Now is a time for change in the industry

At Think with Google, our goal is to inspire, educate, and give marketers around the world access to Google and YouTube data, insights, and perspectives that will change the way the industry does business.

And if there’s ever been a time for change, it’s now. The current moment of heightened focus on racial inequity is at an inflection point. According to Google Trends, searches for “George Floyd” have been happening globally, and search interest in “protests” are higher than they’ve ever been in the U.S.¹

Marketing has the power to either break stereotypes or solidify them.

This is more than a moment. It’s a movement.

We all must do more to upend systemic racism. Marketing has the power to either break stereotypes or solidify them, to push the cultural conversation forward or reverse it. Marketing can be a conversation starter, and it’s painfully obvious that more conversations about systemic inequity and race need to be had.

As Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently wrote, “The events of the past few weeks reflect deep structural challenges.”

We as marketers must empathize, understand, and connect with other people. We all have work to do to better understand and eliminate inequities. It will make us better marketers, but more importantly, better humans.

“The painful events of this year have reminded us of the importance of human connection and the need to continue to strengthen human rights around the world,” as YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki wrote in her midyear update to the YouTube community.

We’re committed to being a champion of change, to educate, inspire, and fuel progress in our industry.

As Pichai wrote, we know there is hard work to be done. That’s true of Google and it’s true of our industry. We’re committed to being a champion of change, to educate, inspire, and fuel progress in our industry. Moving forward, on Think with Google you’ll see even more viewpoints from people of color, and more content about diversity, inclusion, fairness, and (in)equity in the industry.

Every brand has a platform that can change hearts and minds. We know that many marketers around the world are having similar conversations and formulating action plans. To that end, we’re sharing some of what we’ve been inspired by and what we’ve been revisiting to inform our work moving forward.