News & Insights from Mecenat

Tomorrow, we open the doors to this year’s edition of Trainee Day, a career fair specialized in trainee programs for […]

The housing situation for students often comes into focus when a new academic year begins. The difficulties in finding a […]

Students are now back for a new academic year, and Mecenat Touchdown is hitting the road to meet them on […]

Just over a year ago, Mecenat acquired TraineeGuiden, starting the process of integrating the businesses. As part of this work, […]

How do students think when planning their summer vacation? What do they want to see and experience, how do they […]

For the second year in a row, Mecenat presents the Students’ Award, where Sweden’s students list the most attractive employers. […]

Mecenat continues to create added value for both students and companies, this time through the launch of Mecenat Talang. It […]

Mecenat is now publishing its second report from UngInsikt. The theme this time is the students’ clothing consumption and the […]

Demoskop and Mecenat are now launching their first report based on the Framtidspanelen, a survey panel that gathers the country’s […]

A changing purchasing patterns and a clearer demand for low prices and discounts. These are some of the conclusions that […]

As students return to campus for a new academic year, Mecenat sets out on its annual tour. Mecenat Touchdown premieres […]

Over a million Swedish students are in the starting pits for a new academic year. This at a time when […]

Now Seniordays is launching an app for its members. A steady growth of users has generated increased activity and turnover. […]

We will celebrate this together with our members and partners throughout May with special discounts, competitions, and activities. For instance, […]

What makes an employer attractive to today’s students and which line of business are they aiming for after exam? We […]

Today marks the start of Mecenat Touchdown 2022. Finally, we can go on a bigger tour and meet the students on their home turf. We visit ten campuses with our mini fair and meet thousands of students over two weeks. We will talk about our student discounts, listen to what the students want, offer coffee and snacks, some giveaways, and a chance to chill in our lounge on the way to or from the lectures.

Price, recycling, and sustainability guide students’ choices when shopping furniture and interior design. Second-hand is a part of everyday life, but new products are still the most common purchase and physical stores hold their position well in competition with e-commerce. And when they buy new, it is the well-known brands at the top of the list. That and much more emerged in our latest Mecenat Insight about how students think about interior design and furniture.

The Mecenat app exceeded three million downloads this week. A continual development of content and functionality has made the app a natural part in students’ everyday lives. The mobile surfing accounts for more than 90 percent of our visitors on the web where students can lower costs of their purchases.

Through Mecenat Career, the offer to companies is now expanded to also include employer branding and recruitment. Using over 40 relevant parameters, Mecenat offers its partners a tailored solution for finding the right candidates among students, young professionals and seniors. Mecenat is an established and credible sender of information and can quickly reach out with these messages.

Through the acquisition of Frank Students, known in Finland for its leading student identification and discount app Frank, Mecenat broadens its offering, taking the first step to become a truly international platform. The acquisition adds 160,000 students to the Company’s existing member base, further solidifying its position as a leading marketing technology platform.

New semester and new courses. Thus, it is also time for the students to provide themselves with new student literature. In Mecenat Insight’s latest survey, we have taken a closer look at how they have acquired their course literature and whether, and if so how, this has been affected by the pandemic.

Kurslitteratur.se is one of the more visited sites online for those who want to buy or sell course literature. No fees, a large range and fast sales make it popular with both buyers and sellers. We have now spent time updating and renewing both the look and the technology behind it to make it more user-friendly.

With more than 1.3 million students and alumni as its members, Mecenat (“the Company”) is a leading marketing channel for vendors looking to reach young individuals in Sweden. Through the acquisition of Seniordays the Company will add another attractive affinity group, of c. 130,000 members, consisting of the increasingly more digitally active consumer category of individuals over 55

Our digital Mecenat Touchdown has been going online throughout September but now when the restrictions have been lifted, we are moving out into reality. We visit eight campuses from north to south starting tomorrow at Umeå University. There will be lots of giveaways, competitions and of course some extra good offers from several of our partners.

In connection with the start of the series, Mecenat has extended its collaboration as a gold sponsor of Gothenburg HC. The team is one of ten that plays in the highest ice hockey league for women, SDHL. In this way, Mecenat wants to show its support for the serious level of sporting ambition where a solid set of values and social responsibility are important building blocks.

