Congrats to Deakin University, global winners of the Google Online Marketing Challenge. The Challenge is in its second year running and is one of the world's largest university competitions with 2,187 teams participating across 57 countries. An Australian team has won both years.
The Challenge is a hands-on exercise which gives under- and post-grad students direct experience with online advertising as part of their course work. Student teams receive the equivalent of US$200 to spend on Google AdWords advertising, to work with a local business to devise an online marketing campaign, drive results and provide recommendations to further improve its online marketing effectiveness.
The winning team, geographically dispersed across Australia - Andrew Kidd (Tasmania), Clinton Hinze (Queensland), Howard Lien (New South Wales), and Katalin Kish, Kevin Fung, Jason Blakely (all from Victoria), created an eBusiness campaign for Brisbane-based Indoor Play Centre and Cafe, LittleTiGrrs.
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"The overall campaign generated $2,355 AUD in revenue for LittleTiGrrs - a solid return on investment of 12.1 to 1, while visitors to their website more than doubled compared with the same period last year," said Andrew Kidd, leader of the winning team. "We really enjoyed taking a traditional business strategy and bricks and mortar business and putting that online."
We developed the Challenge to benefit everyone involved. We're delighted that thousands of small businesses around the world have seen their online presence improved in just three weeks. Professors tell us that the Challenge has allowed them to deliver a unique, practical teaching and learning exercise. For those students that took part, we hope they have developed some useful online marketing skills which they can use when they graduate and enter the workforce.
For anyone interested in competing in the 2010 Challenge, formal registrations will open later this year, but in the meantime you can register your interest.
