MBA students from the C.T. Bauer College of Business competed against 12,000 students from more than 80 countries to become the winner of the 2013 Google Online Marketing Challenge in the Americas.
“To have a company like Google once again recognize the strength and aptitude of these Bauer MBA students is humbling,” Bauer Dean Latha Ramchand said in a UH news release. “We are so proud of their achievement and will continue to build curriculum around innovative and evolving aspects of the business world.”
Heather Nguyen, Jason Ruth, Adam Jalfon and James McLellan represented Bauer and UH and received the opportunity to display their skills in advertising, e-commerce, integrated communications, management information systems, marketing and new media technologies.
Bauer teams have been participating in the challenge for four years. 2011’s team received the Global Winner title with a campaign for the Houston Symphony. UH is the only school in the country to have won the global title, said Steven Koch, executive professor and the team’s faculty adviser.
The students prepared for months prior to submitting the team’s first report. The students selected a client — this year’s team worked with the Children’s Museum of Houston — and analyzed the business and decided on its marketing needs. The team then drafted a pre-campaigned report, which was submitted online according to a rubric provided by Google. The students were given $250 from Google to work on a three-week campaign to improve online marketing efforts for the museum.
“I worry that people don’t understand how significant this is. According to Forrester Research, 35 percent of all dollars spent by advertisers in the United States will be spent on online marketing. In contrast, 12 years ago, the dollars spent on online marketing were hardly measurable. That includes everything; from advertising and marketing efforts to what you see on the side of the bus,” Koch said.
“That’s where our economy is going. Our students are actually being told by academics, industry professionals and Google specialists that they are the best at this new craft. It’s huge. This is where the world is going. I get emails from all over the world asking, ‘Can you tell us how University of Houston is doing it?’”
Koch selected the students who participated through a course he teaches. He has been advising the teams since Bauer started competing in the challenge four years ago. He is interested in creating well-balanced teams, with students from different backgrounds and interests.
“While working toward my MBA at Bauer, I have been fortunate enough to be involved in several programs that focus on ‘real-world’ business problems,” said Heather Nguyen, president of the college’s MBA Society and Marketing club.
“Through these programs and my other courses, I have learned the quality of professors at Bauer are top notch. As Bauer students, winning the Americas Region for the GOMC demonstrates the high degree of excellence of the programs and professors at the University of Houston.”
Koch emphasized on the quality of students at UH.
“It’s not about the faculty or the courses, it’s about the students,” he said. “University of Houston’s students can do this kind of stuff every year.”
