September 3, 2025
Back-to-School Influencer Marketing Campaigns: What Can You Learn in 2025?
Take your seats, please – class is in session. Back-to-school season is one of the biggest events of the year for brand marketers, topping more than $1 trillion in US sales.
Whether it’s kindergarten or college, the start of the school year is a critical time for social marketing across a wider range of verticals than you may think. This isn’t just a time for school apparel and school supplies: electronics, food, personal care, and fashion all see a big lift, and influencers are the ones getting brands noticed on campus.
Back-to-school shopping is also happening earlier in the year, so don’t wait around or you’ll miss the bus. Deloitte’s back-to-school survey estimated that 66% of spending was expected to take place by the end of July 2024, compared to 59% in 2023, with events like Prime Day driving concentrations of back-to-school shopping earlier in the year.
They say the best way to learn is to learn from the best, so here – here’s our cheat sheet on the best back-to-school campaigns we’ve seen recently.
Why should you leverage influencers in your back-to-school campaigns?
Schools and colleges are not only places for students to learn and achieve, but highly social environments. Consumers are often looking for back-to-school products that are practical and popular.
These Gen Z consumers are getting inspiration, product information, and an understanding of what their friends will be bringing to school from social media. Influencers are your shortcut to developing and leveraging highly targeted audiences. You’re not only presenting your product to each individual consumer – you’re also placing it in the spotlight of their shared audience of peers. For back-to-school campaigns done right, the reward is viral social momentum and a powerful ‘network effect’ around particular brands.
Yet, as much as we all remember how Stanley cups dominated the school world, back-to-school marketing isn’t all about trends. Most purchases at this time of year are made or approved by parents, and they want to know that their money is being well spent. Influencers are the key to credibility and confidence for this shrewder demographic, offering genuine recommendations and product demos from a figure they already trust.
The best back to school influencer marketing campaigns
Key takeaways for brand marketers
Look for content that connects with life on campus
The world of classrooms are lecture halls are social ones. If your content takes place within the context of their school or region, it’ll be all the more relevant and compelling.
Even better is localized, interactive content that users can go and get involved with in the real world, like brand-supported events, as well as giveaways, challenges and competitions.
Don’t sleep on micro influencers
This is a vertical where user communities are much more likely to be bounded by geography and clustered according to the educational institutions they share.
Even if microinfluencers have smaller follower counts, they can still set trends and influence their classmates, dorm mates, or campus community in a big way. Think about how a trend that may hit at southern schools likely wouldn’t land on the East Coast, and vice versa – campuses may have totally different cultures and social vibes.
While every brand wants to spark a platform-wide viral trend around their products, the availability, achievability, and impact of local viral trends – tailored to each campus’s unique lifestyle – should not be underestimated.
Timing can be everything
Back-to-school is a tightly bound window of activity, with sharp peaks before the start of a new year and around significant events like Prime Day.
Being sensitive to these (often small) time periods will allow you to capture a slice of commercial activity at its hottest.
Consider also that different verticals may have different peaks. While there’s a bump in tech sales well before the school year starts, functional clothing and accessories like backpacks may peak shortly before the first bell rings. Fashion and beauty may be strong into the academic year as people look to impress their peers or adapt to local trends.
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The Gen Z student market is a demographic studded with influencers. These creators are your decentralized, trusted, and self-starting marketing network. Being able to engage and activate them effectively is the key to rising above in an increasingly hot back-to-school market.
Want to identify worthwhile influencers or leverage targeted shoppable media partnerships? We can help.
