R.O.I. MEDIA

R.O.I. Media was fortunate enough to be invited to the launch of Google Engage in South Africa – CEO Allen Jaffe and Pay-Per-Click Manager Kyle Pretorius flew up to Johannesburg to attend the highly anticipated event…

Flights and Johannesburg traffic aside, the event was well attended and thoroughly enjoyable. The morning got off to a good start – everyone fresh and perky as a few Google gift bags were handed out and coffee and refreshments were served.

What better way to start off an event of this nature than by having Google South Africa country manager Luke Mckend introduce the event. Listening to Mr Mckend speak was hugely inspirational and a massive privilege to say the least. We were fortunate enough to have a quick one on one chat with him during a tea break, where we talked about the growth of R.O.I. Media and the local online advertising market within South Africa. It was an honour to hear his insights and suggestions, even more so as he was as enthused as us during the conversation.

After tea, the launch consisted of talks by Google account managers who explained exactly how Google is capable of helping people in Johannesburg find petrol – a problem us Capetonians are fortunate enough to not have to worry about.

After lunch there was a fascinating talk on how mobile is exploding not only internationally but locally too, with Africa often being far ahead of the rest of the world in some areas of mobile. Despite a few internet connection problems (Google was not the internet supplier, as they pointed out) the videos and examples given were amazing. A great description of how a holiday trip can be completely organised, scheduled and enjoyed by simply using a mobile was absolutely brilliant, and demonstrations of picture searches using Google Goggles on a mobile device were mind blowing too. You’re able to search brands, mountains, landmarks and more just by searching the photo you took of it (this excludes organic objects, so get your mind out of the gutter).

Once the conference wrapped, Allen and I were fortunate enough to be able to get a speed dating session with some of the Google Employees. Allen was able to have a one on one with a Google agency manager while I was able to get time with a Google account manager, which gave us valuable time to bounce ideas and questions off of real life Google employees.

After a long day of mind blowing talks, laughs, superb networking and good food, we hopped a plane back to Cape Town with a world of new knowledge to share.

At the end of the day, the Google Engage launch allowed agencies to engage with and connect with Google more easily, which is a valuable advantage. The biggest plus is that agencies are able to connect with their clients better by using Google Engage as a direct source of information, allowing them to become more knowledgeable about Adwords and the PPC market.

Google Engage = engaging and connecting to create a better PPC industry.