In-person product testing with verified college students

Real products. Real students.
Real insights.

100% verifiedin person

Real social settingsnot labs or screens

Clear answersnot spreadsheets

We put your product in the hands of verified college students in real social settings, from food and beverage to any consumer product built for Gen Z, then turn what they tell us into decisions you can act on.

Start a conversation See how it works

You ship product. We come back with answers.

You send us your product

We handle everything else, including distribution through our campus network, participant incentives, and data collection.

Students try it for real

This isn't an online panel or a lab. Your product gets tried where college students actually eat, drink, and decide. Every participant is a verified student.

You get answers, not spreadsheets

A professional insights deck and report, plus marketable stats you can use on your website, packaging, and retail pitches.

Students walking together between campus housing buildings

You know exactly who tried your product.

AI bots now pass survey quality checks over 99% of the time. Every respondent is a verified student who tried the product in person.

Online panel research

×Anonymous respondents nobody can verify
×Responses can come from bots or repeat survey takers
×Nobody ever touches the product
×Professional survey-takers optimizing for speed

NexGen Pulse

✓Every respondent is a verified .edu student
✓Product physically tried minutes before answering
✓Real social settings, not screens
✓Time gates + attention checks on every survey

Source: Dartmouth study, PNAS 2025.

We ran our first campaign on ourselves.

Before working with any brands, we ran a 104-student study at Indiana University using the framework that became our 11-driver methodology. Here's what we tested and how we ran it.

Independent pilot. Not commissioned by or affiliated with the brand.

What we tested

A leading sports-drink brand, tested independently.

How we ran it

Distributed through campus peer networks and completed in real social settings. Every response was tied to a confirmed student, with time gates and attention checks.

What we measured

The behavioral drivers that decide adoption: taste, price sensitivity, occasions, purchase triggers, habit formation, and where students actually buy.

Here are a few examples of what we found

Finding 01 · Price

A 75-cent gap swung preference by 24 points.

Key insightIn our pilot, a small price gap changed which option students chose. The exact point where preference flips is worth knowing before it shows up in your sales data.

Finding 02 · Occasions

59%

Drink it after a night out.

Recovery from a night out beat every sports occasion in our study, including post-workout.

Key insightIn our pilot, students reached for this drink for social recovery more than for athletics. That changes which occasion matters most.

Finding 03 · Habit

15%

Drink it as part of their regular routine.

99% of students in our study had tried the product before, but for almost all of them it never became a habit.

Key insightA product can be tried by nearly everyone and still be a routine for almost no one. Finding out where trial stops turning into habit shows a brand exactly where its growth is stuck.

What every campaign gives you.

Your product in students' hands

Every campaign puts your product in front of a full room of college students who try it on the spot. They leave knowing your brand, and you leave knowing what they think.

Content from real students

With permission from the students and the host, we can capture short reactions from students trying your product, along with stat lines you can post.

Insights deck + written report

It covers what triggers purchase, where students expect to buy, what they choose, the price where preference breaks, and whether your product becomes a habit or stays a one-time trial.

Your marketable stat

A real number from real students, and yours to use everywhere: website, packaging, retail meetings, investor decks.

An example of what yours could look like:

"Rated 8.7/10 by 250+ college students"

(example)

Real purchase behavior

When you give us a discount code, we share it at every event so you can see real purchases in the 30 days after trial, not just survey answers.

Custom questions

Your kickoff call tells us the decisions you're facing. We build custom questions that answer them, on top of our core question set.

Built on campus,

inside the demographic everyone else is guessing about.

We built NexGen Pulse with new and emerging brands in mind. You don't need an enterprise research budget or a retail footprint to work with us.

We are not a survey company, and we are not a sampling agency. Sampling companies hand out product and tell you how many people touched it.

Most online surveys ask people about a product from memory, days or weeks after they used it. We capture feedback immediately after real product trial, inside the actual social environments where college students make decisions.

We combine what both of them miss. Verified students, physical product, real social context, and insights specific enough to inform how you market, price, and position your product.

Every insight we deliver has to earn its place by driving a real decision: your flavors, your price, your packaging, your next retail pitch.

Quick answers.

Do we need to be in retail?

No. Presale and DTC brands are exactly who we built this for. Launching something new, choosing a flavor, setting a price, or getting ready for a retail pitch, those are all the right moments to run a campaign. Or maybe you just want to know what college students actually think of your product. That works too.

What do you test?

Food, beverage, and consumer products built for Gen Z.

What does it cost?

Scoped per campaign. Start a conversation and we'll come back with a proposal.

Have a product Gen Z should be trying?

Tell us what you're working on and what you're trying to figure out. We'll get back to you within one business day.