Brands grab the #RushTok spotlight

Since “RushTok” emerged in 2021, spurred by megaviral “Bama Rush” content at the University of Alabama, back to school has been marked by a surge of content documenting potential new members preparing to go Greek. 

The annual university phenomenon, which originally centered at campuses in the Southeastern Conference but has become more widespread, documents the flashiness of sorority recruitment — from highly choreographed videos of sorority sisters dancing in front of elaborately decorated houses, to day-in-the-life videos from recruits on the other side of the process sharing their outfits and reflections on the experience.

It has launched the careers of top creators and led to an entire secondary economy of businesses and content around the surrounding apparatus — from balloon companies and local catering businesses to marketing firms focused on sororities. Brand integration can bring new cultural relevancy far beyond campus. (I once dragged a confused colleague to the viral Pants Store to recreate a TikTok audio from Kylan Darnell, the queen of RushTok, while in Tuscaloosa, despite having never been in a sorority).

This year, the viral content is coming from more campuses than ever. And instead of particular prospective members taking over my For You page this month, it has been brands showing up as recurring characters with new levels of RushTok integration, from full house takeovers to massive gifting campaigns. Brands want in with young female consumers, particularly those who act as campus creators, and by activating during rush they maximize their potential for going viral and extending their reach. 

“The main-character energy seemed to be much more on brands this year,” said Emily Brown, strategy director at social agency Billion Dollar Boy, who has tracked RushTok’s trends and developments. She pointed to more marquee, established and mature brands like Clinique and Nike getting in on the action, leading to more competition for attention and new methods to break through. 

I spoke to three brands to learn more about their strategies.

Altar’d State: 

For clothing brand Altar’d State, which targets high school and college-aged women as its ideal customers, rush planning begins a year in advance, with a goal of building brand awareness. For their fifth year activating around RushTok, the brand used a three-pronged gifting strategy. 

First, they outfitted 34 sororities across 20 schools this fall, plus the baton-twirling University of Alabama Crimsonettes. They worked with sororities on their themes and put together look boards for the students to select outfits. 

The second approach was sending around 200 PR boxes of clothes and gifts to incoming students. “Some of these girls are moving across the country. We wanted to be the first package she gets in her mailbox,” said Nikki Nettles, the brand’s director of marketing. 

The third arm of this year’s strategy was gifting to 30 specific college students, including microinfluencers and both prospective and current members, who were able to choose looks to wear during the rush week to make “outfit of the day” videos in. 

Nettles joked that some sororities they work with have a bigger marketing and social team than her to coordinate with brands on gifting and content. Her ultimate dream video is to get the sorority girls to wear her brand’s clothing in a dance video. 

“Any time where you can get almost the full body of the sorority that makes those huge impacts is great,” she said.

Khloud: 

Khloud, the Khloé Kardashian-founded snack brand, offered free samples of their protein popcorn at more than 25 campuses during rush this year. The company said the rush push makes up around half of the 75,000 to 100,000 college consumers they’ve sampled products to this year. 

The brand, which launched last year, also works with creators year-round at 10 campuses and does paid creator partnerships around key product launches. This RushTok season they also sent out a mailer in partnership with luggage company Béis to 250 young women and used sorority gifting to tease the announcement of their new collagen-infused tortilla chips, which sorority members showed off in RushTok videos.

“We used rush as a moment and our college community to really seed that on social before we actually launched or even teased it on our own social channels,” said Khloud’s senior brand director Tate Murray. 

Murray said RushTok is a “really fun, relevant moment that kind of sets the social context for the year of college.” College customers and campus creators are key for Khloud, she said, noting, “They drive trend. They drive culture. College consumers are super discerning.”

She said the brand hopes to see actual retail results of an over index of Khloud in the college markets they are activating in, and that the brand’s impressions amongst the college audience have jumped from hundreds of thousands to millions in the last three months, and that as a result they have received heavy inbound interest and requests from campus organizations. 

Lucky Charms: 

General Mills zeroed in on one sorority on one campus with one specific, decades-old cereal brand during RushTok: Kappa Delta at the University of Arkansas with Lucky Charms. 

Why the multicolored marshmallow cereal? Megan Brooks, business unit director of family favorites cereals at General Mills, said that the brand had been watching sororities use luck themes like “Lucky me, I’m a KD” during rush and pulling in elements of the brand like marshmallow shapes or their mascot, Lucky the Leprechaun.

KD uses shamrocks as a symbol and green as a signature color, Brooks said, and University of Arkansas was selected because of the campus’ focus on decor and its timing in the rush cycle, allowing the brand to get into the social conversation earlier. 

“There are over 600 women who are part of Kappa Delta at the University of Arkansas, and each one of them is a mini creator,” Brooks said. “Really getting in deep with that one house actually allowed us for more breadth than we realized because of the reach of them all.” 

Brooks declined to share what the brand paid for the activation, but said that members of the sorority were not required to post about it. They partnered with viral RushTok balloon decorator Presley Paige to take over the house with rainbow decor, a photobooth and charm and cereal bars. 

Brooks said creators have innovated with the brand’s iconography in ways that feel more authentic than if the company put out a similar ad. “These women are at the forefront of what the creator economy is right now, and really experiencing it and building it,” she said. 

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