If there's one place where RIZZ CLUB truly found its people, it was college.
It started with one invite. Then another. Then another. And before we knew it, we were bouncing from campus to campus, carrying boxes of fragrances, setting up tables, meeting hundreds of students and somehow becoming part of the college fest circuit.
What started as a few college events quickly turned into something we genuinely looked forward to:
- Mithibai
- KJ Somaiya
- NMIMS
- Jai Hind
- ATLAS University
And not just once. We were invited back multiple times to almost all of them.
It started feeling like we belonged there.
WE'VE ALL BEEN THERE
There's a very specific feeling when you walk into a college fest.
You hear the music before you even enter. You see groups of people everywhere. Someone is running because they're late for something. Someone is taking pictures. Someone is trying to find their friends. Someone is already dressed like they're going to an afterparty that hasn't even been planned yet.
And then there's always that one friend who somehow knows someone performing.
We know the feeling because we were those people too.
Which is probably why showing up at college fests never felt like traditional brand marketing to us. It felt like going back into an environment we understood.
The difference was that this time, we had RIZZ CLUB with us.
MITHIBAI. KJ SOMAIYA. NMIMS. JAI HIND. ATLAS.
The first few invites were exciting. Then the repeat invites started happening.
Different campuses, different crowds, different fests, different energy — but somehow the same thing kept happening. People would stop.
Someone would pick up a bottle because the name caught their attention. Someone would ask what it smelled like. Someone would spray it on their wrist and walk away, only to come back ten minutes later for another one.
And then there were the friends. You know the ones. One person discovers a fragrance and immediately pulls their entire group over:
- "Bro, smell this."
- "Wait, try this one."
- "This is literally you."
- "No, this one's better."
Suddenly, five people who had never heard of RIZZ CLUB were standing around our table arguing about perfume.
That's when it started getting fun.
THE REPEAT INVITES MEANT SOMETHING
Getting invited once is exciting. Getting invited again is different.
Because the second, third and fourth time you show up somewhere, people aren't discovering you completely from scratch anymore. There are people who recognise the brand. People who remember a fragrance they smelled last time. People who come looking for a particular scent.
And for a brand that was still finding its feet, that meant a lot.
We weren't expecting people to remember us. But they did.
Someone would walk up and say, "You guys were here last time, right?"
And honestly, those little moments meant more than any number on a screen. Because that's when we realised the brand was becoming familiar.
THE COLLEGE FEST CROWD DOESN'T LIE
College students are probably one of the best audiences you can put a fragrance in front of.
There's no pretending. If they like it, you'll know. If they don't like it, you'll know even faster. And if they love it, they're probably going to make their entire friend group smell it.
That gave us some of the most honest feedback we've received. We started noticing which fragrances people picked up first, which names made them curious, which scents got the biggest reactions and which ones people kept coming back to.
But more importantly, we started hearing why people chose them:
- Something for parties
- Something for everyday college
- Something that gets compliments
- Something to smell different from everyone else
There was never one answer. And that's exactly how we wanted it.
WE STARTED RECOGNISING THE FACES
This was probably our favourite part.
After going back to the same colleges multiple times, the crowd stopped feeling completely unfamiliar. You'd see someone who had visited the stall before. Someone would bring their friend over. Someone would remember the fragrance they bought last time. Someone would tell us they were still wearing it.
Those conversations were small, but they made the whole thing feel much bigger than a pop-up. Because you realise you're not just selling someone a bottle. You're becoming part of their memories.
A college fest. A night out. A first date. A party. A random Tuesday when they decided they wanted to smell good for absolutely no reason.
That's the stuff we care about.
FROM ONE INVITE TO A CIRCUIT
Looking back, the college circuit became one of the biggest parts of our early journey.
We went from being four friends with a bunch of perfumes to being invited into some of the biggest college communities around Mumbai. Multiple times.
Every invite gave us another chance to meet people, hear what they thought, watch them discover the fragrances and figure out what RIZZ CLUB could become. And every time we packed up at the end of the day, we took something back with us:
- A new idea
- A new story
- A new customer
- A new person who had somehow become part of the club
WE'LL SEE YOU AT THE NEXT FEST
The college fest circuit taught us something pretty simple. You can't build a brand only from behind a screen.
Sometimes you have to put the bottles on a table, stand there for hours, talk to strangers, spray perfume on hundreds of wrists and see what happens. Sometimes someone will love it. Sometimes someone will hate it. Sometimes someone will spray five fragrances and leave without buying anything.
And sometimes, someone will stop, smell one bottle, look at their friend and say,
"Bro. This is fucking good."
We'll take that.
Because RIZZ CLUB was never meant to be something you just see online. It's meant to be experienced.
And if you've seen us at Mithibai, KJ Somaiya, NMIMS, Jai Hind or ATLAS, there's a good chance we've already crossed paths.
If not — we'll see you at the next fest.
