Performics and Google to Offer AdWords Program for Grady Students

Grady College is pleased to announce that Performics, the performance marketing agency in Publicis, has teamed with Google to offer an opportunity to Grady students to get a head start on a digital media career by taking the Google Adwords Certification Program and Test. 

Dana Todd

This program was developed through the efforts of Grady alumna Dana Todd, SVP Marketing and Business Development at Performics in Chicago. UGA will be the first recipient of this official scholarship program, and 10 students will be chosen to become individually qualified in Google AdWords. Representatives of Performics will come visit Grady the week of January 21 to recruit in senior-level classes. Grady faculty Dr. Elaine Lin and Dr. Karen King will be working with Performics and Google to help set it up. 

Google's AdWords program is globally recognized as one of the most important qualifiers to enter the digital marketing industry. Knowledge in AdWords can be transferrable to almost any career in marketing, including ones involving optimization, keyword search and digital metrics. 

Benefits to completing this certificate program include: 

• Improved knowledge in keywords, bidded media systems and optimization strategies; 
• Globally-recognized stamp of approval certifying essential AdWords knowledge; 
• Showcase specialist knowledge through advanced exams covering search, display, reporting and analysis.

Applications to the program will be due January 31, 2013, and can be found here. Once chosen, students will be assigned a mentor and will complete modules on a regular basis during February and March. 

To gain qualification, students must pass both the Advertising Fundamentals exam and one advanced-level exam. Exam topics will include Google advertising, display advertising, search advertising, and reporting and analysis. Students will complete the modules by early April and take the exam, and Performics will cover the cost of taking the exam. Google/Performics will come to campus to award the certificates in late April. Students who pass the required exams to become Individually Qualified will receive a certificate verifying achievement. They'll also have an online Individual Profile page to share with interested parties.

Once qualified, individuals receive a Google-branded certificate and can add their Individually Qualified status to their CV to showcase their AdWords skills and knowledge. 

Two Ad Grads Added to Grady Alumni Board

We are pleased to welcome advertising grads Dana Todd and Mike Martin to the Grady College Alumni Board.

Dana Todd is VP of the Performance Innovation team at Performics which collaborates with Performics' global network and partners to explore and evaluate opportunites throughout the performance marketing landscape. She and her team combine proprietary solutions with platform partners to unlock incremental and big-win opportunites across emerging media and new technologies. Since 1996, Todd has driven value for hundreds of companies, helping them find actionable insights and success in interactive marketing. Her career spans a variety of practices including search marketing, first leading San Diego interactive agencies Bien Logic and SiteLab, then founding SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) and its training arm SEMPO Institute. Most recently, Todd launched Newsforce, a starteup that redefines how companies think of advertorial and sponsored content. She is a favorite speaker at Search Engine Strategies, ad:tech, OMS, SMX, OMMA and regularly provides insight to the financial press and industry.

Armed with an undergraduate degree in Advertising from The University of Georgia, a stint at Oxford studying the History of the Reformation and two years of post-graduate work in Art Direction, Mike Martin started his career at DDB in Dallas where he created award-winning advertising for Midway Video Games. Tabasco Hot Sauce and JCPenney. Next, he spent four years in Boston working for Arnold Worldwide. His work for The American Legacy Foundation's "truth" campaign (anti-tobacco industry) helped create one of the most successful and highly-awarded advertising campaigns ever. During that time, he also helped Monster grow into the premier online job-recruiting site and served up some creative nuggets for McDonalds.

Boston wasn't cold enough for Martin, so he was off to Minneapolis and Carmichael Lynch where he worked on national brands that included Harley Davidson, Fetzer Wines and Jack Link's Beef Jerky which he helped win and manage. When his hometown of Atlanta came calling, he moved back and served as Chief Creative Officer at Fletcher Martin. But soon the entrepreneurial bug bit him and in 2007, Martin started his own boutique, creative agency Skylab-B, which he currently owns and manages.

Over the last several years, Martin has created fully integrated, cross-platform campaigns for the Department of Homeland Security launching the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. He worked on presidential political campaigns, The Prekness Stakes, Coke Zero and public service campaigns for the American Lung Association. In order to expand his expertise into the branded entertainment sector, Mike partnered with the acclaimed film director Glen Owen to launch Martin+Owen in 2009.

Martin's work has been recognized by numerous marketing industry awards including the One Show, D&AD, Clios, Mercury Awards and Communication Arts Magazine. He still contends that his greatest work was the birth of his twins last December.