The Google online marketing challenge and research opportunities

The Google Online Marketing Challenge is an ongoing collaboration between Google and academics, to give students experiential learning. The Challenge gives student teams US$200 in AdWords, Google’s flagship advertising product, to develop online marketing campaigns for actual businesses. The end result is an engaging in-class exercise that provides students and professors with an exciting and pedagogically rigorous competition. Results from surveys at the end of the Challenge reveal positive appraisals from the three—students, businesses, and professors—main constituents; general agreement between students and instructors regarding learning outcomes; and a few points of difference between students and instructors. In addition to describing the Challenge and its outcomes, this article reviews the postparticipation questionnaires and subsequent datasets. The questionnaires and results are publicly available, and this article invites educators to mine the datasets, share their results, and offer suggestions for future iterations of the Challenge.

Action learning of online marketing via a global contest

Introduction: The Google Online Marketing Challenge is a global competition in which student teams run advertising campaigns for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) using AdWords, Google’s text-based advertisements. In 2008, its inaugural year, over 8,000 students and 300 instructors from 47 countries representing over 200 schools participated. The Challenge ran in undergraduate and graduate classes in disciplines such as marketing, tourism, advertising, communication and information systems. Combining advertising and education, the Challenge gives student hands-on experience in the increasingly important field of online marketing, engages them with local businesses and motivates them through the thrill of a global competition. Student teams receive US$200 in AdWords credits, Google’s premier advertising product that offers cost-per-click advertisements. The teams then recruit and work with a local business to devise an effective online marketing campaign. Students first outline a strategy, run a series of campaigns, and provide their business with recommendations to improve their online marketing. Teams submit two written reports for judging by 14 academics in eight countries. In addition, Google AdWords experts judge teams on their campaign statistics such as success metrics and account management. Rather than a marketing simulation against a computer or hypothetical marketing plans for hypothetical businesses, the Challenges has student teams develop and manage real online advertising campaigns for their clients and compete against peers globally.

The Google Online Marketing Challenge: A Transnational Comparison of Classroom Learning with Real Clients, Real Money, and Real Advertising Campaigns

In 2008, a collaborative partnership between Google and academia launched the Google Online Marketing Challenge (hereinafter Google Challenge), perhaps the world’s largest in-class competition for higher education students. In just two years, almost 20,000 students from 58 countries participated in the Google Challenge. The Challenge gives undergraduate and graduate students hands-on experience with the world’s fastest growing advertising mechanism, search engine advertising. Funded by Google, students develop an advertising campaign for a small to medium sized enterprise and manage the campaign over three consecutive weeks using the Google AdWords platform. This article explores the Challenge as an innovative pedagogical tool for marketing educators. Based on the experiences of three instructors in Australia, Canada and the United States, this case study discusses the opportunities and challenges of integrating this dynamic problem-based learning approach into the classroom.

Effectiveness of online marketing tools

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

A model of web use in direct and online marketing strategy

There has been less than a decade of rapid diffusion of the Internet and related technologies into the commercial world, with resultant changes in business processes, business structure and financial valuations of adopting businesses. Advocates and critics of new online business models are still addressing the relationship between online or electronic marketing using the Internet (Net) and marketing and financial outcomes. There remains a need for empirical research into specific aspects of online marketing strategy beyond click-through analysis, Web audience analysis and scrutiny of website properties to mention the most widely examined elements. This paper discusses conceptualizations underpinning development of a model of Web use in marketing strategy. The aim of the paper is to aid both business practitioner and academician alike in connecting direct and online marketing using the Web with performance outcomes

Small business peceptions of online marketing research

Concerns over the overall cost of marketing research and the cost per usable response have in large measure caused marketing practitioners to turn to online marketing research techniques, either as a solus technique, or in a mixed mode application. However, the use of e-mail and mixed mode surveys such as postal invitations to complete online questionnaires present both familiar and new issues, as the extant literature illustrates. This paper examines an earlier study before reporting findings from the present study, which employs a method that ascertains the probability of commissioning and/or responding to four survey research methods, described in scenarios and delivered using e-mail and the World Wide Web (Web). It is evident that while perceptions of e-mail, the Internet, and privacy have changed since early use of the Internet and more particularly the World Wide Web, and there is acknowledgment in the literature concerning the lower costs and faster response speeds of online marketing research, small businesses do appear to discriminate in favour of targeted online survey methods over postal surveys, portrayed as scenarios in this study. They indicate a greater likelihood of responding to targeted, hybrid email/Web surveys than traditional postal surveys.

