An example of this is the 2013 Google Online Marketing Challenge. Six Master of Marketing students: Rita, Yuriko, Yilian, Lillias, Sally and I decided to enter the Google AdWords competition. We were lucky to work with Hilti through this campaign. Many thanks to the team, our faculty supporters and most importantly our marketing partners at Hilti.
I’ve asked our team leader, Sally to explain the key features of this campaign on behalf of our team:
What was your motivation for participating in the Google Online Marketing Challenge 2013?
I’d previously used AdWords as part of marketing campaigns; however I had never actively planned and executed campaigns myself. The choice was based on a desire to learn more about how AdWords works at a granular level, and to experience guiding a client through the process.
What was the most valuable take-away from your AdWords campaign?
Our team was focused on reaching professional Tradesmen in the construction industry. The product we were promoting was a range of high-end cordless drills, the keywords in this category cross into the DIY consumer market; therefore target market messaging was particularly important as we were talking to tradies not DIY consumers.
Analytics help to adjust for QualityScore, which improved our ad position so that’s an important factor and helps to reduce budget not impact.
What was the most difficult part of competition?
Initially, coordinating team member diaries was a challenge, so when face-to-face chats weren’t possible we used group functions in a social networking site to collaborate and the cloud to update our plans and to stay on track.
What was the most exciting moment apart from the results?
Looking at the number of Impressions and CTR was really exciting. We all got a buzz out of watching Google go to work. It was extremely easy to monitor and measure the performance and I found that really exciting and valuable.
Your team included members from different cultures, countries and professional backgrounds, what is your advice to people management?
Recognise that everyone has a different perspective, listen and adjust to ensure you can make the most out of this. It's also important to ensure each person understands what they need to deliver, when and how that contributes to the project.
Getting through this AdWords competition wasn’t only about handling digital stuff, concurrently we picked up a lot about the market Hilti operates on. Nicole and Christina, Hilti marketing managers actively supported and navigated us through such challenge.
I’ve asked Nicole as a Hilti spokesman to answer a few questions regarding Adwords campaign:
What was the company’s motivation to take part in the Google AdWords Competition with Master of Marketing students?
Hilti currently partners with a number of universities on various projects, so we are always open to take part in these types of activities, especially if they relate to our current business objectives. The Google AdWords project is something we were particularly interested in being involved with, as Hilti has had fairly limited exposure to this form of digital marketing in the past. We were eager to see how the students would approach the campaign, and what learnings and recommendations we could take away for our future digital marketing activities.
What are the most interesting or even surprising aspects that you uncovered through that campaign?
While not surprising, the Google AdWords campaign reinforced the importance of creating a unique message and value proposition that was still aligned to our premium brand and personality. In a highly competitive and price sensitive cordless power tool market, the team needed to be creative in coming up with a cut-through message, that would generate the best possible results. Also interesting for us was the much higher percentage of impressions and clicks from tablet users, as opposed to desktop users and even mobile phone users.
Was it useful experience for Hilti in terms of its overall digital marketing strategy?
Definitely. The student team delivered a well prepared and executed campaign, along with recommendations that we can consider as part of our future digital strategy. The focus that was placed on message development, which was adapted accordingly through the duration of the campaign, can be used to inform future campaigns.
In summary it was a good experience that the team has learned a lot from. We’re still waiting to hear the results for this year’s challenge, so fingers crossed!
Elena Sveshnikova
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School
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