2012-2013
News Release
REF NO.: 2
SUBJECT: Memorial University business administration students win $10,000 in Google competition
DATE: September 4, 2012
A student team from the Faculty of Business Administration at Memorial University has won $10,000 in Google’s Online Marketing Challenge, beating more than 11,000 competitors from 86 countries.
Beth Saunders, Virginia Greey, Barbie Bird and Scott MacDonald competed in Google’s Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC) using Google AdWords, taking second place in the Social Impact category, which focuses on creating a campaign for a non-profit organization.
The four business administration undergraduates won for their online campaign for AIESEC Memorial, a local chapter of an international student organization that helps post-secondary students develop leadership skills through international internships and volunteer opportunities. Their campaign aimed to raise awareness of the organization among key audiences in Newfoundland and Labrador, with their ad promoting summer internships abroad garnering the best results of the four ads they created and ran.
“The results underscore the importance of timing in marketing campaigns,” explained Ms. Saunders, who along with Ms. Greey and others,
helped establish the AIESEC Memorial chapter in January 2012. “The
campaign ran from March 1-22 and the impression and click results show students are evaluating opportunities during the winter semester.”
The $10,000 prize money is awarded by Google to the non-profit partner and will be used by AIESEC Memorial to promote its services to students and businesses in the province.
Google AdWords is the search engine’s advertising tool that allows businesses and organizations to choose key words and phrases so that their ads appear alongside related search results for web pages, mobile searches or on YouTube.
The Google competition, now in its fifth year, provides teams with $250 worth of free pay-per-click advertising on Google and students develop an online advertising campaign for a real business or non-profit organization.
Completing a three-week Google AdWords campaign is part of a digital marketing course taught by Prof. Lyle Wetsch, social media expert and Faculty of Business Administration assistant professor of marketing.
“The Google Online Marketing Challenge is a phenomenal opportunity for students to get real world practice with the theory we teach them in class,” Prof. Wetsch said. “We were the first university in Canada to have teams in the competition and we have been competing every year since the competition began.
“This competition allows students to apply and integrate what they have learned from many of their courses, not only their digital marketing courses. Bringing it all together in a real-world exercise like this correctly leads to positive results for both the students and the organizations, and doing it right in this case led to the team placing second among strong global competition.”
About AIESEC
As the world’s largest student-run, non-profit organization, AIESEC provides a platform for young people to realize and activate their leadership potential locally and globally. More than 60,000 skilled, globally-minded members in more than
110 different countries volunteer their time to facilitate the success of the internship program. If you are a current student or recent graduate between the ages of 18 and 30 and looking to participate in an internship or volunteer with AIESEC Memorial, please visit www.aiesecmemorial.ca.
REF NO.: 2
SUBJECT: Memorial University business administration students win $10,000 in Google competition
DATE: September 4, 2012
A student team from the Faculty of Business Administration at Memorial University has won $10,000 in Google’s Online Marketing Challenge, beating more than 11,000 competitors from 86 countries.
Beth Saunders, Virginia Greey, Barbie Bird and Scott MacDonald competed in Google’s Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC) using Google AdWords, taking second place in the Social Impact category, which focuses on creating a campaign for a non-profit organization.
The four business administration undergraduates won for their online campaign for AIESEC Memorial, a local chapter of an international student organization that helps post-secondary students develop leadership skills through international internships and volunteer opportunities. Their campaign aimed to raise awareness of the organization among key audiences in Newfoundland and Labrador, with their ad promoting summer internships abroad garnering the best results of the four ads they created and ran.
“The results underscore the importance of timing in marketing campaigns,” explained Ms. Saunders, who along with Ms. Greey and others,
helped establish the AIESEC Memorial chapter in January 2012. “The
campaign ran from March 1-22 and the impression and click results show students are evaluating opportunities during the winter semester.”
The $10,000 prize money is awarded by Google to the non-profit partner and will be used by AIESEC Memorial to promote its services to students and businesses in the province.
Google AdWords is the search engine’s advertising tool that allows businesses and organizations to choose key words and phrases so that their ads appear alongside related search results for web pages, mobile searches or on YouTube.
The Google competition, now in its fifth year, provides teams with $250 worth of free pay-per-click advertising on Google and students develop an online advertising campaign for a real business or non-profit organization.
Completing a three-week Google AdWords campaign is part of a digital marketing course taught by Prof. Lyle Wetsch, social media expert and Faculty of Business Administration assistant professor of marketing.
“The Google Online Marketing Challenge is a phenomenal opportunity for students to get real world practice with the theory we teach them in class,” Prof. Wetsch said. “We were the first university in Canada to have teams in the competition and we have been competing every year since the competition began.
“This competition allows students to apply and integrate what they have learned from many of their courses, not only their digital marketing courses. Bringing it all together in a real-world exercise like this correctly leads to positive results for both the students and the organizations, and doing it right in this case led to the team placing second among strong global competition.”
About AIESEC
As the world’s largest student-run, non-profit organization, AIESEC provides a platform for young people to realize and activate their leadership potential locally and globally. More than 60,000 skilled, globally-minded members in more than
110 different countries volunteer their time to facilitate the success of the internship program. If you are a current student or recent graduate between the ages of 18 and 30 and looking to participate in an internship or volunteer with AIESEC Memorial, please visit www.aiesecmemorial.ca.
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