Online Marketing Challenge

2008 Winners and Finalists

To find our 2008 winners and finalists, Google followed a rigorous judging process. Firstly, we used a proprietary algorithm that examined over 30 different variables within an AdWords account to determine the top 50 teams in each of our three regions (The Americas, EMEA and APAC).

Expert Googlers then reviewed these 150 accounts to determine the top 5 in each of the three regions. The Global Academic Panel then selected winners and finalists from these 15 teams based solely on the quality of a team’s written reports.

We are extremely proud to announce our winners for the 2008 Google Online Marketing Challenge.

GLOBAL Winner

Our Global Winning team comes from the University of Western Australia and is taught by Dr. Fang Liu. The team of Aaron Balm, Lauren Bobridge, Amy Smith, Victor Tsen and Arina Usikov worked with a local rock-climbing centre, www.thehangout.com.au, to create a fantastic campaign that generated tangible results for the business.

The 2008 Global Winners: Dr Fang Liu, Glen Linthorne from The Hangout (The team's client), Victor Tsen (hanging), Amy Smith, Aaron Balm and Lauren Bobridge. Absent is team member, Arina Usikov.

Regional Winners

Our APAC Winner, taught by Dr. Julien Cayla, comes from the Australian Graduate School of Management. The team was comprised of Sean Harpur, Daniel Jolly, Fiona Macrae, Danny Van Clief and Jason von Stieglitz and worked with a small specialty cake business, www.fortheloveofsugar.com.

Our AMERICAS Winner comes from The Pennsylvania State University (US) and was taught by Dr. Jim Jansen. The team of Caroline Furey, Joe Lewis, Matthew Maisel, Daehee Park and Tonya Podkuiko worked with a local tourism and information site, www.happyvalley.com.

Our EMEA Winner comes from the Universität Bern (Switzerland), taught by Prof. Thomas Myrach and Research Assistant, Natalie Jäggi. The team of Raphael Dick, Kilian Imboden, Kevin Meile and Gourav Verma worked with a local travel agency, www.aaretal-reisen.ch.

Regional Finalists

Our two APAC finalists were:

• The National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences (Taiwan) taught by Craig Chao. The team of Shiu Chiau-Ya, Yang Huei-Chuen, Yeh Hui-Ling, Lin Jia-Wei, Wang Shin-Pei and He Tzung-Ting worked with an online bakery.
• The National Taiwan University taught by Chun-Yao Huang with a team of Chu Chao-Yuan, Honggo Ng, Tseng Tzu-Yu, Lee Ta-Jen and Lin Wan-Ching. The team also worked with an online bakery.

Our two AMERICAS finalists were:

• Boise State University (US) taught by Christoph Schneider. The team of Lisa Chipman, Trevor Herbst, Kasey Keller, Chris Mendonca and Lisa Mooers worked with a sporting equipment online retailer.
• James Madison University (US) taught by Theresa Flaherty with a team of Ryan Farrell, Bethany Kent, Julia Marchetti, Renee Montmeny and Katelynn McGinnis. The team worked with an online skincare site.

Our two EMEA finalists were:

• The Würzburg-Schweinfurt University of Applied Sciences (Germany) taught by Mario Fischer with a team of Johannes Albert, Fabian Drescher, Christian Hoerner and Jochen Saal. The team worked with a business who creates experience days.
• The College for Modern Business Studies (Hungary) taught by Nebojsa Damjanovich. The team comprised of Péter Seres, Tamás Szabó, László Tóth and Anikó Vetési and worked with a computer rental company.

Please note: Academic Panel members, Jim Jansen and Theresa Flaherty, were not part of the final judging process due to their teams making the final 15.

Semi-Finalists and all other competing teams

To see which teams made our Semi-Finalist list (the Top 50 in each region) as well as the ratings for all competing teams, take a look at the 2008 Team Results. (For privacy reasons, ratings are listed according to the AdWords Customer ID of each competing team).