Document Actions
Microsoft Advertising Digital Challenge at Baruch College
NINE TEAMS COMPETED IN THE FINALS OF THE MICROSOFT ADVERTISING DIGITAL CHALLENGE AT BARUCH COLLEGE ON MAY 1, 2009
A Marketing Idea Goes Global
Launched as a pilot at Baruch College in 2008, the Microsoft Advertising Digital Challenge was an initiative of Linda Gharib (’07) and was made a reality with the help of several other Baruch alumni now working at Microsoft, Yaron Dekel (’05), Cavel Khan (’05), Meredith Zapin (’05) and Louis Cohen (’10). Because the 2008 pilot program proved successful, in 2009, the competition was scaled internationally with the help of Caitlin O’Halloran (’08) who came in 1st place in last year’s challenge, as well as many other Microsoft volunteers.
Commenting on the challenge, Linda Gharib said, “We think about the Microsoft Advertising Digital Challenge as a mini-MBA in digital advertising. Microsoft Advertising professionals trained students on the basics of search marketing, display, mobile, in game advertising and more. Students also had the chance to apply what they’ve learned to solve the Office Live case study challenge and present to Microsoft executives. We are excited to bring this great learning opportunity to the student community.”
A total of 137 teams participated in this year’s challenge. In addition to several teams from the Baruch College Zicklin School of Business, participants included students from: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, Florida Atlantic University, University of Washington, Fordham University, Columbia University, Queens College, University of Oregon, University of Rochester, HEC Montreal, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, University of Pennsylvania, University of California, University of Puerto Rico, and Carnegie Mellon University.
The Challenge case study product for 2009 was “Office Live Workspace,” a Microsoft Office platform designed to facilitate document sharing. Industry professional and Baruch College instructor Kelly O’Brien also provided participants with a workshop in search and display advertising to reinforce their learning. Steve Yu, a recent Baruch alumnus, who was part of a 5-person Baruch team, explained that the strategies his team members developed went far beyond using on-line search engines. “We’re making use of a variety of search strategies, display options, social networks and viral marketing techniques,” Steve said.
On May 1st, the finalists presented to a group of judges that included the Director of Office Live, Michael Schultz; Senior Director of Microsoft Advertising Sales, Rick Song; and Director of Microsoft Advertising Account Services David Gerbitz. The students’ media plans were judged on their ability to identify the opportunity, execute strategy, teamwork, creativity and understanding of Microsoft’s business objectives. . Winners received “cool prizes,” including Microsoft Xboxs, Zunes, games and an invitation to attend the Microsoft Search Summit in Seattle, WA. All participants had the opportunity to become adExcellence Certified for free and all semi-finalists received a copy of Office 2007 software.
John Elliott, dean of the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, calls the Microsoft Advertising Digital Challenge, “the kind of far-sighted collaboration between industry and academia that benefits everyone, but most of all the students who will be the leaders of tomorrow in the converging fields of advertising and information technology.” Baruch College teams, ONE and Triple M came in 2nd and 3rd place in the graduate competition.
“The Microsoft team is excited about the program’s continued success and our partnership with Baruch College and all of the support we received from the Marketing Department and the Zicklin Graduate Marketing Club,” said Caitlin O’Halloran. Below are the 2009 Microsoft Advertising Digital Challenge winners:
Undergraduate Winners:
1st Place
- Sandbox on the Ave (University of Washington)
- Cecilia Mathewson
- Ela Misut
- Jeremy Juel
- Lyle David Zoumut
2nd Place
- Andiamo (NYU)
- Annie Wang
- Cuauhtemoc Sandoval
- Russell Huiskamp
3rd Place
- B&W(HEC of Montreal, Concordia University)
- Konstantin Brezgalov
- Zhuzi Cui
Graduate Winners:
1st Place
- Digital All-Stars (University of Oregon)
- Eric Chylinski
- Kyle Rehder
- Miriam Oh
- Neil Young
- Shi-Mu Huang
2nd Place
- ONE (Baruch College)
- Adriano Manzano
- Iwona Rozalewicz
- Ivan Stamatovski
- Jessica Salvatore
- Ruxandra Dinu
3rd Place
- Triple M (Baruch College)
- Chih-Wei Chi
- Pintida Harnpanpongse
- Yusuke Tomizawa