My name is Elliot Trotter and I win contests

Back in September, Google (yes, the Google) announced their Adwords Train and Gain Challenge in which participants were invited to enter by using Adwords for a month and trying out tips sent in by Google via email. At the end of the month, participants were asked to fill out a short survey with information about their experience. 15 first place winners and 1 grand prize winner were to be selected to win an android phone and a trip to Australia respectively.

One of the companies I work for, Terra Organics, had been using Adwords to notable success and we figured to give this challenge a shot. We decided that to more effectively communicate our experience, we’d use my videography skills to put a short video together. After completing the challenge and submitting our video, I was excited to receive a call from Google headquarters in California informing me that we had won the competition. This is a tremendous honor and I am grateful to Google for selecting us and for their generous prize.

Is it a fluke that Terra Organics was selected to win? I don’t think so. Out of the other participants in this challenge, I suspect it’s rather unlikely that others chose to submit videos (let alone videos in HD). Further, Terra Organics is a promotional perfect storm. As a small business that focuses on organic produce, supporting local farms and healthy eating, it’s no surprise that the competition winner isn’t a mouse-pad manufacturer. Terra Organics represents a company that easy to digest and easy to like. Making our video helped us get noticed, but being what Terra Organics is may have helped seal the deal. Of course Google may have gone about the selection in a completely different way, but it just goes to show that making a little extra effort can make the difference in getting noticed and it’s important to be the right fit.

Thanks again to Google for selecting us. I’m still incredibly humbled by the whole thing.

Read Google’s Official Announcement on their Data Blog.