New Delhi, August 28: The independence day of 2017 ended with a victorious and proud news for India with a team from Delhi winning the coveted Asia Pacific winner title in Google Online Marketing Competition (GOMC) 2017. The team belongs to the University of Delhi and it is the first time for a team from Delhi to win this challenge regionally in the glorious history of 10 years of GOMC. The team comprising of three members Prakriti Sharma, Ankita Grewal and Raghav Shadija along with their professor Ginmunlal Khongsai, partnered with a Noida based tour and travel company, Tour My India Pvt. Ltd. and competed with more than 600 professors and 12,000 students from over 65 countries. The team captain Prakriti along with their professor and other team member Ankita belong to Maitreyi College of DU.

Google Online Marketing Challenge marked its 10^th edition in 2017 successfully with witnessing “some of the most impressive work seen in the history of GOMC” as stated in official Google student blog. The Google Online Marketing Challenge is a unique opportunity for students to experience and create online marketing campaigns using Google AdWords. Over 120,000 students and professors from almost 100 countries have participated in the past 10 years.

With a $250 AdWords advertising budget provided by Google, students develop and run an online advertising campaign for a business or non-profit organization over a three week period. The teams that develop and communicate the most successful campaigns win awesome prizes, including trips to Google offices. 

As stated by Prakriti, she got to know about the opportunity while some regular Google surfing in November 2016 and decided to participate in it. After finalizing the team, she started working on team management while having group studies. By January 2017, the team started visiting to various businesses in Delhi NCR while having telephonic conversations with many from all over India. After one month, they finalized Tour My India as their business partner. From getting the professor on board to coordinating with their business partner and strategizing the campaign while struggling with their regular college and upcoming final exams, the team managed very well and finally delivered a successful campaign based on 1289 keywords and 572 ad copies and exceeded their initial expectations by 1500% for total conversions and 954% for ROI. Their highly targeted strategies worked and they emerged as the winner by being only undergraduates students. The most iconic thing about the team was that each member was from different background and that helped them in bringing the best on the table. The team will be visiting Google regional head office in Singapore for a 2 night completely sponsored trip by Google as part of their winning prize. Also, as Prakriti works as a part time freelancer in digital marketing, she has futuristic plans to spread the word about methods and opportunities in Digital marketing starting from her alma mater Maitreyi College and her school DL DAV Model School. These initiatives are welcomed and appreciated by the Principals of both the institutions. “The Maitreyi fraternity is proud of the entire team for making the institution and their country proud at such big and reputed platform.” says, Dr. Savita Dutta, Principal of Maitreyi College.

The team is excited about their win and their upcoming trip and proud that they will be representing their country there.

Please see the link for this matter https://www.google.com/onlinechallenge/past/winners-2017.html

Arun Sharma

National President, Media Federation of India

9868230229,9313462630

Father of Prakriti Sharma,(GOMC Winner

2017 Google Online Marketing Challenge Results

AdWords Business Awards

Global Winners

·         The Global Winning team comes from James Madison University in the United States, under Professor Theresa B. Clarke. The team of Michelle Mullins, George Shtern, Caroline Galiwango and Raquel Sheriff worked with Arts Council of the Valley, a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating and promoting arts and entertainment in West-Central Virginia. Reports: Pre-Campaign and Post-Campaign

Regional Winners

·         The Americas Winner comes from James Madison University in the United States, under Professor Theresa B. Clarke. The team of Jonathan Nicely, Ken Prevete, Jessica Drennon and Jesse Springer worked with Cradles to Crayons, a non-profit organization that collects donations of new and like-new goods through grassroots community drives and corporate donations to give to children, aged 12 years old and younger, who are from low-income families, impoverished, homeless, or otherwise in need. Reports: Pre-Campaign and Post-Campaign

·         The Asia & Pacific Winner comes from the University of Delhi in India, under Professor Ginmunlal Khongsai. The team of Prakriti Sharma, Raghav Shadija and Ankita Grewal worked with Tour My India Private Ltd., a company providing travel and tour services in India.

·         The Europe Winner comes from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań in Poland, under Professor Wojciech Czart. The team of Michał Paszyn, Marek Buliński, Kamil Poturalski, Aneta Disterheft, Damian Koniuszy and Kamila Malanowicz worked with SOLVE Elektronika, a company that sells sub-assembly and electronic parts, with a focus on car and sport cameras, and a mission to raise consumers’ awareness of electronic waste. Reports: Pre-Campaign and Post-Campaign

·         The Middle East & Africa Winner comes from Kenyatta University in Kenya, under Professor Paul Mwangi Gachanja. The team ofPeter Wangugi, Jackson Ndung’u, Selpha Kung’u and Antony Gathathu worked with the Garden of Hope Foundation, a faith-based community organization that is passionate about restoring hope through providing mentorship, leadership, and youth empowerment.

