unihomes to deliver 2,000 VK Essentials Freshers Packages to 2nd and 3rd years in their student houses; plus an influencer pre’s party at Cardiff Student Union! This is in addition to outreach to 152,000 Freshers via the DIG IN sampling box, driving new students to purchase.

To tie this campaign together, a highly targeted YouTube and Audio campaign for 18-24s is running across five key cities; Glasgow, Nottingham, Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham, reaching a further 2.4 million impressions.

Digital advertisements will also target this demographic when in Tesco stores and nearby, reaching just under half a million consumers on mobile devices.

“We are thrilled to launch our 2023 Fresher’s tour, connecting with students through fantastic events across the month, while celebrating ten years of being the top choice for students!” said Daniella Mulvey, Brand Manager at VK.

“We’re also buzzing to get out and support some key accounts – the VK team are driven to support our customers and ultimately deliver incredible and memorable activations for our consumers. 

“Aligning ourselves with students is a continual focus across the brand, and the easy-drinking, iconic fruity flavours lend themselves to being the go-to party drinks, so it’s no surprise that VK remains the number one trad RTD for students!”

This summer, VK have been busy touring the UK in a custom ice-cream van, handing out VK Blue and VK Orange & Passionfruit ice lollies at key events and cities. Earlier this year, the brand launched zero sugar and reduced calorie VK & SODA Berries and VK & SODA Lime to the on-trade and off-trade, catering for increasing demand from Gen Z for lower calorie RTDs that retain the flavour of core trad RTDs such as VK.