The Yard is a campus marketing marketplace that connects brands with verified college students, student organizations, and Greek life to run authentic digital and in-person campaigns. The platform uses .edu email verification to ensure authenticity, offers smart search and analytics tools, and supports both individual creators and student orgs. Brands can filter creators by campus and niche, review campaign submissions, and track performance through a unified dashboard.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Brands struggle to reach Gen Z consumers authentically on college campuses, often relying on influencer platforms that include fake accounts or non-students. This makes it difficult to verify authenticity, measure real campus influence, and run campaigns that resonate with students at the moment they are forming brand preferences.
Solution
The Yard is a campus marketing marketplace that bridges brands and college students by connecting companies with Greek life, athletes, student organizations, and individual creators. The platform uses .edu email verification to ensure all creators are real students, and it provides tools for brands to filter creators by campus and niche, launch campaigns, review submissions, and track analytics. Students and organizations can apply to brand campaigns, submit deliverables, and receive payments through the platform. The Yard supports both digital campaigns, such as Instagram takeovers and TikTok challenges, and in-person activations like pop-ups and sampling events on campus.
Target Audience
Primary customers are brands and companies seeking to run marketing campaigns targeting Gen Z college students, as well as student creators, student organizations, and Greek life chapters looking to monetize their campus influence.
Features
- .edu email verification to confirm student status and prevent fake accounts
- Smart search functionality that allows brands to filter creators by campus, niche, and other criteria
- Campaign management workflow including applications, deliverable review, and approval tracking
- Analytics dashboard showing creator performance, campaign progress, and engagement metrics
- Support for both individual student creators and student organizations (e.g., sororities, clubs, Greek life)
- Integration with social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok to pull profile data, audience stats, and post performance
- AI-powered features for generating responses, summarizing submitted documents, and producing insights and recommendations
- Payment processing for campaign compensation with identity and tax verification