Sororities: The Next Big Influencer
Credit: Vivien Killilea / Getty Images- In the past two years, sororities have seen increased interest from brands seeking partnerships, especially during sorority recruitment, also known as rush.
- Brands that have recently partnered with sororities include soda brand poppi, coffee chain Dutch Bros, and cosmetic brand Buxom.
- One brand said that during the peak of sorority recruitment, nine out of the top 10 highest-selling Target stores were in or near college towns.
When Madie Huynh accepted the vice president of marketing position for her sorority at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), she didn’t expect to become an influencer manager representing hundreds of her sorority sisters.
With the rise of #RushTok on TikTok, sorority recruitment at colleges has become a spectacle — and brands are increasingly seeing it for the money maker it is.
“When I got into this role, I thought it was just gonna be like, ‘Let’s just post on social media,'” Huynh told BestColleges. “When you get into these [partnerships] with these brands, it turns into something way different.”
This fall, Huynh’s sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha, partnered with poppi, the prebiotic soda brand.
However, instead of the cash a lot of influencers would receive in exchange for content, the brand sent Zeta free cans of poppi, shirts with the phrase “Zeta is poppin’ off,” and poppi-branded merchandise, including stickers and a cooler they promised would always be stocked with the latest flavor of poppi at no charge.
During rush, the sorority and its members featured the brand in multiple social media posts on Instagram and TikTok — not because poppi required them to, but because the content featuring brands performs well on social media.
“All of the content did so well,” Huynh said. “It was something that we wanted to post, which I think was really special.”
Poppi has also partnered with a long list of sororities on campuses across the country, and the partnerships are yielding results. During the height of sorority recruitment, nine of the top 10 highest-selling Target stores were those located in or around college towns, poppi told BestColleges.
Huynh compares sororities making content for brands to seeing your favorite influencer or celebrity using a product.
“Especially during rush, the freshmen that are going through are looking at sororities’ pages and trying to see where they can see themselves,” she explained. “I definitely see it being kind of like a new influencer … like, ‘I want to be like that when I’m in college.’ I feel like the whole college experience has so much hype around it.”
Poppin’ Off
The social media team from poppi came to Texas Zeta to help the sorority with content, and the founder of poppi, Allison Ellsworth, even showed up to make a cameo in a TikTok and answer sorority member’s questions about the company.
On bid day, when invitations are given out to join, a poppi mocktail bar was set up in front of the sorority house for members and potential members to get customized drinks.
Zeta at UT Austin is just one of the many sororities that the drink brand has worked with. From sending free products to sponsoring sorority recruitment events, the brand is utilizing sororities to market itself as the soda of choice for Gen Z.
“We are organically ingrained with the community, and understand how to properly leverage them as they are organic to our brand,” poppi said. “Sororities and collegiate clubs want to align with colorful branding, positive identity, and authentic personality during recruitment and into the school year.”
Building a Brand
Partnering with poppi at the scale that Zeta did comes with perks for the sorority beyond the free cans of soda. Huynh says the exposure from the partnership extended beyond campus and social media, leading to increased recognition of her sorority in the community.
Huynh said one of her friends was at a high school football game when someone recognized her as being “in that sorority that poppi sponsored.”
Building the brand of Texas Zeta has transformed Huynh’s position in the house. What was a one- or two-person job has transformed into a 20-person operation to manage social media content.
She also has to weigh how to best represent her sorority and its members — all 250 of them.
“I feel like the hard thing about having brands come in and being influencers for them is we’re a whole chapter. How do we represent everyone?” she said.
This year, in addition to poppi, Texas Zeta partnered with makeup brand Buxom and coffee chain Dutch Bros.
“For our Buxom collab, I think they sent us 576 total lip glosses,” Huynh said. “I was in my room and looked up how much they cost and was like, ‘What do I do with $15,000 worth of lip gloss?'”
However, Huynh says poppi stands out from the other brands because of how closely the company worked with the sorority and the scale of the partnership.
“What made this so big was that they supplied us with merch and so much support, and we were constantly in touch with the team. We want[ed] this to be the best…for both the poppi team and also for our chapter because we were like, ‘This is a big deal!'”
TikTok Reigns Supreme
One of the most intensive efforts is creating content for TikTok. The sorority has just over 30,000 followers on the app, with more than 700,000 likes. The account’s top videos have been viewed more than 2 million times.
Huynh said the videos — which might last a few seconds — take tons of planning to determine who will be featured, teach the dance, and coordinate the entire chapter.
“These RushToks are no joke to film,” Huynh said.
This year, TikTok dethroned Instagram as the top choice for influencer marketing campaigns, according to the 2024 Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report from the Influencer Marketing Hub (IMH).
Over 68% of responding brands said they use TikTok for influencer marketing. The report also found that nearly 25% of TikTok’s audience are women between the ages of 18 and 24.
Blurring the Lines
Huynh says she has never signed a contract with a brand, so it’s up to the sorority to negotiate and enforce any deal made with a brand.
“It’s all a donation. I think that’s where the lines are kind of getting blurry now,” she said.
Poppi was one of the brands that did not have specific content expectations. According to Huynh, the sorority’s TikToks and Instagram posts featuring the brand were created because the chapter wanted to, not because they were obligated to.
“Poppi was never like, ‘We want content from y’all.’ They specifically said on the call, ‘You don’t have to post anything if you don’t want to post,'” she said. “They were more like, ‘How can we support y’all’ and not, ‘Do this for us.'”
While the exposure the sororities gain might make the partnerships worthwhile, brands are potentially saving thousands of dollars by not paying sororities.
According to IMH, micro-influencer TikTok accounts (accounts with 10,000-50,000 followers) can earn up to $125 per post. Mid-tier influencers (50,000-500,000 followers) can get paid up to $1,250 per post, with macro-influencers (500,000-1 million followers) estimated to make up to $2,500 per post.
Figuring It Out as They Go
As the official marketing agent for Texas Zeta, Huynh has the task of deciding which brands the chapter collaborates with and which ones they pass on.
The sorority commonly partners with brands in the cosmetics and beverage sectors, including Tarte, Too Faced, Bloom, and Waterboy. However, over the last couple of years, partnership opportunities for the sorority have significantly increased, both in quantity and scale.
“I remember rarely being sent any product, or us receiving it [during our first year of college],” Huynh recounts. “This year, I was talking to the girls, and I was like, ‘for those of you that are new to being on this side of rush, y’all don’t understand this did not happen last year.'”
As Huynh finishes her term as the vice president of marketing, she wants to ensure the next person in her position has clear structures and systems to handle partnerships, which she expects will continue to increase in the next few years.
“It’s something I know and I love doing. But I would be lying if I didn’t say it was sometimes a lot. Like, it’s the first week of school, and I need to get a TikTok up…and I’m like, ‘What am I doing?'”