JoyWorks for brands

Makejoyyour most effective campus campaign.Activate intelligent peer-to-peer gifting.

  1. The mechanic

    Students gift your brand to friends, face to face.

  2. The multiplier

    Friends gift your brand to their friends.

  3. The proof

    We trace every handoff and response.

Explore Partnership
Trackable peer-to-peer campus marketing activation with college students sharing brand offers
Peer-to-peer
attribution treeUCLA · example
S
SamSeed · got it from your brand
gifted
B
Ben2nd hand · from Sam
redeemed
SJM
Sarah +More hands · from Ben
redeemed
100+ hands100+ redeemedstill moving
a little joy from sam.
iced oat latte · at the campus café
sponsored by your brand
Initial rollouts launching at:YaleNYUColumbiaUCLA
The viral loop

One student gifts your brand. The network takes over.

Stop paying for every single impression. JoyWorks uses peer-to-peer mechanics to turn one seeded offer into a traceable, self-sustaining viral cascade across campus. Pick your category and watch your customer acquisition cost (CAC) drop as the network expands.

SD
you and dana.
joy pop something.
get togethera plan for you two
loaded today
iced oat lattesponsored by your brand
a songartist · song
popped dana.
it's wrapped and on its way. i'll let you know when dana opens it.
sam's phone
D
joy pop with a friend.
bump them together. i'm watching.
S
a little joy from sam.
i peeked. i'm not supposed to peek. open it.
sponsored by your brand
open it
from sam
treated you.
iced oat latte
at the campus café
sponsored by your brand
enjoy it. two more are coming your way to give. i know who they're for.
use my treat
dana's phone
Intelligent seeding

Your first treats go to the students who start chains. Our models find them.

JoyWorks reads the campus social graph: who actually spends time together, whose plans fill up, and whose gifts get redeemed. Your campaign starts with the connectors, so every treat travels further on the same budget.

01Seed the connectors.

We rank seed givers by chain potential, not follower count: how many friend groups they bridge and how often what they give gets redeemed.

02The right treat at the right moment.

Your treat rises on the gift sheet when it fits both friends and the time of day: cold brew before class, cookies on the late-night run.

03Budget follows momentum.

Earned treats and new seeds flow to the branches that are redeeming and passing on. Your spend concentrates where the chain is alive.

+12.2%

higher adoption when seeding through friendship networks instead of random targeting. Targeting the most-connected people produced no gain.

The Lancet, 2015
+10.7

points of participation when the first people informed moved from the 10th to the 90th percentile of network centrality.

Science, 2013
Gen Z students engaging in authentic word-of-mouth marketing on a college campus
The Gen Z acquisition problem

You can’t buy their attention. You have to be gifted it.

Traditional digital ads are invisible to Gen Z, and brand influencers are seen as inauthentic. The only marketing channel left with 100% trust is the group chat and the best friend.

99%

of Gen Z consumers will hit ‘skip’ on an ad as soon as it’s an option, making traditional digital impressions nearly worthless.

Bulbshare, Ad Blockers and Advocacy, 2022
88%

trust recommendations from people they know more than any other channel.

Nielsen Trust in Advertising, 2021
54%

more likely: college students learn about products from friends and family more than the general population.

Refuel Agency, Marketing to College Students
The IRL app for campus life

The daily social engine that turns campus enjoyment into shared joy.

Students use JoyWorks every day to open their morning joys, answer campus polls, set their spot for lunch and study, treat their friends, and coordinate their real-world plans. By seamlessly weaving your brand into these high-retention social routines, your campaign becomes a high-converting moment of joy delivered by a friend, rather than an intrusive ad they scroll past.

Morning joys Campus polls Set your spot You've got plans Enjoy tonight Joy Pop Treat a friend Friend streaks Do your joy Joy Rally Your person
For this
student
01The ROI of spontaneous joy

Gen Z ignores transactional ads but craves authentic, human-led experiences. Your offer arrives as a delightful surprise in the middle of their day, bypassing ad fatigue and triggering high-intent engagement.

02High DAU = continuous brand frequency

Because JoyWorks acts as the daily campus operating system, from the morning coffee run to the midnight study break, your campaign achieves constant, un-skippable brand impressions across the entire semester without overpaying for traditional media buys.

03Peer endorsement at scale

Every sponsored treat is attached to a specific friend’s name. It’s the notification students open first. You capture the conversion rate of an authentic peer recommendation, backed by the closed-loop tracking of a digital performance platform.

do your joy.
make joy your movement.