AdWords Certification Awards

Global Winners

·         The Global Winning team comes from the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt in Germany, under Professor Mario Fischer. The team of Tobias Fröhlich, Lorenz Himmel, Sabine Zinkl, Thomas Lerch, Philipp Horsch and Maksym Vovkworked with Garten Fräulein, a company that provides, books, accessories and seed boxes for urban gardening. Reports: Pre-Campaign and Post-Campaign

Regional Winners

·         The Americas Winner comes from James Madison University in the United States, under Professor Theresa B. Clarke. The team of Nicole Carothers, Emily Vaeth, Annalise Capalbo and Brendan Reece worked with the Virginia Discovery Museum, a non-profit that offers services such as exhibits, field trips, educational programs, lesson kits, summer camps, and facility rentals intended to stimulate children’s higher learning in science, history, and culture.

·         The Asia & Pacific Winner comes from the Indian Institute of Management Indore, under Professor Rajendra V. Nargundkar in India. The team of Kalaivani G, Swathika S, Chandran M, Akshaya S, Sadhana P and Mathan Kumar V worked with Bhalaje photography, a photography company offering pre and post wedding photo shoots, candid photography, portrait photography, cinematography, product photography for e-commerce, portfolio photography for modelling professionals and consultation for event management.

·         The Europe Winner comes from the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt in Germany, under Professor Mario Fischer. The team of Matthias Schloßareck, Michelle Skodowski, Lena Thauer, Yen Nguyet Dang, David Mohr and Sebastian Kaufmann worked with Fred von SOHO, a small company that sells patterns with detailed, illustrated sewing instructions, as well as materials, applications, plotter files and stationery items. Reports: Pre-Campaign and Post-Campaign

·         The Middle East & Africa Winner comes from The Federal University of Technology, Akure in Nigeria, under Professor Ajayi Olumuyiwa Olubode. The team of John Afolabi, Adebayo Olaoluwa Egbetade, Olubusayo Amowe, Israel Temilola Olaleye, Raphael Oluwaseyi Lawrence and Taiwo Joel Akinlosotu worked with Stutern, an online platform that connects interns with employers.

AdWords Social Impact Awards

·         The 1st Place Winner comes from The University of Texas at Austin in the United States, under Professor Lisa Dobias. The team of Kaitlin Reid, Ben Torres, Zachary Kornblau, Kendall Troup, Kristin Kish and Angela Fayad worked with Thinkery, a nonprofit children’s museum located in Austin, Texas, that seeks to inspire a new generation of creative problem solvers by providing interactive experiences for its “lifelong learners.” Reports: Pre-Campaign and Post-Campaign

·         The 2nd Place Winner comes from James Madison University in the United States, under Professor Theresa B. Clarke. The team of Michelle Mullins, George Shtern, Caroline Galiwango and Raquel Sheriff worked with Arts Council of the Valley, a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating and promoting arts and entertainment in West-Central Virginia. Reports: Pre-Campaign and Post-Campaign

·         The 3rd Place Winner comes from James Madison University in the United States, under Professor Theresa B. Clarke. The team of Jonathan Nicely, Ken Prevete, Jessica Drennon and Jesse Springer worked with Cradles to Crayons, a non-profit organization that collects donations of new and like-new goods through grassroots community drives and corporate donations to give to children, aged 12 years old and younger, who are from low-income families, impoverished, homeless, or otherwise in need. Reports: Pre-Campaign and Post-Campaign

Team Results

Congratulations to all teams who have participated in the 2017 GOMC. This year over 600 professors and 12,000 students from more than 65 countries competed in the Challenge¹. The ranking for teams placing outside the group of 2017 Winners is solely based off the algorithm calculation for teams who have finished the GOMC by uploading their Pre- and Post-Campaign reports.

Process Overview and Ranking

To come to this ranking, we ran an algorithm that examined over 50 different variables within an AdWords account to determine the top teams. Over 15 variables were added in 2017 to account for additional AdWords features and the expanded scope of the competition across Search, Display, Video, Shopping and Mobile App campaigns. Next, expert Googlers reviewed pre-selected accounts to determine the top 5 in each of the four competition regions. As the last step of the judging process, the GOMC Global Academic Panel selected winners based solely on the quality of a team’s written reports. In cases where a team of one of our Academic Panelists made it through the algorithm stage, the Academic was automatically excluded from the entire judging process across all three competition categories.

Some of the key performance areas that are considered in the algorithm and identify a top performer include 1) having a granular theme-based account structure with relevant ad copy that reflects a strong click-through rate (CTR), 2) following AdWords best practices as discussed in the Digital Marketing Course, 3) utilizing the wide-range of AdWords features to maximize campaign effectiveness, 4) implementing relevant optimization techniques, 5) adapting strategy based on testing and performance reports to improve campaign performance over time and 6) effectively managing the budget across campaigns and keywords to maximize RO