A new school year begins, and we hope for a permanent return to normal student life. This does not make student discounts less important. On the contrary, a return may result in greater expenses in many areas. Through Mecenat student discounts, there are opportunities to save thousands of SEK on a wide range of large and small purchases.

The Swedish Public Transport Association has increased the requirements for companies that want to leave a student discount with their affiliated transport companies. Mecenat is one of the two actors that has met the new requirements and thus been commissioned to mediate student travel discounts.

Now the holiday has started for the students and even though most of them will work this summer, they will get time off from the course literature. We have conducted a survey on how and what the students read when they can choose freely and where they prefer to buy their books.

The major banks dominate the student group – as in the population at large and cash payment is almost forgotten. They are for the most part replaced by digital payment in mobile or watch. That is, in a few sentences, a summary of the survey on banks and payment that we have done among Mecenat students.

IK Investment Partners is pleased to announce that funds advised by IK will be investing in Mecenat Holding AB. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

Throughout May, we celebrate 10-year anniversary of the Mecenat app. Together with our partners, we present exciting and student-unique discounts throughout the anniversary. In addition, there will be competitions and games with new great prizes every week, live broadcasts and much more. And of course, everything happens in the app.

Mecenat has started an exciting collaboration with the digital bank Lunar. They offer a new banking solution with all services completely online. Their customers, and now also Mecenat’s students, gets access to a completely new bank and financial services directly on their mobile phones. Without having to change banks, students can try out what the new generation of banking services has to offer during the launch campaign. In addition, they receive SEK 150 deposited in their newly started bank account.

This time of year, when the light has begun to return, a lot of people starts planning their vacation and looking for travel destinations. This is how it looks this year as well, but with a clear adaptation to the rules and restrictions that apply at present. Fewer people plan to travel and of those who do, the format will be smaller and the trips shorter.

More students order their groceries online and an unexpectedly large proportion also buy restaurant food with delivery to the door. When we look at the retail trade, it is the grocery giants that dominate in the student group, just as in the general population. These are some of the results from our latest Mecenat Insights on the topic of food and groceries.

Students appreciate their Mecenat app. During the fall, we passed 2 million downloads and they also like what they get. Just over 95 percent give the app very high ratings in the Swedish app-store, and they review it with comments such as “Best, so good discounts, flexible app!! Simple, flexible, good! Absolutely amazing”.

Mecenat has started a collaboration with the furniture and interior design chain Mio, which now offers student discounts on selected parts of its range. The student discount provides 25 percent lower price at duvets and pillows as well as free home delivery of selected beds.

We have asked the students about Christmas and the Christmas celebration and they seem well prepared that this year’s holiday will not be as it usually is. They are planning a small-scale celebration with the family and the majority will shop online for Christmas. A lot of them started last week by shopping bargain gifts during Black Week.

The number purchases with a student discount increased by 72 percent during this year’s Black Week, compared to the week before. This is basically the same increase we saw in 2019. This week makes a real difference for the students. The majority of them know what they are looking for, which means that the student group has saved millions of SEK on planned purchases during Black Week.

Corona restrictions have changed the way students use e-commerce. They both shop more and have greater width of purchases compared to before. These are two of the findings from our latest Mecenat Insights that we recently conducted to learn more about students’ changing behavior around e-commerce.

Mecenat is now launching a mobile app for its alumni group, which consists of more than 500,000 young professionals who have recently graduated. This will be a seamless transition from student discounts to alumni discounts where they will find all the discounts and offers available on Mecenat’s Alumni website.

The numbers have been pointing upwards for a long time now and Mecenat continues to break records. Unique visitors increased by 26 percent and mediated student discounts by almost 50 percent during the third quarter, both to levels that are all time high.

Today is the premiere for Mecenat Touchdown. Our traditional campus tour has changed format and become a digital parallel to the visits we usually make on campus. The tour starts with a live broadcast on Instagram and the activities on campus have been replaced with exciting offers and fun competitions on the web and in mobile.

Mecenat now starts to deliver student discounts from Coop. Among other things, students will receive a 50 percent student discount on selected goods each month. Through the collaboration, students will be able to save hundreds of SEK on healthy food and other items.

