Omniture Web Analytics Competition & BYU

Maybe this is old news to some of you but it is new to me. I came across BYU’s eBusiness Center site and found out that Omniture and BYU’s eBusiness center have teamed up to present a Web Analytics Competition.

I have seen several SEO competitions in past but this (to my knowledge) is the first Web Analytics Competition. A while ago there was a discussion on yahoo web analytics group regarding starting something like this. Maybe Omniture got this inspiration from that discussion or maybe that discussion started because somebody already knew about this competition. Whatever it was, I think this is a very smart move by Omniture. This is a win-win situation for Students, BYU, Omniture and the Web Analytics industry.

So what does it give each of those involved (directly or indirectly)?

• Students: They get to learn about web analytics and maybe win prizes too. Even if they don’t win prizes it let’s them learn something for free and prepare themselves for the future jobs in Web Analytics and Online Marketing.
  


• BYU: Brings their name as a pioneer in presenting first of it’s kind competition and also provides a new job field to its students.
  


• Omniture: Omniture has several advantages
  
  • Helps them enhance their brand as an industry leader by organizing first of its kind competition.
  
  
  • Helps them find the right talent.
  
  
  • It is a great way to generate Brand Awareness and also let these students test out the tool. A lot these students will need to make investment in Web Analytics tools in near future, when they enter the corporate world. This competition will position Omniture as a tool choice since they would have already played with it.
  
  
  • Gets direct feedback from these students to improve their product offering?
  
  
  • Maybe get paid for the services from the client, whose website these students will be analyzing. Something similar was done last year by several companies who had MBA students work on real problems (It was in Business 2.0 a while ago, don’t remember which edition)
  
  
  
  
• Web Analytics Industry: This competition will generates awareness about Web Analytics among students and help provide new talent for this industry.
  

I expect to see more web analytics vendors, service providers and schools presenting these kinds of competitions. What do you think?