Last year, Google and WPP launched the Marketing Research Awards Program to improve industry and academic understanding of online marketing strategies and the relationship between online and offline media. University professors received unrestricted gifts to conduct their projects, as well as access to relevant marketing data to aid the creation of new and creative theories and methods of empirical analysis.

Last month, the award recipients from 13 universities across the U.S. and China came to the Google offices in NYC to discuss their findings. We learned how marketing on a map affects consumers' decisions as well as how online advertising affects in store sales. We even spent some time digging into a neuroscientific study designed to determine what consumers find most relevant. Many of the award recipients are still analyzing their data, but the preliminary results made it crystal clear that we all have a lot to learn.

Listen to some of the researchers and program chairs talk about the program and discuss their preliminary findings.

Posted by Janine Gianfredi, Agency Marketing Manager
Category: Google Adwords .