That’s the movement JoyWorks powers on campus. We give students the digital tools to meet up, share treats, and connect in person every single day. When your brand sponsors these real-world moments, you transition from a passive billboard to an active participant in their daily habits, driving measurable ROI and brand loyalty that lasts long after graduation.

Always-on campus marketing

You buy ads for move-in and finals. You’re missing the 200 days in between.

Seasonal activations reach students a few days a year. JoyWorks turns daily peer-to-peer phone bumps into an always-on distribution channel for your brand. Map your offers to the daily habits that actually drive revenue.

Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Where brands show up today
Move-in
Welcome week
Game days
Rivalry week
Finals
Back on campus
Spring break
FinalsGraduation
JoyWorks always-on campaigns
  The big days brands plan for A week of gifts between friends A bigger wave on a big day
Campaign dashboardIllustration
Seasonal activationsEngagement per week
AugSepOctNovDecJanFebMarAprMay
JoyWorks always-onPeer-to-peer redemptions per week
AugSepOctNovDecJanFebMarAprMay
Break the boom-and-bust cycle.

Stop overpaying for crowded seasonal inventory. JoyWorks delivers steady, compounding brand engagement every single day of the semester.

MonThe reset

High intent for coffee & productivity offers to start the week.

TueBack-to-back

The walk between classes.

WedThe slump

Prime engagement window for energy drinks, CPG sampling, and quick-service food.

ThuThe night starts

Plans for the weekend begin.

FriThe hang

The afternoon before the weekend.

SatGame day & the crew game

Group-level redemptions. Perfect for shareable food and drinks for the whole crew.

SunReset & study

Study day, brunch, groceries.

Align offers with weekly spend habits.

Students have distinct purchasing patterns throughout the week. Map your inventory to match their rhythm, not yours.

8am
The coffee line

Before the first class. A daily habit, repeated all week.

Coffee
11am
Between classes

The walk across campus. Quick, grab-and-go buys.

Snack · Energy
3pm
The slump

When everyone needs a lift. Peak demand for energy.

Energy
8pm
The study session

Library tables, group projects. One treat, shared by the table.

Snack · Coffee
1am
The late-night run

The food run nobody plans. Impulse orders, high intent.

Late night
Precision daypart targeting.

Don’t waste ad spend on hungry students at 8 AM. Trigger specific peer-to-peer offers based on the time of day, from morning coffee routines to midnight delivery runs.

Friends celebrating a birthday with cake
happy birthday, dana.
a little joy from sam
sponsored by your brand
New connection referrals

A new friend gets their first treat, and their first reason to open JoyWorks.

Micro-celebrations

An exam passed, a birthday, a win. The small moments friends celebrate together.

The midterm pick-me-up

A friend knows who needs a lift this week, and sends one.

A team or club win

The moment the whole group is together.

Peer-triggered targeting.

Algorithms can’t predict a bad day or a passed exam, but best friends can. JoyWorks utilizes peer knowledge to deliver your brand at moments of high emotional impact, creating authentic conversions algorithms miss.

Ways your brand can show up

01Weekly presence

A steady supply every week: the Monday reset, the midweek slump, Sunday study day.

02Time of day

Energy at 3pm, coffee at 8am, food at 1am. When it fits best.

03Tentpole bursts

A bigger wave on move-in, game day and finals, on top of every week.

04The Saturday crew game

Your treat inside Joy Rally, the weekly game students play with their crew.

05Personal moments

Birthdays, exams passed, first friends. The days that matter most.

These are campaign options we shape with each brand. We'll plan your mix together.

Core campus categories

Target the high-frequency habits that drive student spending.

Stop buying generic impressions. JoyWorks is engineered for CPG, QSR, and retail brands that rely on daily foot traffic and routine consumption.

Energy drink brand sampling and student peer gifting post-workouta little joy from maya.
Energy & hydration
Pre-workout & study fuel

Drive product trial precisely when intent is highest. A peer-gifted energy drink before an intramural game converts immediately, unlike a sponsored Instagram post.

Coffee brand campus ambassador marketing through organic student sharinga little joy from sam.
Coffee
Morning routine interception

Steal market share from the dominant campus cafe. When a student gifts a coffee offer to their roommate, one treat reaches two customers: the friend who gives it and the friend who drinks it.

College students sharing CPG brand snacks on a dorm sofa during a group study sessiona little joy from leo.
Snacks
Group study & dorm drops

Capitalize on communal eating. Seed bulk or shareable offers that spread organically through study groups and Greek life houses.

Friends sharing a late-night QSR pizza delivery during a campus midnight food runa little joy from ava.
Late-night food
Midnight food runs

Own the high-intent, low-competition 1 AM window. Let friends trigger late-night food runs for each other, driving late-night traffic to your counter.

