South African universities rise to the Google challenge

Professors across South Africa are partnering with Google to introduce students to the world of online advertising and hundreds of
South African marketing students are ready for the challenge.

The Google Online Marketing Challenge is a hands-on exercise which will give undergraduate and post-graduate students direct experience of online advertising whilst they study. Student groups will receive the equivalent of US$200 (around R1400) to spend on Google AdWords advertising, working with a local business of their choice to devise effective online marketing campaigns. They will outline a strategy, run the campaign, assess their results and provide the business with recommendations to further develop their online marketing.

Students will have three weeks to mastermind the strategy and will pit their marketing minds against thousands of students worldwide. During the three-week period, the different student groups will have to submit two competition reports, one before they begin the challenge and one after the campaign has ended. Entries will be judged by an international panel of professors and winners will be chosen based on the success of the campaigns and quality of the
reports.

6 of South Africa’s top universities have already registered for the competition and there is still a week left for other universities to sign up. The challenge starts in February 2008 and is open to any higher education institution from anywhere in the world.

More details can be found at
http://www.google.com/onlinechallenge/index.html