Online marketing by local government in Australia and the United States

The study reported in this paper involves a comparison audit of local government websites in two states of Australia with county and city level government in two states of the United States of America, using the Marketing Readiness of Website Indicator (MRWI). The hypothesised more highly rated Web use in marketing by United States local government relative to Australian local government (LGA) is not supported. Californian counties, NSW and Victorian LGAs generally employ the Web in a more capable manner in marketing than Californian cities and Alabama counties and cities.

Students' perception of an online marketing subject : a qualitative approach

Extant literature supports the growing importance of offering flexible modes of learning delivery in order to meet the needs of a diverse student cohort. The increased use of information and communication technologies (ICT) has lead to an enriched learning experience, but has also posed a number of constraints and challenges for students. Although there is an abundance of research regarding students’ perceptions, attitudes and satisfaction with the online learning environment, most of this is taken from the perspective of the distance education student. The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine these issues from the perspective of a mixed cohort of students (both on and off campus), who are required to complete a core, undergraduate marketing unit exclusively online.

Experiential satisfaction with a wholly online marketing unit

This study examines the relationship between students’ satisfaction with a core undergraduate marketing unit, preference for online or face-to-face mode of teaching delivery and intent to major in marketing. The core undergraduate marketing unit was offered only in a wholly online mode, although many of the students had experienced traditional face-to-face classes in previous units. The sample was 112 undergraduate students. Findings indicated students’ preference for face-to-face mode of teaching delivery did not affect satisfaction with the marketing unit, but there was a significant relationship between unit satisfaction and students preference for online mode of teaching delivery. Mode of teaching delivery preferences suggested neither the online or face-to-face mode affected students’ choice in majoring in the marketing discipline, however, there was a significant relationship between student satisfaction and intent to major in marketing.

Practitioner prognostications on the future of online marketing

In arguably the most dynamic period in the history of marketing, and in particular the management of marketing communication, the challenges and opportunities presented by online marketing are both immense and unprecedented. In an effort to understand how these challenges are perceived at the ‘coal face’, this paper solicits and longitudinally compares senior marketing practitioners’ perceptions and perspectives, both recently (late 2008) and five years prior (2003). Due to the rapid evolution of online marketing and its impact on both consumer behaviour and marketing strategy, a longitudinal qualitative research design was employed to track changes in senior marketers’ perceptions. Findings are presented and discussed within the context of six recurring themes: interactivity, personalisation, integration, evaluation, agency structures, and capabilities. The paper concludes by examining the utility of integrated marketing communication as a marketing management framework for online marketing strategy.

Practitioner prognostications on the future of online marketing

In arguably the most dynamic period in the history of marketing, and in particular the management of marketing communication, the challenges and opportunities presented by online marketing are both immense and unprecedented. In an effort to understand how these challenges are perceived at the ‘coal face’, this paper solicits and longitudinally compares senior marketing practitioners' perceptions and perspectives, both recently (late 2008) and five years prior (2003). Due to the rapid evolution of online marketing and its impact on both consumer behaviour and marketing strategy, a longitudinal qualitative research design was employed to track changes in senior marketers' perceptions. Findings are presented and discussed within the context of six recurring themes: interactivity, personalisation, integration, evaluation, agency structures, and capabilities. The paper concludes by examining the utility of integrated marketing communication as a marketing management framework for online marketing strategy.

Online marketing internationally: Bizpartner and the parallel cases of Portugal and Greece

This report is the result of the curricular internship carried out in Bizpartner, a company from Slovakia, for the Master’s degree in Languages and Business Relations. The objective of this report is to present the activities developed during the internship, as well as a brief study of how Bizpartner internationalizes and the different results obtained from Portugal, Greece and the United Kingdom. There is a contextualization of Slovakia, Bizpartner and Internationalization, followed by the specific cases of Portugal, Greece and the United Kingdom. Finally, there is a reflection on all the work done, attempting to relate the internship with the knowledge acquired during the course.

La participación política de los jóvenes en la campaña presidencial de Barack Obama 2007-2008, mediante el uso de herramientas de marketing online configuradas a partir de las nuevas tecnologías de la información y la comunicación

Este estudio de caso busca realizar una descripción de la participación política de los jóvenes durante la campaña de Barack Obama a la presidencia, mediante el uso de herramientas de marketing online, identificando las herramientas de marketing y posteriormente, haciendo un exámen de cómo los jóvenes se apropiaron de las mismas para participar activamente. Así mismo, se plantea un modelo de análisis que permite comprender el proceso antes y durante el proceso participativo, con el fin de plasmar gráficamente las variables incluidas en el mismo.