Lorraine Twohill is the chief marketing officer at Google. Here’s her take on her year overseeing Google’s marketing teams throughout the outbreak and the lessons she’ll keep close to her during this challenging year.
It’s incredible to look back to the place we were just a year ago. In the course of a night, we transitioned from our normal, day-to-day lives to living in a shelter and working at home. COVID-19 brought the launch of campaigns, launches, and events to a stop — which meant that all our marketing teams were forced to change their strategies quickly and reconsider how they communicate with their customers even in the most difficult of circumstances.
However, more than the task in itself, we’ve gained a lot from this challenging and challenging time concerning us, our teams, and the things we are able to accomplish when we come together. The thing that has really struck me and is something I am extremely humbled by is the way in which our team members gathered to assist those in need during the past year. It had a huge influence on not only the work but how we work as a team of marketers in the coming years. Here are a few lessons I’ll keep in mind when we continue to move forward.
We came up with a variety of brilliant ideas in the initial few weeks, but we quickly realized that just launching a slew of new ideas won’t do much good.
Stay true to who are.
Google is always about helping within the context of occasions both small and large. The event was among those major moments. We had to be present. This was providing reliable and trustworthy information quickly. We had a lot of brilliant ideas during the initial few weeks but soon we realized that just launching a plethora of ideas would not help. Instead, we needed to concentrate on the areas in which we could provide the most benefit to those who are were in need. Flexibility and determination led to a determination of where we could be of the greatest benefit.
Create strong foundations
In times of uncertainty, it can be difficult to determine where to start. Fortunately, we’d already constructed a solid base as a team. We have local teams with experience and country leaders who have close connections to local authorities. Additionally, we have experienced global teams that have been accustomed to scaling up programs to more than 100 countries. With this experience and many years of emergency response work and experience, we were capable of getting many thousands of SOS alerts and other pertinent information to our homepage as well as on search results in record speed.
When schools were closed and we acted quickly to help parents, teachers and students adjust to learning via remote access in a matter of hours, from Italy starting what became the worldwide Teach from Anywhere program to the launch of a Chromebook lending program for Japan. If local states needed assistance to increase the adoption of their contract-tracing applications We had the playbook to get the word out. Thanks to the muscle memory we have, we were able to deliver programs quickly such as Do the Five in over 100 countries, and #With Me across more than 70 countries.
Solid foundations make all the difference in times of hardship.
Empathy Always
Though everyone has been affected by this disease in a different way We all go through an experience that is unique to us all that gives us even an opportunity to create powerful stories that resonate with people. Additionally, COVID-19 has introduced so lot of chaos and information to our lives, and time is precious. This resulted in more intense attention to the messages that are important. It was imperative to conduct ourselves with compassion and be able to connect with people on a human level. In the last year, we revisited our efforts in visual imagery, language, and other topics, stopping things that weren’t appropriate. We also presented many new pieces that captured moments as well as the stories we all shared in the same moment. The best creatives have always relied on the truth and shared experience. Today, there’s more of it than ever.
Sometimes, the best option is to simply show up and help. Small-scale businesses have faced a tough time this year, and we had to aid them with new obstacles. Our teams worked quickly to develop new features like telling customers if restaurants provide delivery or take-out and we did our best to convince people to support their local favorites. In light of the economic impact, COVID-19 has incurred people are looking for new opportunities to work than ever. We’ve also launched an updated Google Career Certificate, and have joined forces with more than 130 employers looking to take on new employees. As vaccines are being rolled out we’re determined to help users understand the facts by cooperating with trusted experts to offer the most current, reliable information.
The best creatives have always relied on the truth and shared experience. Today, there’s more of it than ever before.
What you do in the moments that matter most is important.
Talk the talk
The world witnessed an amazing appeal for racial equality this summer, which cannot be ignored. We also realized that even within our own team the good intentions of our team aren’t enough. We’ve been working towards the creation of a more inclusive work environment at Google and more accessible marketing for some time. However, the events of the last year have made it clear that we needed to create an even more concrete plan in place for bringing about lasting, sustainable changes. This is why we have introduced a more specific set of corporate and team commitments to address inequity on a systemic large.
We share an obligation to represent individuals across every dimension, such as gender, age, or disabilities. This is a never-ending task.
Three areas are that we take great pride in that are a group of people who are responsible for change as well as a team that appears as its users do and bodywork that challenges the status established. To assist those in charge, we designed an obligatory 12-episode course known as “[DigitalHuman.” Human,” in partnership with Reggie Butler. Through interviews, podcasts as well as built-in reflection time periods and action plans, this course assists managers in enhancing their ability to build a culture that is inclusive for everyone on their team.
We’ve also committed ourselves to further addressing the issues of representation of groups that are underrepresented throughout the organization from recruitment to promotion to retention. As part of our efforts we’re taking concrete steps, such as the launch of new features that support black-owned businesses by using our voices to make an initiative, and organizing events such as Bear Witness, Take Action on YouTube.
We all share the responsibility to represent the people of all dimensions, including age, gender, and impairment. It is a constant effort.
Be human
It’s always been an aspect of our society to band in a team and race to deliver things to the market quickly. However, this time, the situation was different. Everyone was home, making it more difficult to accomplish tasks. Everyone was afraid and anxious. One year after the epidemic, some of us aren’t allowed to hold or greet our loved ones. Many of us live in solitude or share a home. We’ve all had difficulty keeping the same routine, to be active or encouraged. Being vulnerable with one another and expressing our humanity is bringing us closer. Our screens have been brimming with parents, kids as well as pets, and friends. These are the moments that inspired us to laugh and brought us closer as an entire family.
It was not often that we talked about wellbeing before, and this had to change. It was a new muse for us. We did not talk about our work at two of our general meetings for marketing. Instead, we simply discussed the work we had been doing. This gave us the chance to feel vulnerable, to discuss, share and feel supported. This resulted in the design of team posters during the initial phases in the lockdown for 2020. There were hundreds of variations in response to an idea that was developed in 2016 developed by The UK Government Digital Service. The first version of “It’s okay to …” was developed by the @gdsteam in 2016 and was designed with the help of Sonia Turcotte. This blog post provides the context behind it.
We realized that making well-being prioritize well-being starts at the highest level. Managers and leaders can help people to prioritize self-care and they must demonstrate it such as making use of features such as scheduling and sending.
Then we realized that it was not only us. Based on Search or YouTube trends we saw that a lot of users were struggling, and we decided to do something about it, from bringing awareness and sharing helpful tips on our website to making YouTube playlists about well-being and many more.
Here are some of the things I’ve learned from an entire year working at home from home and observing the things we were able to achieve despite the challenges. It is encouraging to see positive signs around the globe, and I’m elated to work with Ad Council on an industry campaign to provide reliable information and promote vaccinations worldwide.
In many ways COVID-19 brought out some of the best of all of us -greater humanity, greater compassion, taking care of one another, paying attention to the best ways to help others, and making swift decisions. As the world prepares to reopen, I hope we don’t lose sight of the lessons this year’s experience brought to us.