Omnichannel integration

Digitize your physical campus activations.

Campus reps & ambassadors

Turn reps into trackable seed nodes.

Give your campus ambassadors something better than a flyer. Equip them with digital Joy Pops. When they bump an offer to a student, you can track the entire viral chain of subsequent shares.

Tours & pop-ups

Extend the lifespan of experiential drops.

Your branded truck is only on campus for 24 hours. Joy Pop keeps the campaign alive. Seed digital treats at your pop-up, and watch students continue to pass them around long after you’ve driven to the next school.

Stores near campus

Close the offline attribution loop.

Bridge the gap between digital sharing and physical foot traffic. Every digital treat is tied to a secure redemption at your local POS, giving you a clear customer acquisition cost (CAC).

Native peer delivery

Bypass Gen Z ad-blindness with peer-to-peer notification open rates.

Gen Z ignores brand ads. But they never ignore a notification from a friend. JoyWorks places your brand sponsorship directly inside organic peer-to-peer messages, right where attention is highest.

  • Co-branded peer delivery. Your brand rides along with an authentic gift from a friend, not a sponsored ad unit.
  • Zero creator fees. Brands routinely pay campus nano- and micro-influencers $50 to $200+ for a single post. No paid influencers or forced scripts here. 100% organic peer recommendation.Rates: Influencer Marketing Hub 2026 guides. Nano posts $10 to $50, micro posts $150 to $500.
  • High-intent receptors. Recipients open it because the notification carries personal trust, not corporate intrusion.
Thursday, October 8
3:41
nJoynow
a little joy from sam.
i peeked. open it.
sponsored by your brand
nJoy2m ago
dana opened your joy pop.
it landed.
nJoy5m ago
dana says thanks.
for the joy pop you sent.
Closed-loop campus attribution

Turn physical sampling into measurable, full-funnel analytics.

Stop handing out samples into a black box. JoyWorks tracks every gift from the initial seed user down the entire viral chain, providing attribution for every treat you fund.

  • Verified in-store redemptions100% confirmed POS counter redemptions. Zero guesswork on claim rates.
  • Viral expansion rate (K-factor)Measure how many secondary friends claimed and re-bumped your offer after the initial drop.
  • Co-redemption spikesTrack when gifts turn into group foot-traffic events (e.g., friends visiting your store together).
  • Organic repeat rateMonitor how many students return on their own dime after their initial gifted treat.
  • Post-campaign peer giftingTrack long-term brand affinity when students begin buying your products to gift to friends on their own.
Design Your Custom Pilot
Your campaign · the pop treeIllustration
Redeemed
K-factor
Co-redemption
Repeat rate
Campaigns that learn

Every campaign makes the next one smarter.

Each handoff, redemption, and return visit becomes a training signal. Your second pilot starts where the first one left off, with sharper seeds, better timing, and a clear read on what drives sales.

01Predict

Who starts the chain, which treat fits, and when it lands.

02Hand off

A friend gives your treat face to face, with their name on it.

03Verify

Redeemed at your counter. Real people, real visits.

04Learn

The model retrains on what really happened, and the next round starts smarter.

Measure new customers.

We hold back a matched group of similar students who get no seed. The difference in counter visits is the customers your campaign actually created, not the ones who would have come anyway.

See the word of mouth.

Discover which dayparts convert, which friend groups redeem together, and which treats start plans. Word of mouth drives 20 to 50% of purchasing decisions, but brands almost never get to see it happen.

McKinsey, 2010
Renew with a head start.

Your next campaign inherits everything the last one taught the model.

Insights, never identities. You see counts and rates. Every gift is labeled “sponsored,” no targeting relies on sensitive traits, and students’ names stay theirs.

Founding brand partnerships

Secure your spot as a founding brand.

We are opening a limited number of experimental campaign slots for our initial campus rollouts at Yale, NYU, Columbia, and UCLA. Connect with us to lock in priority access and let our team design a custom, trackable peer-to-peer growth engine for your brand.

01Custom campaign architecture. We’ll map your specific acquisition goals to the daily habits of students on our launch campuses. 02Viral loop projections. We’ll outline how your seeded offers will cascade through student friend groups and crew chats. 03Closed-loop attribution setup. We’ll show you exactly how our dashboard will track your campaign from the first digital gift to the final POS redemption.
Become a Founding Partner
Let’s build your campus pilot together.

Launch your first trackable campus pilot.

Let our team design a custom peer-to-peer growth engine for your brand.

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