This year the student’s summer will not be like previous years, but the students adapt and make the best of the situation. That’s a short summary of the results of Mecenat Insight’s summer survey.

During this academic year, Mecenat has generated figures that top previous records by far. Last month, unique visitors increased by 24 percent and mediated student discounts increased by as much as 42 percent.

One more of H&M’s brands are now entering a partnership with Mecenat. It is Weekday that provides a 10 percent student discount on its entire collection online.

Mecenat and Discovery Networks Sweden have started a collaboration that gives student discounts on the streaming content at Dplay. The students can find a wide range of entertainment, sports and documentaries that are often asked for by the target group.

Together with the partner company Let’s Gig, Mecenat and a few others have gathered all of Sweden’s summer jobs and extra jobs on the company’s platform. Companies looking for students can now publish ads directly on Let’s Gig’s platform free of charge and thus gain access to thousands of students at no cost.

More than half of the students have lost all or part of their extra jobs. Also, summer jobs have disappeared to a large extent. That shows the result of a survey that Mecenat Insights conducted last week.

When we completed the Easter egg hunt in 2019, it was a huge success with loads of students who took to the streets and looked for our luxurious Easter eggs. This year, for obvious reasons, we ran the entire competition online and it was a successful move. The number of participants in the competition increased by 30 percent from last year’s already high figures.

Now when it’s time to update the spring wardrobe, all students with a Mecenat card are offered a 10 per cent student discount in Lindex close to 200 stores in Sweden. A well-known brand that offers inspiring fashion concepts in women, children, underwear and cosmetics.

Retail trade has increasingly faced competition from digital commerce, which has made the situation for smaller local business tough. Therefore, in January, Mecenat made the decision to let them market themselves to the student group free of charge. Recent measures against the spread of the Corona virus have acutely worsened the situation for local trade, making this marketing even more important.

Now we have compiled the figures for the number of students with a Mecenat card in 2019 and we set a new high score with a margin. Last year we increased to almost 1.2 million students with a Mecenat card.

When we compiled the key figures for our web traffic in 2019, they showed in a record year with a massive increase in both visitors and clicks on student discounts. We have now passed January and can see that this positive trend continues.

Train travel is an up-to-date topic as more and more people are choosing a more climate-friendly way to travel. When Mecenat and MTR Express now begin their collaboration, the number of departures where students receive a discount is noticeably more. It is on the attractive route between Stockholm and Gothenburg that students with Mecenatkort receive a 25-30 percent student discount.

A lot of students need to furnish their accommodation, not least at the start of the semester. The challenge is often to get their newly purchased furniture home smoothly. Now students who shop at IKEA Umeå during week four can get help with transporting their new furnishing at no cost.

A lot of students have high hopes of finding a mobile phone under the Christmas tree. We asked them how they think about the model update of their mobile phones and 68 percent of them state that they change to a new phone at least every third year.

MQ/Marqet is one of Sweden’s largest fashion chains with 119 stores and a comprehensive online store. In conjunction with the renewal of their concept and brand, a collaboration with Mecenat is initiated, which means that students now can shop with 15 percent student discount on the entire assortment.

Today, Black Week has started, and we have asked a few questions to the students about their plans for the week. And you can’t but wonder if the studies won’t suffer from Black Week, but we’re sure they can combine studying with intensive shopping.

Bolt is the taxi service that was called the Uber Challenger when it launched in Stockholm last spring. Two weeks ago they started in Gothenburg and are now offering their taxi trips with both student and alumni discounts through Mecenat in both cities.

Mecenat is now starting a collaboration with Lyko that provides student discounts on one of Sweden’s most complete range of beauty products. From today, students can shop with a 10 percent student discount on the entire assortment as well as additional discounts on temporary promotions.

When Mecenat asked the students how they prefer to contact their friends, well over half, 65 percent, responded that they send text messages rather than talking on the phone. 19 percent call first but then text if no one answers. Only 16 percent are “old school” and stick to calling only.

Through the transition from physical cards to digital Mecenat cards in the app, Mecenat has reduced the consumption of plastic by almost 21 tons in the last five years. In total, plastic card production has decreased by 85 percent. Together with the corresponding reduction in distribution, it provides a significant environmental benefit for our work.

