Campus safety campaigns land in September because a third of the audience is new and the highest-risk weeks of the academic year are the first ones. Buyers are campus police and security departments, student affairs, residence life, Title IX offices and health centres.

The number is the product

Everything this month should carry the campus emergency number, the escort service line, or the text-a-tip shortcode. A lanyard worn every day with the safety line on the back does more than any poster. Same for a phone wallet, a key tag, a water bottle that lives in a backpack.

Test the legibility at production size before approving. A phone number that’s technically on the item but unreadable at arm’s length is decoration.

Get it into orientation bags

The single highest-distribution moment on a campus is move-in and orientation, and those bags are packed weeks earlier. Practically, that means a September campaign is a July order. If you miss the orientation bag you’re down to tabling in the quad, which reaches a fraction of the same students.

Students can tell when it’s for them

Lanyards, drawstring bags, pens and reusable bottles all get used because they solve a real student problem. Branded stress balls and desk novelties don’t survive a dorm room. If budget is tight, buy fewer of a thing students would otherwise have to buy themselves.