Bloomington, MN -- Looking to provide unique ways for youth marketers to reach college students, Campus Media Group has expanded its offerings to include advertising in downloadable textbooks.

CMG, which develops and executes media and marketing strategies on college campuses, has partnered with St. Paul, MN-based Freeload Press Inc., which publishes e-textbooks. The relationship will permit CMG to sell targeted ads on a national or regional basis in e-textbooks covering a variety of subject matters such as business and finance, math and psychology. About 100 titles are slated for download this fall on an estimated 150 campuses, potentially reaching 250,000 students.

“More than 16 million students will head off to college this fall, and none of them are looking forward to buying textbooks,” says Jason Bakker, Director of Marketing for CMG. “A lot of college students get their first real lesson in economics after leaving the checkout line at the campus bookstore,” he adds.

However, a very economical alternative exists: free textbooks in exchange for seeing some ads while you study. The e-textbooks are viewable as a PDF and will also be supported by a free open-source e-book reader called dotReader. “dotReader has an open architecture that allows publishers/distributors to create plug-in features -- in this case, advertising,” says Bakker.

Brands like FedEx Kinko’s and Culver’s Restaurants have participated, and others are expected to sign on to support their back-to-school efforts. Advertising programs can be customized and targeted, allowing for simple image-based ads, clickable ads linking to web sites and even video ads. “This advertising channel is remarkable in the sense that it provides interactivity with the student and an opportunity for brands to not just say they are relevant, but actually show it.” says Bakker.

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