Google Digital Academy has introduced its Digital Marketing Transformation programme to the South African market.
Launched by Google in various parts of the globe, the programme takes participants through a six-step process focused on understanding the fundamentals of using digital marketing tools.
Targeted at students, marketing professionals and entrepreneurs, the programme examines channels, strategies and related practices that can help participants optimise their digital marketing campaigns.
It ranges from bespoke workshops and face-to-face labs to scaled e-learning and virtual learning, to maximise shared understanding.
According to Google, each programme covers five interdependent pillars of digital transformation in marketing, an area where new technology and customer behaviour have created the urgent need for transformation.
The programme begins with an assessment done by advertisers on their level of digital marketing maturity using the Digital Maturity Benchmark, an advertising diagnostic tool developed by Google and Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
“To respond to consumer expectations and competition, brands must make hard changes to realise the full potential of data-driven marketing,” explains Jan Gildemeister, MD and partner at BCG SA.
“Increasing digital marketing maturity is a journey that’s best achieved when technical and organisational capabilities go hand in hand to help brands iteratively take their next steps. Transformation is a necessity, and can be aided by applying advanced technologies in conjunction with smart human assistance.”
The BCG-Google study, conducted by 40 experts among 200 brands across more than eight industries around the world, identifies four stages of digital marketing maturity: nascent, emerging, connect and multi-moment.
The study found only 2% of brands deliver multi-moment experiences, where customer journeys are dynamically improved towards business outcomes. Eight percent are nascent – the lower end of maturity, while 89% of brands sit in the middle – emerging and connected.
Jenny Thompson, EMEA for Go to Market at Google, explains that by transforming themselves, companies have the ability to apply the most advanced machine learning-based technology to their campaigns, boosting return on ad spend by up to 30%.
“Transformation required to get to that level of digital marketing maturity is extremely challenging. Trying to build in new marketing skill sets, on-board new technology, and change organisational practices to cope with the increased complexity and volume of data takes huge efforts. This has made meeting customer expectations more difficult than ever. But the pay-off is worth it; best-in-class advertisers benefit from 30% more impact for the same spend.”
For more information on applying for the programme, visit the Google Africa blog: google-africa.blogspot.com.
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