On Saturday morning, hundreds lined up outside the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, with some arriving as early as 9 a.m. to make the two-hour long wait. Although there was a football game later in the day, the students were not there for sports. Instead, they were crowded around a pastel pink truck, eager to win free merchandise from popular e-retail brand Edikted.
UF was the third stop on the brand’s second annual Florida colleges promotion tour. It started with Florida State University Thursday, followed by Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University Friday. It will continue with stops at University of Central Florida, University of South Florida, University of Tampa and University of Miami throughout this week.
With more than 500,000 followers on Instagram, Edikted boasts a large consumer base of mainly young women. Founded in 2020 by the same team that founded e-retail brand Adika, the brand has been incredibly successful in its four years. According to its website, its mission is to “inspire uniqueness and diversity for all trend-obsessed individuals,” which resonates with many college-aged women.
Alicia Jiang is a 19-year-old UF nursing sophomore and a loyal Edikted customer. She said she and her roommate saw a post on Instagram advertising the event and decided to attend.
She said the Edikted employees gave a goodie bag to everyone in the line, ensuring that nobody went home empty-handed. The main feature of the event was the spin-a-wheel. Jiang said the prizes one could win from the spin-a-wheel were mostly gift cards ranging from $5 to $50 and discount codes for the brand’s website.
“Inside [the goodie bag] was a branded tote bag, some super cute girly socks, and an oversized t-shirt, with some stickers,” she said. “I personally won a $25 gift card, but my [friend] didn’t win anything, unfortunately.”
Jiang said the event was a good business tactic, providing an aesthetically pleasing background for pictures that also further promotes the band.
“The pink bus was super outgoing and it really stood out, especially since all the other tents were blue, white, or orange for the game,” she said. “I got some really cute Instagram pics with the bus, and it’s a smart way of self-promoting for them too.”
According to CEO and co-founder Dedy Schwartzberg, Edikted is a “zero-waste” company that has “learned how to deliver the trends fast.” Jiang said this is one of her favorite things about the brand – fewer options mean an easier shopping experience.
“I personally prefer that it’s a bit more curated, in that almost everything is a piece that I would want to wear,” she said. “Whenever I go on the site, I know without fail that I’ll find something that I like.”
Abby Steele is a 19-year-old UF nursing sophomore. She said she worked as an influencer for Edikted before, and the company reached out to her personally and asked her to attend the event.
“[Edikted said] they would be visiting my college for this event, and that they would give us a gift card to buy an outfit to wear to the event, free Edikted merch and a chance to win more by spinning the wheel,” she said.
Steele has almost 5,000 followers on Instagram, many of whom are other college students. By using college students as social media influencers, the brand can organically promote itself while also building customer relationships. This marketing strategy is known as micro-influencing.
“The best part about the event was that I got to meet so many sweet people at this event [who] were also brand ambassadors with Edikted,” she said.
The tour will continue with UCF on Monday, traveling south to other colleges throughout the state before finishing with UM on April 23.
Contact Emilia Cardenas-Perez at ecardenas-perez@alligator.org. Follow her on X @emiliaandreaa.
