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Rachel Finley
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Brigham Young University
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Webtacular Wins Omniture Web Analytics Competition

Competing against a record number of contestants, a team of three MISM students pulled ahead of the crowd in the Winter 2007 Omniture Web Analytics Competition hosted by the Rollins Center for eBusiness.

Jimmy Zimmerman from Sandy, Utah; Ben Robison from Lehi, Utah; and Benjamin Swanson from Stow, New York—all graduating this April—formed the team Webtacular. They won over judges with their extensive research using Omniture’s software to analyze the Costume Craze web site, a Utah-based online company and an Omniture client.

Webtacular and three other teams were selected from thirty-eight entries for the final stage of competition after a preliminary round of judging. Teams Webtacular, Lightning Brigade, Steven Wirig, and Purple Cobras presented to a full house the last day of the competition.

Judging was handled by a trio of professional web analysts from Omniture—John Mellor, senior vice president of business development; Matt Belkin, vice president of best practices; and Cameron Barnes, best practices consultant.

“Each semester that Omniture has participated with the competition, we have seen more and more sophisticated entries,” Barnes says. “The teams that excelled had concise strategic assessment, deep analysis, and recommendations that included the potential positive business results.”

No experience using SiteCatalyst, Omniture’s web analytics software, was necessary to enter the competition. Students were trained to use the software to analyze possible improvements to the Costume Craze web site, and to research possible market outcomes.

“The SiteCatalyst software was completely new to me,” Robison says. “The level of detail and customization available in SiteCatalyst was completely new. SiteCatalyst let us define our goals and measurements so we could track whatever was important to the business.”

Before announcing the winners, the judges commented on the high quality of the presentations. Team Webtacular, who was awarded $5,000 for first place, spent hours polishing their presentation and refining their data.

“We would chase a particular theory to its end, searching for data to support our conclusions, but after spending a few hours pursuing them, the data wouldn’t support them, or it would even disprove them,” says Robison, who dedicated fifteen hours a week with his team to the competition. “We had to go back to our strategizing sessions and come up with something new. In the end it paid off because we had a solid presentation, which stood up well under scrutiny.”

Jeff Ehlers, a student volunteer with the center who coordinated the competition, put in similar long hours.

“We put in a lot of hard work and dedication, and it was a good experience for the students who participated,” he says. “They have the opportunity to be exposed to cutting-edge software and gain a skill that’s extremely valuable in the real world. Multiple businesses use Omniture’s software—it’s a marketable skill for students to acquire.”

Stephen Liddle, director of the Rollins Center for eBusiness, agrees. “Online marketing is a red-hot area,” he says. “Increasing amounts of resources are being invested in online activities, and it pays to know how to measure the results of these resource expenditures. Students who participated in the competition came away knowing how to drive, rather than be driven by, these forces.”

The Rollins Center for eBusiness sponsors the competition each semester. The competition is open to full-time students of all majors.