'Tis the season in which college students prepare to invade campuses for another year.

Marketers can best reach - and build relationships with - this demo of up-and-coming consumers on the internet, the medium much preferred over TV and radio, according to a recent Burst Media study of college students (pdf), writes MarketingCharts.

The July 2007 Burst Media online survey of 439 college students 18-24 years old studied students' media consumption, how they finance their discretionary spending, and what influences their brand preferences.

According to Burst's survey:

• College students spend more time with the internet than other media:
  • 33.0 percent spend more than 10 hours per week online, and 19.6 percent spend more than 20 hours per week online.
  • Just 16.6 percent watch more than 10 hours per week of television.
  • Only 5.5 percent listen to terrestrial/satellite radio more than 10 hours per week.

• Students are online even when watching television or listening to the radio:
  • 50.6 percent surf the web while watching TV.
  • 43.5 percent are online while listening to terrestrial/satellite radio.
• Students use the internet mostly to keep in touch and be entertained:

• Brand selection among students is driven by WOM and cost-consciousness:

MarketingCharts has more findings from the study.