CONTACT:
David A. Morrison
President
(610) 940-5860
PR@twentysomething.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, August 24, 2005, Philadelphia, PA — The National Retail Foundation's 3rd annual Back-to-College Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey found that students and their parents will spend a staggering $34.4 billion on back-to-college items this year. Such spending reflects a 33% increase over the previous year and is more than twice as much as what the K-12 student market spends on back-to-school which is estimated at $13.4 billion.

Small wonder that leading retailers are turning to prime-time TV commercials, often for the first time. Currently, advertisements from Bed, Bath & Beyond as well as Sears and Target can be found on television. The blitzkrieg is typically supplemented by mailers and inserts. "With back-to-college spending surging with no end in sight, it makes perfectly good business sense for marketers to both target the college market as well as speak to this segment's specific lifestyle needs," says David Morrison, president of TWENTYSOMETHING Inc., a Philadelphia-based young adult marketing consultancy. "The sheer magnitude, intensity, and short lifespan of the college market's back-to-school spending is finally commanding the respect it deserves from forward thinking marketers."

The NRF survey reveals that parents and students will spend $11.9 billion on textbooks, $8.2 billion on electronics, $3.6 billion on dorm and apartment furnishings, and $3.0 billion on school supplies. Since nearly a quarter of all expenditures will occur once students return to school or shortly thereafter, Morrison, also author of "Marketing to the Campus Crowd", predicts that back-to-college campaigns will continue into the first half of September.

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TWENTYSOMETHING Inc. is the world's original young adult consultancy. Founded in 1991, the firm has worked with over 40 Fortune 500s including Time Warner, Pepsi-Cola, Apple, GM, Nokia, Kraft, Toyota, Diageo, Citibank, and Procter & Gamble. Additional clients include leading universities, advertising agencies, and government branches. The firm has worked extensively with the University of Pennsylvania which represents its oldest client. Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, TWENTYSOMETHING Inc. maintains a global presence with overseas offices in Mexico City, Seoul, Sydney, and elsewhere.

David A. Morrison is an accomplished strategist, speaker, research consultant, trend analyst, and author. The Washington Post hails him as the "consummate marketing insider". In 1991, he founded TWENTYSOMETHING Inc., the world's first consultancy to focus exclusively on young adults. Morrison has appeared on CBS Evening News as well as NPR and has been quoted in hundreds of international magazines and newspapers including The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, Nikkei (Japan), U.S. News & World Report, The New York Times, Brandweek, and Advertising Age. Morrison is very much in demand as a consultant and speaker worldwide. David holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (Market Strategy and Consumer Behavior).