2019 GOMAC Winners

Global Winner

2019 GOMAC - Global Winner
From left to right: Simona Pūraitė, Kamilė Gruduls, Deivid Sokolovskij, Goda Miltinytė, Raminta Juzukonytė

The Global Winner comes from Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania, under Professor Elena Vitkauskaitė. The team composed of Kamilė Gruduls (Captain), Deivid Sokolovskij, Simona Pūraitė, Goda Miltinytė, and Raminta Juzukonytė worked with UAB Dalinuosi.lt, the biggest renting platform based on a sharing economy in Lithuania. The judges thought that the submission constituted a comprehensive and thoughtful digital marketing campaign demonstrating superior preparation, execution, analytics, and presentation. Judges also said that the submission represented an excellent example of a well integrated campaign that used insights to focus on conversions, which were excellent. Seasonality and a wonderful use of key metrics including CTR, CPC, conversions, and Quality Score were well discussed and analyzed. The reports also had a strong coherence between the planned versus actual campaigns. Although social content and Instagram were not deemed to be a core component of the GOMAC, social media campaigns were included in the recommendations. Reports: Pre-Campaign, Post-Campaign and Google Data Studio (PDF backup).

Regional Winners

2019 GOMAC – Asia & Pacific/Middle East & Africa Regional Winner

2019 GOMAC - Asia & Pacific/Middle East & Africa Regional Winner
From left to right: Rohan Nag, Sajith Narayanan, Kajal Samdani, Aakash Saluja

The Asia & Pacific/Middle East & Africa Regional Winner comes from FLAME University in India, under Professor Sajith Narayanan. The team composed of Aakash Saluja (Captain), Rohan Nag, Kajal Samdani, worked with Jain Heights, a real estate developer based in Bangalore. The judges thought that the campaign generated a decent number of leads and that the team demonstrated a clear understanding of the target market. The campaign had an impressive CTR and amount of clicks across the campaign. The reports included a good use of graphics and a thorough write-up but the overly busy report made it difficult at times to find the key goals. Some possible improvements could have been to update the expired domain name and provide more focus on conversions. Reports: Pre-Campaign, Post-Campaign and Google Data Studio (PDF backup).

2019 GOMAC – Europe 2019 Regional Winner

2019 GOMAC - Europe Regional Winner
Clockwise from top-left: Riccarda Pester, Victoria Gleichauf, Marilena Lindenthal, Niklas Franke.

The Europe Regional Winner comes from European University of Flensburg in Germany, under Professor Berthold Hass. The team composed of Victoria Gleichauf (Captain), Marilena Lindenthal, Niklas Franke and Riccarda Pester worked with Max & Molly, an online shop that sells trendy pet supply for dogs and cats. The judges thought that the campaign fell short of its CTR goals (critical in search advertising) but account optimisation was very good as the campaign progressed through the weeks. The reports included a brilliant timeline and reporting of changes and how these affected the campaign. The campaign received an impressive number of clicks, however, concern was voiced around the low CTR to achieve this. Reporting addressed mistakes honestly and included humour. It would have been interesting to find out the possible reasons for the low CTR. Reports: Pre-Campaign, Post-Campaign and Google Data Studio (PDF backup).

Honorable Mentions

During the judging process, a few campaigns can be handpicked by our Judging Panel as having demonstrated excellence in regards to a specific digital marketing characteristic. The 2019 GOMAC Committee, after careful evaluation, would like to provide an Honorable Mention to the team from the European University of Flensburg in Germany under Professor Berthold Hass and composed of Heidi Nielsen (Captain), Verena Visse, Yulia Kuroedova, and Enya Jensen. The team developed digital marketing for Kulturgipfel GmbH an event planning agency based in Germany that specialises in concerts and open air events. The team’s Pre-Campaign, Post-Campaign and Google Data Studio report (backup) presented excellent strategy and analytical reasoning.

Finalists

InstitutionCountryProfessorCaptainMemberMemberMember
Prince Sultan UniversitySaudi ArabiaSharifah Syed AhmadNoura AL-MuhannaLama AlibraheemAlJohara AlShegriGhada Sultan
Kaunas University of TechnologyLithuaniaElena VitkauskaitėVilija JankūnaitėAistė AntanavičiūtėModesta StuinaitėAugustinas Tuomenas
European University of FlensburgGermanyBerthold HassHeidi NielsenVerena VisseYulia KuroedovaEnya Jensen

2019 GOMAC – Full Results

Congratulations to all teams who participated in the 2019 GOMAC edition. You have increased your knowledge and experience working for a real client and managing a real budget. The following table lists an ordered rank* of the best 2019 GOMAC teams.

