A few years ago, we realized at Google: despite building products for everyone, our brand marketing didn’t always reflect that. We’ve written about the ways we evolve our creative process to make sure all audiences can see themselves represented in our campaigns .
But inclusive marketing goes beyond creative representation. Another piece that’s been central to our approach is inclusive media planning and buying. In 2019, we built a multicultural media team dedicated to making sure our campaigns have an inclusive reach.
In the US, for example, we’ve been focused on reaching and engaging office 365 database Black and Latinx audiences. This meant dedicating 15% of Google’s top-tier brand campaign spend to culturally relevant media in 2019. By Q4 2020, we exceeded this goal, reaching 18%. We’ve also evolved our media planning processes to be more inclusive of these communities, by implementing the principles recently shared in Google’s inclusive marketing toolset, All In.
In 2019, we created a multicultural media team dedicated to ensuring our campaigns have an inclusive reach.
Along the way, we’ve learned a lot. By no means do we have it all figured out, but in the spirit of helping other advertisers deliver more inclusive work, I wanted to share what we’ve seen succeed in our own inclusive campaigns so far.
Here are four helpful tips:
4 tips for successful inclusive brand campaigns from Google Media Lab: Reach audiences where they are; leverage key moments and passion points; build a more inclusive user journey; and regional honor and local nuances
►1. Reach your audience where they are
As the saying goes, to reach people, you need to be where they are. So after committing to spending more on media that reaches Black and Latinx audiences in the US, we began investing in channels that reach these audiences at scale.
YouTube was a starting point to drive reach, as Black and Latinx viewers are highly engaged with the platform. From there, we expanded our multicultural buying to include more digital businesses and communities owned by underrepresented groups.
One such publisher was Blavity, a digital media network built by and for Black millennials. Together, we launched #InTheBlack, a campaign focused on helping Black-owned small businesses in the US persevere during the pandemic.
