Both the main student banks, AIB and Bank of Ireland, have reduced their-third level marketing budgets this year - reflecting the general cutback in spend seen across all sectors.

AIB will spend €250,000 in the coming weeks to recruit new student customers and, according to Mr Matt Murray at AIB's youth marketing division, spend is down on last year, "in the way that all marketing budgets are down".

Bank of Ireland doesn't release figures for its student marketing budget but Ms Lisa Notte, the bank's marketing communications manager, says there has been "quite a substantial decrease in this year's budget".

The aim behind all the banks' marketing activities is not so much to recruit students - all banks know that students are apt to sign up for several accounts depending on the freebies on offer - but to get students banking.

AIB's research shows a 14 per cent rise in the average student income to €121 per week, with the majority coming from parents.

In recent years, students opening new accounts have snapped up a range of youth-targeted goodies ranging from CDs and bags to personal organisers. Last year AIB gave away a mobile phone; this year students can buy one at a reduced rate.

"The phone giveaway did work well but when we reviewed it we felt that the student phone market is a mature one in that most students have one," says Mr Murray, adding that this year's offer of a free €50 phone top-up reflected the mobile market, where companies are no longer interested in giving away mobile phones but are concentrating on boosting phone usage. The trend, according to Ms Notte, is away from freebies to financial incentives such as interest-free overdraft facilities and low-cost loans.

"Our offer this year includes a range of incentives such as money-off vouchers for Raleigh and Champion Sports but we're seeing that students are increasingly financially aware and are looking for specific financial products that will actually help them," she says. The creative strategy behind its campaign, which was devised by Dialogue Marketing, feeds into the image of the financially savvy student who is naturally suspicious of bank offers. The line runs "Why do we offer students so much? Because when you start making it, we do too."

Radio and strategically located bus shelter advertising are the main media used by both banks around college registration time. AIB is the on-campus bank at UCD, prompting Bank of Ireland to buy up as many bus shelters adjacent to the campus as possible.

Both banks rely on one-to-one contact with students, particularly during Freshers' Week, and this year Bank of Ireland has invested in a text-messaging competition- based campaign to recruit students.

AIB has raided its database for teenage customers who might be going to college and is sending out 15,000 direct-mail shots to them. According to the bank, 85 per cent of young people already have a bank account by the time they go to college which would indicate that the second-level market could become as heavily courted as the third-level sector.