Driving a Campus-First Launch in Santa Barbara
Creator Marketing
Influencer Partnerships
Campus Ambassador Programs
Paid Social, UGC & Short-Form
Video Production
Performance Reporting
CLIENT
Twism is a loyalty layer for local businesses that works the way people already spend. Link a card once, buy normally, earn value, redeem it, no check-ins, no punch cards. For its first campus market, Twism needed to go from an app in the store to a habit among students who weren't going to download a rewards app because of a polished ad.
The goal was a campus-first launch concentrated in Downtown Santa Barbara and The Funk Zone, where student spending and merchant density were already highest.
PARTNERSHIP
Formula Marketing built and ran Twism's full creator and campus ambassador program for a 12 to 16 week Santa Barbara pilot, covering everything from signing the right student creators to producing every piece of content to measuring every registration, card link, and transaction it drove.
WORK
Formula Marketing executed a campus launch strategy designed to turn an unfamiliar app into daily habit.
Key initiatives included:
Creator Recruitment & Campus Ambassadors
Identified and signed 10 to 15 Santa Barbara-area micro and nano creators whose audiences actually lived in the neighborhoods Twism serves, UCSB food reviewers and Downtown SB discovery accounts, not scattered national followings. Recruited and onboarded 5 to 8 campus ambassadors across UCSB and SBCC for in-person activations and peer referrals.
Demonstration-First Content Strategy
Built every creator brief around the same five moments: discover a nearby merchant, link a card, buy normally, show the earned value, return and redeem it. A demonstration, not a description, is what makes a rewards app instantly understandable to a student watching on their phone.
Full-Funnel Management
Managed the entire monthly production cycle, from hooks and briefs to short-form video production to paid social management, shifting investment toward whatever content was actually driving registrations and card links, not just views.
RESULTS
This is a live pilot, so the numbers below are the campaign's working targets at the 16-week mark, not closed results yet.
Results included:
- 300 to 500 new user registrations
- 65 to 75% of registrants linking a card
- 50% of card-linked users completing a first transaction
- 2 or more repeat redemptions per active user, per month
- A blended cost per acquired user of $10 to $18