Asbury Park Press Awarded Digital Marketing Team of the Year for 2013

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. - Feb. 26, 2014 - PRLog -- Asbury Park Press, a Gannett company, won the first annual Top Team of the Year Award for dedication to professional development in digital marketing.

The award was created by Market Motive, the leading curriculum and training provider in online marketing,  to distinguish the leading team from over 100 teams training with Market Motive in 2013. The winner was chosen based on criteria pertaining to the percentage of the team that completed training, average number of certifications earned per person, and the efficiency with which the team progressed through the training.

Asbury Park Press’ 108 person team earned 248 certifications spanning nine different disciplines -- including Digital Marketing Fundamentals, SEO, PPC, Web Analytics, Conversion, Social Media, Display Advertising, Content Marketing, and Mobile Marketing -- since beginning their training in June, 2013.

"Every team that trained with Market Motive deserves to be celebrated for investing in their people and moving their businesses forward. That's an accomplishment by itself,” says Michael Stebbins, co-founder and CEO of Market Motive. “This award, though, is about recognizing the one team that set itself apart as a leader by proving dedication to professional development in digital marketing. This year, Asbury Park Press did a great job at successfully leading their group through the training. We're proud of the success they've gained for their team, and we're excited to see where it takes them.”

With the newspaper industry migrating into the digital arena, Gannett took the initiative in 2013 to make sure its subsidiary companies were well equipped to  handle the changing tide - and that meant digital training. The team at Asbury Park Press took full advantage of this innovative opportunity from their corporate office and went above and beyond expectations.

“It was a great opportunity that they were totally excited to have bestowed upon them,” says Karen Guarasi, the team lead at Asbury Park Press as well as Regional VP of Sales and Marketing.

Even with excitement, managing a team of over a hundred people to earn over two hundred certifications is no easy task. Asbury Park Press met the challenge with organization and accountability.

“We pulled the whole entire staff together when we launched it,” said Guarasi. “We set and kept to the deadlines and said we need to finish it by this date, and managers reviewed any portion that people weren’t doing well with. We kept a scorecard.”

The combination of support from Gannett corporate, buy-in from the team, and excellent leadership and accountability from the managerial level was a recipe for success. The majority of the team is now OMCP® Certified, proving that in six short months they’ve pushed themselves to meet the industry standard.

Market Motive is proud to recognize their accomplishment and investment in their team, their ability to seize this opportunity, and their dedication to professional development in digital marketing. There’s no doubt that Asbury Park Press is now well equipped for success in the changing digital arena.

About Gannett:

Gannett Co., Inc.  is an international media and marketing solutions company that informs and engages more than 110 million people every month through its powerful network of broadcast, digital, mobile and publishing properties. Our portfolio of trusted brands offers marketers unmatched local-to-national reach and customizable, innovative marketing solutions across any platform. Gannett is committed to connecting people – and the companies who want to reach them – with their interests and communities. For more information, visit www.gannett.com.

About Market Motive:

Market Motive publishes a complete end to end online curriculum that covers the latest essential practices in online marketing and sales.  Courseware is used by leading agencies, enterprise in-house teams, and higher education institutions around the world.

The curriculum is guaranteed to be authoritative, and is constantly updated by bestselling authors, keynote speakers and industry leaders as the digital landscape changes.

Participants in the market Motive program view online courses and interact with faculty to learn the latest online marketing practices. The structured curriculum includes web-based training videos, weekly live webinars, and online testing. After testing and certification, certified professionals stay current via updated video lessons, conversations, and interactive workshops with the online marketing industry’s best selling authors and speakers.

Market Motive also provides faculty-coached web-based training in SEO, Web Analytics, Social Media Marketing, Mobile Marketing, and PPC Advertising. These Master Certification courses are 100% online, and include weekly coaching, a final project defense, and endorsements from the top authors and thought leaders in online marketing.

Ongoing memberships are available to groups and individuals for training updates.

White-label and reseller opportunities are available for higher learning institutions, training providers, and professional organizations of all sizes.

Market Motive was founded in 2007 by Michael Stebbins, John Marshall, and Avinash Kaushik and is based in Scotts Valley, California. For more information, visit marketmotive.com or call (831) 706-2369.