Google Dublin offices in Ireland.
[photo/googleusercontent.com]
Four Kenyatta University students won the Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC) 2017, Middle East and Africa region, owing to their outstanding online marketing skills.
The prize was an opportunity to visit Google Dublin offices in Ireland. They were competing against 12,000 students from 100 universities across the globe.
"I realized that most local companies relied on outside expertise in online marketing due to lack of the same locally,” says Peter Nyoike, a fourth-year Bachelor of Economics and Statistics student. He later teamed up with his schoolmates to participate in the challenge.
The yearly challenge that’s open to all university students worldwide, involves running online advertising campaigns using Google Adwords with a budget from Google. “We were required to partner with an organisation, find out their marketing goals and run a campaign to help in achieving those goals.
Adwords, a digital marketing tool by Google, gives a client an opportunity to market their business according to their goals and allows them to evaluate the goals through metrics such as cost per click,” explains Jackson Ndung’u, Bachelor of Arts in fine Arts student. With a budget of Sh25,758 (US$250) the team worked with Garden of Hope Foundation, a non-governmental organisation based in Kibera. It is involved in mentorship and youth empowerment.
Taking a short course about Google Online marketing at the onset of the competition also gave them an upper hand in navigating the field, which was new to all of them and helped them emerge the best in the Business Awards category among 12,000 students from 100 universities who participated.
Dr Paul Mwangi, senior lecturer, Kenyatta University, who was helping the team with the project said: “The students have set a good example. During the visit we realised that about five staff members in the Dublin office are Kenyans, which means that our youth have great potential.” ,” says Mwangi.