Google Online Marketing Challenge goes annual

The challenge is a hands-on exercise which gives undergraduate and post-graduate students direct experience of online advertising as part of their course. Student teams receive the equivalent of US$200 to spend on Google AdWords advertising to work with a local business to devise an effective online marketing campaign. The teams have to outline a strategy, run the campaign, assess their results and provide the business with recommendations to further develop their online marketing.

Lee Hunter, product marketing manager, Google EMEA, says, “The huge response to last year's challenge was so overwhelming that we decided to make this an annual competition. Giving students direct experience of online marketing whilst they are studying is a great way for universities to provide students with direct practical skills they can use on graduation. Whether they find a job in marketing, accountancy, retail or set up their own business, graduates could always benefit from understanding online marketing. We hope students from across different academic disciplines will get involved in this competition.”

The challenge works like this:

1. Professors divide students into groups, which receive free online advertising vouchers for Google AdWords worth the equivalent of US$200
   
2. The groups or professors recruit a small-to-medium sized business, under 100 employees, which has a website but doesn't currently use AdWords.
   
3. Each group works with the business to set up an account and structure an online marketing campaign.
   
4. During a three-week competition window, the groups optimise and refine their campaigns. They will need to submit two competition reports - one before they begin and one after the campaign has ended.
   
5. Entries are judged and winners chosen based on the success of their campaign and the quality of their reports.
   
6. Registrations for 2009 opened on 17 October 2008 and close on 23January 2009. To accommodate students all over the globe, students can compete over any three consecutive weeks between January and May 2009.
   
7. Global and Regional winners will be announced in July 2009.
   
8. 2008 was the first year of the competition. An original target of 200 teams were expected to participate but around 8000 students from 1650 different teams across 47 different countries participated.
   
9. More details can be found at www.google.com/onlinechallenge/index.html