The Journey from Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC) to Online Marketing Lab (OML)
Online Advertisement over the last decades is growing rapidly in Africa. And for every smart programmer and software designer, they must think in that direction; so for 3 years now I have developed interest in Google Adword and being an active participant in the Google online marketing challenge every year since then.
It started like a dream in 2011 when the then Google Ambassador in my College, the University of Ibadan, +Adepoju Abiodun came to our class to tell us about Google Online Marketing Challenge. It sounded strange then because it was the first of its kind in University of Ibadan. I decided to participate not just because I had interest but I love challenges, so the challenge stirred my creative mind to get involved.
So having picked up the challenge to organize my team to get involved in the challenge, the next big issue was getting team members. After approaching most of my course mates, they never caught the vision or my thinking, so I opted to added some of my friends, even with their little or no interest in the challenge. I was therefore faced with the work as a one man's team. I did the work with little or no assistance from the other team members. My team didn't do well then but the gained experience was my reward.
And in 2012 armed with my 2011 rocky year experience I got another team and with their cooperation, we worked as a team and got to semi final. This motivated me to develop more interest in online marketing. At that time I believed I could do better but there was no drive yet within me, I longed for a better experience. 
GOMC 2013 came calling, I felt this is it! My drive will be this year; I and leaders of two other teams from previous challenge at my college, the University of Ibadan came together to form a team with the intention of making Africa proud. We wanted to be one of the global winners. So we set out to work and did our best but unfortunately we didn’t achieve our goal of being one of the global winners. At this I thought my career in Adwords is settled and over. Because this was my best team in my history of GOMC, there was a high spirit of team work amongst us. Those guys were simply great: +Didunoluwa Olukoya , +Williams Basima , Femi olaoye and led by +Seyi Tunde and my humble self. Never regretted working with you all!
It was as if Google saw my mind, I loved Adwords but was giving up on it, and they came to the rescue, Google said ‘no way let’s help this dude and his team’. The invite for the Google Online Marketing Lab revived my Adwords career!
The Google online marketing Lab held in Lagos between the 22-24th of October 2013. It is so far the second greatest event in my life. Where student of like passion met together to learn under expert in this field of Adwords.
Motion picture during OML Lagos
Students from various Universities from Nigeria and Ghana met together. I saw passion in my fellow students and it birthed my long sought drive to build a career in Adwords and Online marketing. A question I asked myself was “how important is this Adwords for Google to spend so much to organize this program just to educate us?” and before the end of the program I was able to give myself the answer when I saw how importance this advertising tool by Google as drive International Market .
Some of the other knowledge I gained from the OML were that:
- I learnt new features of Adwords
- Importance of Adwords in business organisation in the aspect of advertising.
- Heard from Advertising agency on how Adwords is helping there agency
One of my best sessions during the program was the talk from Mrs Olubukola Akingbade CEO of Bytesize Advertising agency. She shared her experience of how she started the company and I saw her determination which was what build the company to what it is today. She was not afraid of failure which was her major drive to keep pushing on. Some of the quotes she gave were:
"Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." - Thomas Edison.
“Trust, transparency, and diligence are also key in the advertising industry” - Mrs. Bukola Akingbade
"Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating" - John Cleese
''Persistence and agility are very key to surviving in the advertising industry'' - Mrs. Bukola Akingbade.
''Keep your business lean'' - Mrs. Bukola Akingbade
''Operate your company like a start-up'' - Mrs. Bukola Akingbade
''To sustain a business, you need to drive value and relevance'' - Mrs. Bukola Akingbade.
The session was a wowwwww!. Generally the program really opened my eyes and now I am beginning to see my career path towards becoming an Adwords expert.
OML was fill with fun, apart from the knowledge gaining /skill acquisition, I met new friends, the work environment during the program was great, from accommodation to the meals, the whole experience was wowwwww!
I end this blog with a big thanks to Google for sponsoring this event and also thanks to the organiser Ms Aida Martinz. An open confession, GOMC and OML Lagos is the most amazing thing that has happened to me so far in 2013!