CIDCountryRegionRanking
441-519-8190LithuaniaEuropeGlobal Winner
570-989-1503IndiaAsia-Pacific-Middle East-AfricaRegional Winner
216-163-4554GermanyEuropeRegional Winner
861-049-3964Saudi ArabiaAsia-Pacific-Middle East-AfricaFinalist
460-342-5690LithuaniaEuropeFinalist
951-679-1854GermanyEuropeFinalist
597-514-6303GermanyEuropeSemi-Finalist
577-388-8001CanadaAmericasSemi-Finalist
572-907-4090Saudi ArabiaAsia-Pacific-Middle East-AfricaSemi-Finalist
305-570-0807FranceEuropeSemi-Finalist
496-599-2137United StatesAmericasSemi-Finalist
184-340-4443SwitzerlandEuropeSemi-Finalist
613-750-3225Saudi ArabiaAsia-Pacific-Middle East-AfricaSemi-Finalist
778-097-9655FranceEuropeNominee
206-474-1866CanadaAmericasNominee
372-632-9144United StatesAmericasNominee
630-661-3390United StatesAmericasNominee
928-785-8560AustraliaAsia-Pacific-Middle East-AfricaNominee
295-337-0294United StatesAmericasNominee
130-594-0156United StatesAmericasNominee
545-231-2939United StatesAmericasNominee
550-830-9760AustraliaAsia-Pacific-Middle East-AfricaNominee

* Nominees are not order ranked

Rankings used in the 2019 GOMAC:

  • Nominee: Teams that demonstrated a very strong understanding of digital marketing by developing a solid campaign and its supporting documentation.
  • Semi-Finalists: Teams that demonstrated superior understanding of digital marketing, developed and documented very high quality campaigns. GOMAC regions were determined based on the number of submissions. Neighbouring countries with fewer submissions were grouped together. All Semi-Finalists demonstrated the same overall level of proficiency even though they are classified in separate regions.
  • Finalists: Teams that demonstrated overall excellence in the field of digital marketing. All Finalists demonstrated the same overall level of proficiency even though they are classified in separate regions.
  • Regional Winners: Although all Finalists demonstrated outstanding campaigns, only one team in each region can be declared the Regional Winner.
  • Global Winner: Out of the several nominated teams and outstanding marketing campaigns, the Judging Panel identified that this team designed, executed and presented the best overall digital marketing campaign in 2019.

The Judging Process

A panel of international judges evaluated teams from outside of their own geographic region. Professors that supervised a Regional Winner did not participate in the 2019 GOMAC Final Judging Panel and, if part of the GOMAC Committee, were removed from further discussions and decisions regarding the judging process. Professors from every GOMAC region participated in the selection for the Global Winner. The GOMAC Final Judging Panel proceeded with a secret ballot vote that was then revalidated by each judge independently. The judging process was supervised by Professor Wojciech Czart, and further validated by Professor Harold Boeck, who did not supervise any teams that participated in the 2019 GOMAC. The entire process and results were then certified as authentic by the GOMAC Committee.

In this year’s edition, digital marketing professors from all over the world registered 104 student teams (almost 400 students) to the GOMAC. The GOMAC Judging Panel then identified seven Semi-Finalists and six Finalists. A team was ranked as Semi-Finalist or Finalist based on the quality of their campaign and reports rather than by a cut-off based on a predetermined number of teams per rank. Regions can therefore have a different number of Semi-Finalists and Finalists. Having a team reach the rank of Semi-Finalist or Finalist was not influenced by the performance of other competing student teams. These top teams demonstrated a superior understanding of digital marketing and developed and documented very high quality campaigns.

Each top Finalist within each region was then identified as the Regional Winner. The Global Winner was selected among the Regional Winners by the GOMAC Final Judging Panel who also evaluated runner-ups as Global Winner contenders when scores were tied. Since the Global Winner is from the European Region, the GOMAC Committee identified the European runner-up as the new Regional Winner. As no team from the Americas ranked as a Finalist, no team was declared the Americas 2019 Regional Winner. The 2019 GOMAC Organizing Committee would like to remind participants that it is essential that they follow the Challenge guidelines set out under the terms and conditions to be eligible for judging.

The 2019 GOMAC Judging Panel, comprising of 24 digital marketing specialists from around the world, judged the students’ digital marketing campaigns based on each teams’ Pre- and Post-Campaign decks and Google Data Studio reports. We would like to thank the following Judging Panel and supporting the GOMAC Organizing Committee in the judging process:

University participants:

Industrial collaboration:

  • Kasia Firlej, Digital Marketing Analyst, from inTouch in the United States

The 2019 GOMAC Organizing Committee

The 2019 GOMAC was governed by the Global Online Marketing Academics (GOMA) which comprises Academics from around the world who have extensive experience in digital marketing education. The 2019 GOMAC Organizing Committee included: