If things were a little quiet on the Carat-front last Friday, it’s because the agency went ‘tools-down’ for the day to take part in their very own nation-wide ‘exam-athon’, with over 130 staff sitting for their formal Google AdWords Certification simultaneously.

The exam-athon initiative, leveraging The Google Partner Academy, is part of Carat’s broader commitment to engendering a digital mindset agency-wide. It is one of a number of recent initiatives designed to upskill team members across the board, working toward the agency’s ‘100 per cent Digital 2020’ vision.

The examination process took place over four hours, and saw staff sit the two-part exam required to qualify for their AdWords Certification in ‘Fundamentals and Advanced Display’.

Carat’s chief digital officer, Sarah James, said, “Carat is committed to working with our key global media partners, including Google, to offer our clients market-leading digital expertise.

“There is no such thing as an ‘offline planner’ anymore; everything we will do moving forward will have an online component, and we are constantly looking to upskill our team accordingly.”

Richard Flanagan, head of business marketing at Google Australia, added, “We’re delighted that Carat is committed to learning about best-practice around Google’s ad products. The Google Partner Academy is a powerful resource for agencies to ensure their staff understand our products and can make the best recommendations to their clients on critical topics like mobile and video ads.”

The exam-athon comes off the back of the recent roll out of a global-first partnership between the Dentsu Aegis Network and Google, ‘Project Hypernova’ – a branded content creation, distribution and analytics package with access to YouTube creators as talent.