Mecenat can now offer student discounts at Matsmart, the online grocery store that has a wide range of products that otherwise would have been discarded. The students will be offered 25 SEK student discount on already heavily discounted prices. At the same time they will make a difference when reducing food waste.

Mecenat recently launched student coupons as a new marketing channel for Sweden’s students. The reception among partners is very positive and the outcome far exceeds expectations. The traffic increase was on average 124 per cent for the partners who participated during the opening week.

Now at the start of the season, Mecenat is launching a collaboration with the Swedish women’s hockey league (SDHL) and Espresso House to market the women’s hockey to a wider audience. The collaboration gives students who attends SDHL a special offer at Espresso House via Mecenat.

Mecenat is now going out on campus to universities and colleges to meet the students at their home turf. During Mecenat Touchdown we have a great lounge area with music, coffee, giveaways and happenings where the students can hang out and discover for a day.

A lot of students are now starting a new school year and installing themselves at their place of study. But it is far from everyone who has found a permanent place to move in to. More than one in five, just over 22 percent, of students over the age of 19 have not yet found a accommodation for the fall term. And when the housing is in place, there are a lot of decisions to be made before they have a functioning home. This is shown in Mecenat’s survey about student housing conducted in August.

This week, H&M began offering student discounts to Sweden’s students through Mecenat. During the launch campaign, the students will be able to dress up for the summer parties in costumes and dresses with 10 percent student discount.

One of Mecenat’s summer gifts for students in Sweden is a student discount on four of this summer’s really big music festivals: Summerburst in Gothenburg, Lollapalooza in Stockholm, Way Out West in Gothenburg and Summerburst Stockholm. It’s together with Live Nation that we can make the summer even more fun with student discounts.

Through a cooperation with Mecenat, McDonald’s is now launching student discounts in its app. This means that students have access to offers directly in McDonald’s app

During the Easter week we conducted a competition with our partners where the students could find luxurious gold eggs filled with gift cards and tickets. The result surpassed our high expectations by far. Lots of participants and lots of positive posts in social media. “Have not seen so many run around town, since Pokémon go”, commented one of the participating students

As of today, Mecenat students receive a student discount on the talk of the town; the electric scooter from VOI. This is the result of a new collaboration between Mecenat AB and VOI Technology.

Mecenat has started a collaboration with LetsGig, and their newly founded recruitment platform. It matches companies with students who are looking for extra jobs during their studies

Mecenat has for some time developed Mecenat UniCore, a membership system for student organisations. Recently, the 20th student union took the system into operation. UniCore has a clear focus on both their membership administration and the students’ membership benefits It also means great financial savings for the organisations.

This week Mecenat celebrated with a prize ceremony and announced the winners in the big competition, which was open for all students during the fall semester of 2018. Mecenat held the competition together with 20 cooperating partners – great companies and brands, which contributed with prizes and gift cards with a total value of more than 200 000 SEK for the winners. The competition aroused great interest and created a lot of positive interaction within the student target group, with a total of 22 000 contestants.

The collaboration means that Nordic Wellness, one of Sweden’s largest healthcare chains, chooses Mecenat as it’s partner for student discounts. With 188 facilities all over the country and about a thousand training sessions a day, Mecenat students will have a massive training offer to choose from

Mecenat Alumni is an opportunity to get selected alumni discounts after completed studies. 600,000 young professionals who previously had a Mecenat card are offered discounts that they recognize from their study time. At launch, they will be able to take advantage of discounts from companies such as Halebop, Nelly, Apollo, Lensway, NA-KD, Philips, Boozt and many more.

Mecenat Alumni är en möjlighet att få utvalda alumnirabatter en tid efter avslutade studier. 600 000 young professionals som tidigare haft ett Mecenatkort erbjuds rabatter som de känner igen från sin studietid. Vid lanseringen kommer de kunna utnyttja rabatter från företag som Halebop, Nelly, Apollo, Lensway, NA-KD, Philips, Boozt och många fler.

Mecenat Connect is a technology solution that enables students to confirm in real-time that they really are students. The students identify themselves via Mecenat, directly in the online store where they want to use their student discount. Junkyard is the first to apply the solution in their web shop and has now launched it in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.