2020 GOMAC Winners

Global Winner

From left to right: Sonam Walmiki, Chioma Bernice Udeogu and Josephine Aiteobhor

The Global Winner comes from Fanshawe College in Canada, under the supervision of Professor Liz Gray. The post-graduate team worked with WES for Youth Online, a non-profit and free online counselling service for youth ages 13-24 dealing with mental health issues in Ontario, Canada. The judges commended the team on their excellent digital marketing strategy and admirable attention to detail. The team experimented with regional campaigns targeting key cities in Ontario so that local language could be used in keywords and ad copies. In the end, the team exceeded their KPIs and yet still reflected on what could have been done better. The judges appreciated this professional, balanced and objective approach. The team’s campaigns resulted in 59 new registrations on the website – an all-time high for WES for Youth Online. Reports: Pre-Campaign, Post-Campaign and Google Data Studio (PDF backup).

Regional Winners

Americas Regional Winner

From left to right are: Gustavo Pettinato Lucio, Kate Seliverstova, Nicolas Herrera, Sergio Luis Ramos Martins

The Americas Regional Winner comes from Fanshawe College in Canada, under the supervision of Professor Liz Gray. The post-graduate team worked with the Better Business Bureau of Western Ontario, a non-profit website providing information for consumers to help them make good buying decisions. The judges commented on the team’s excellent data visualization skills and the specificity of the report – it was full of examples and details. They appreciated how easy the report was to follow and the detailed timeline of weekly events. The judges were also impressed with the CPC the team was able to achieve. Reports: Pre-Campaign, Post-Campaign and Google Data Studio (PDF backup).

Asia & Pacific/Middle East & Africa Regional Winner

Clockwise from the top right: Professor Rohit Tiwari, Shreya Mohta, Ishanika Sehgal, Edward D’souza, Soumya Biradar, Namitha Ravindran

The Asia & Pacific/Middle East & Africa Regional Winner comes from FLAME University in India, under the supervision of professor Rohit Tiwari. The MBA students specialized in Communications Management worked with Questern Tours, a company based in Pune, India providing handcrafted itineraries for sport events, management of athlete logistics and touring packages including local cuisine & culture. The judges appreciated the level of detail in the team’s analysis and the clear and logical explanations provided related to campaign results. The judges felt this team’s approach was very professional and their efforts were very much in line with the organization’s goals. The team exceeded their campaign’s goals in website traffic and social media likes. Reports: Pre-Campaign, Post-Campaign and Google Data Studio (PDF backup).

Europe Regional Winner

From left to right: Deivid Rafal Viljučkevič, Mantas Petraitis, Daila Sabaliauskaitė, Eivydas Blackus, Žygimantas Naujokaitis

The Europe Regional Winner comes from Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania, under the supervision of Professors Elena Vitkauskaitė and Eglė Vaičiukynaitė. The team, composed of undergraduate students who specialize in marketing and finance, worked with Barzdukai, an ecommerce website based in Lithuania specializing in beard and hair products. The judging panel commented on the team’s clear and concise goals that shaped their integrated strategy that included Google, Facebook and Instagram advertising. They were also impressed with their use of retargeting to stimulate 5 repeat purchases. Overall, the team did an excellent job in managing the campaign and keeping their CPA lower than expected. They effectively used the data to make decisions and, ultimately, drive conversions. The judges were impressed with the team’s use of sitelink and structured snippet extensions to increase the screen real estate of their ads. Their use of charts and graphs complemented their very thorough analysis of the results. In the end, the campaign achieved 12 conversions and the project was a great testament to the power of Google Ads and its ability to help small businesses thrive online. 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 2020 GOMAC Committee, after careful evaluation, would like to provide an Honorable Mention to the team from ESG UQAM in Canada, under the supervision of Professor Harold Boeck, and composed of Oussama Bouharkat, Nicolas Gendron, and Joane Hazou, all marketing undergraduate students. The team developed an excellent digital marketing strategy with very precise goals and demonstrated continual optimization by adding and excluding keywords over time for Robins des Bois, a non-profit restaurant that redistributes their profits to charity organisms. The team did a great job of recognizing when and why their goals might have been too lofty and what they could have done differently in the planning and execution phases. Reports: Pre-Campaign, Post-Campaign and Google Data Studio (PDF backup).

Finalists

InstitutionCountryProfessorCaptainMemberMemberMember
Fanshawe CollegeCanadaLiz GrayBianca MatosKelsey NewnhamChristopher Liddy
ESG UQAMCanadaHarold BoeckOussama BouharkatNicolas  GendronJoane Hazou
FLAME UniversityIndiaRohit TiwariAnjali B  ShahRiya  ChakrabortyNidhi AhireYukti Agarwal

The 2020 GOMAC edition

2020 brought on some exceptional challenges as the COVID-19 pandemic caught us all off guard. Student teams that managed online campaigns during the second half of the season found it particularly difficult to complete their marketing campaigns in time. Exceptional times called for exceptional measures and the 2020 GOMAC Organizing Committee agreed to extend deadlines. Despite the extension, many clients resigned from the challenge, their student teams had a hard time finishing their projects, and unfortunately many did not submit their reports. The good news is that those who did submit reports presented some very good campaigns. In all, 28 digital marketing professors from Angola, Australia, Belarus, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the United States registered 83 student teams (324 students).

2020 GOMAC – Full Results

CIDCountryRanking
992-370-6886CanadaGlobal Winner
624-600-0656CanadaRegional Winner
445-326-9221IndiaRegional Winner
876-390-0729LithuaniaRegional Winner
598-823-0986CanadaFinalist
829-975-1882CanadaFinalist
707-840-7094IndiaFinalist
168-829-1556IndiaSemi-Finalist
791-025-1870LithuaniaSemi-Finalist
262-655-6970CanadaSemi-Finalist
936-259-5349IndiaSemi-Finalist
158-219-4364CanadaSemi-Finalist
719-377-8772IndiaSemi-Finalist
432-896-3507CanadaSemi-Finalist
966-834-1262GermanySemi-Finalist
912-916-1478CanadaSemi-Finalist
793-696-2832PortugalSemi-Finalist
222-572-1815CanadaSemi-Finalist
539-903-7807GermanySemi-Finalist
503-396-9995United StatesNominee
781-062-4211AustraliaNominee
435-536-3695CanadaNominee
842-535-0347United StatesNominee
767-257-2747PortugalNominee
219-804-8809FranceNominee
741-644-3064FranceNominee
* Nominees are not order ranked

Rankings used in the 2020 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 2020.

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 2020 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. The entire process and results were then certified as authentic by the GOMAC Committee.

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 when Global Winner contenders when scores were tied. The 2020 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 2020 GOMAC Judging Panel, comprising of 22 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. The Winners were then identified by a 16-judge panel. We would like to thank the following 2020 GOMAC Judging Panel for supporting the 2020 GOMAC Organizing Committee in the judging process:

University participants:

The 2020 GOMAC Organizing Committee

The 2020 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 2020 GOMAC Organizing Committee included: