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A student team from The University of Western Australia has been named global winner of the Google Online Marketing Challenge, beating more than 1,600 student teams from 369 university classes, in more than 47 countries around the world.

Led by UWA Business School lecturer Dr Fang Liu, UWA's winning team of Victor Tsen, Lauren Bobridge, Amy Smith, Aaron Balm and Arina Usikov was up against competition from prestigious international institutions including Stanford University and London Business School.

UWA Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Robson said the win demonstrated that UWA was nurturing some of the world's finest business students.

"This is an outstanding achievement for our students and The University of Western Australia and further recognition of our commitment to achieving excellence in research and education," Professor Robson said.

Each student team was required to work with the Google AdWords program, which allows businesses to run sponsored links on Google searches based on key words that users are likely to type when searching for products.

They had to determine which key words were best for the business and were then responsible for managing the AdWords account over a three-week period.

Dr Liu said her team helped The Hangout indoor rock climbing and abseiling centre in Bayswater increase its web presence by driving hundreds more visitors to their website.

"The focus of the AdWords campaign was to help promote and distinguish The Hangout from its competitors using the internet," she said.

Dr Liu said the challenge gave students the opportunity to develop their skills and experience in e-marketing.  "This will help our students leave university with skills they can take into business, whatever its size or shape," she said.

Google will fly Dr Liu's winning team to San Francisco for a week, where they will visit Google headquarters. For more details visit: https://www.google.com/onlinechallenge/

Media references

Dr Fang Liu (UWA Business School)   (+61 8) 6488 3506
Simone Hewett / Sally-Ann Jones (+61 8) 6488 7977
(UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 4) 20 790 097 / (+61 4) 20 790 098