Students create ‘flash marketing’ business model
Some business students hope to succeed in their eventual careers and have little real-world experience before graduating. Three students from the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business have experienced success in business long before their degrees at USU are finished.
After Kevin Schmidt, a senior majoring in entrepreneurship, and two other students came up with an idea which allowed companies to market and advertise in a college demographic without limits from the university, the Flash Marketing Group or “iwannashirt” was born.
Schmidt and his partners Jarom Heaps, a managerial economics and finance major, and Jeff Nelson, who majors in accounting, thought their varied educational disciplines would be beneficial in a business venture.
Schmidt is the company’s chief executive officer, Nelson the chief financial officer and Heaps the chief operating officer.
Using business logo-bearing t-shirts, games and prizes, Schmidt said they are are able to market ideas and products to college students rapidly and effectively.
“We give out thousands of free shirts on a campus and then have all the students wear them on the same day – that is what we call the flash,” Schmidt said. “Then we play games with the students like, ‘where is Waldo?’ This is where we have a different color shirt and the students have to find that shirt so they can win a prize. We are a new and exciting way to market.”
The Flash Marketing Group held its first campaign in October for Firehouse Pizzeria. Schmidt said the campaign’s success showed the effectiveness of their approach to advertising, bringing the Flash Marketing Group more sales than they had projected to date.
“It made it a breakthrough,” Heaps said. “At first it was just an idea, but because we were able to go out and sell it to Firehouse, for us it was the biggest game change and the fact that we knew it was a service that business wanted and were willing to pay for. It really changed our own personal views of the idea. At first we just thought it was a great idea and maybe it would work, but once it worked, we knew we could scale it.”
The Flash Marketing Group’s success was furthered after taking on a campaign for the business school and continues to grow rapidly, Schmidt said.
“It has seen lots more growth than we thought,” he said. “We took on the campaign for the Huntsman School’s MBA program and that helped us get even more exposure, and we got calls from some big corporations and starting working with some big clients.”
Schmidt is no stranger to the business world and successfully started a business called Red-E Cart, a taxi service which operated on USU’s campus. Schmidt sold Red-E Cart after a year and-a-half and started the Flash Marketing Group the next year.
Schmidt said his education at USU has benefited him greatly in the business world and being able to take those skills and apply them outside of the classroom has helped him even more.
“Because I had started and ran my first business before getting into my entrepreneur major, I had learned a lot, but then being able to see how the things taught in class could be applied helped even more,” he said. “Education played a big role.”
“I feel like owe part of my success to my learning and my undergraduate studies,” Heaps said.
Heaps said success is measured by more than profit.
“I think the most rewarding thing is to be able to create something and see it grow,” he said. “The true success, for me, isn’t being able to make a little profit – that’s nice, but to own something and be able to create it and have it do what we want to.”
– calewp@gmail.com