The five Penn State teams participating in the first annual Google Online Marketing Challenge welcomed the end of the event with a celebratory dinner at Indian Pavilion.

The Google Online Marketing Challenge is an international academic competition based on the Google Adwords platform. Led by Dr. Jim Jansen, the teams at Penn State designed and managed Google Adwords campaigns for three weeks for selected clients. The client list included The State Theatre, HappyValley.com, and Rapid Transit.

The competition consisted of three components: a pre-campaign report, the three-week campaign, and a post-campaign report. Participating students also received credits for a IST 402 class.

Along with the learning and industry experience involved with the Google Online Marketing Challenge, there were other incentives for competing teams. From Penn State, both the College of IST and the Smeal College of Business contributed $500 each to offer prizes to the top teams within the university. From Google, all teams participating across the world have a shot at winning the following:

Global winner
The Global Winners and their professor will win a week’s holiday to San Francisco, USA, including a full day visit to the US Googleplex offices to meet the team that developed AdWords as well as participate in a presentation ceremony in their honor. The prize includes flights to San Francisco, transfers to the Google office and seven nights’ accommodation in a five-star hotel in San Francisco. In addition, each student in the Global Winners’ team will receive a laptop to the value of approximately USD $2,500.

Regional winners
The Regional Winners and their professor will be invited to spend a day at a major Google office within their region to attend a presentation ceremony in their honor. For the Americas this will be to San Francisco, for Asia Pacific this will be to Sydney and for EMEA this will be to London. The prize includes flights to the chosen Google office, plus 1 night’s hotel accommodation. In addition, each student in the Regional Winners’ team will receive a laptop to the value of approximately USD $1,300.

The second and third teams in each region (Finalists) The Finalists and their professors will be invited to attend the same dedicated presentation ceremony as the Regional winner at a major Google office within their region. For the Americas this will be to San Francisco, for Asia Pacific this will be to Sydney and for EMEA this will be to London. This prize includes flights to the chosen Google office, plus 1 night’s hotel accommodation.

The Top 50 teams in each region (Semi-finalists) Each student in a Semi-Finalist Student group will receive a special personalized certificate noting their status as a Semi-finalist in the Challenge.

Judging starts once all teams have finished on the 24th of May and winners will be announced in mid July.

The following is the complete list of Penn State teams along with the participating members.

Team D

• Mica Dachille
• James Evert
• Robert Setzman
• Janine Tomaszewski

Team Big Click

• Caroline Furey
• Joe Lewis
• Matt Maisel
• Daehee Park
• Tonya Podkuiko

Team Standard

• Russell Beck
• Marco Dharmajaya
• Joseph Kim
• Andrew Klimchak
• Matt Suplicki

Team Urban Equinox

• Christopher Bair
• Delanie Bakos
• Danielle Booth
• Brett Cassidy
• Stephanie Kracaw

The Intangibles

• Andrew Brofft
• Laura Glickstein
• James Pettit
• Jesse Shapiro
• Jared Wenerd

Tags: google, google online marketing challenge, IST 402, jim jansen

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