Four ways Google marketing is planning for an automated future
Back in 1930, the economist John Maynard Keynes made a bold prediction: thanks to technological advancements and the resulting productivity gains, we’d all be working 15 hours a week. Almost 90 years later, the average American is working more than double those hours. For years now, we’ve been told that automation technologies would free us up to focus on more creative work. That vision has also yet to materialize.
So my colleagues and I at the 'oogle Media Lab—the team that manages the media strategy for 'oogle’s advertising campaigns—began work on a plan that might make that vision a reality.
1. Find data that predicts results
Machines are only as good as the data we feed into them. So we must find realtime data points that could actually help our creative and media teams. We adopted a structured approach to learning: developing hypotheses and lab-testing them. We mapped out and measured all the variables we felt increased an ad’s effectiveness. While some of the things we had been optimizing for were not predictive of brand lift, we identified several variables that yielded surprisingly positive results: relevant and actionable data points.
2. Optimize for those data points
To make the absolute best use of this data, we utilize automation tools like 'oogle Marketing Platform’s custom algorithm, which uses machine learning to optimize campaigns against set parameters. The results have been promising. In recent Pixel and 'oogle Assistant campaigns, we customized our optimization algorithm based on data collected from more than 300 previous campaigns and ran it against out-ofthe-box optimization tools. Our custom algorithm drove a statistically significant higher lift in brand awareness.
3. Build templates that can scale
The beauty of digital marketing is how easy it is to be contextually relevant: It allows you to take one creative template and modify it to match countless different use cases. For the 'oogle Home Mini release, we outlined all the moments we thought our product could be useful—from sporting events to holidays to daily tasks—and then tailored our template to each of these cases and used programmatic technology to serve up the right ad to the right person in the right moment.
4. Think beyond ads
Humans will play a big role in our automated future. One of our goals is to give people more time to pursue actual creative work. We’re changing our processes and how we staff our teams. For the Pixel 2 campaign, we split what is normally one process into two streams. Stream one, which included all the automated template work, got 20% of our time and 90% of our spend. Stream two, which consisted of all the custom elements of the campaign, got 80% of our time and 10% of our spend.
The 15-hour workweek still seems far-fetched. But we’re confident these four steps can make the second promise—of a marketing industry that uses automation to unlock new efficiencies, freeing up people’s time to focus on the more creative work—a reality. For more insights, visit thinkwithgoogle.com.
something wrong or that their loved one doesn’t love them anymore,” explains Moe. “That’s not what we want little kids to carry.”
Moe serves as an adviser for Sesame Street in Communities’ substance-abuse project, which launched last October in response to the opioid crisis. The initiative follows a model that Sesame Workshop developed to address issues that lack resources appropriate for young children and their families: Sesame’s writers and producers convene subject-matter experts—educators, social workers, child developmental specialists—for a daylong advisory session, and then use the resulting feedback to shape video scripts, storybooks, and downloadable guides for parents and service providers.
When it comes to addiction, the need for such materials is daunting: 8.7 million children nationwide have a parent who suffers from addiction; substance use is a factor in roughly one-third of foster-care placements; and opioid overdoses claim the lives of 130 Americans every day. The well-being of children affected by this crisis is increasingly precarious. Over the past few months, Betancourt’s content team has published a storybook, filmed nine short videos, and produced an interactive digital experience, along with a handful of other online activities—all aimed at addressing the anxieties of children whose families have been upended by addiction. Her team also worked with the Jim Henson Company to create the Muppet Karli, who serves as the anchor character for this content.
Sesame’s free online library is an important first step toward increasing access to these resources. Now the organization has to introduce them into homes, schools, and community centers. Recently, it has been piloting the use of what it calls “comfy-cozy” spaces in more than a dozen treatment courts. Created in collaboration with the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, the
THE SAD REALITY IS THAT CHILDREN ARE THE FIRST TO GET HURT AND THE LAST TO GET HELP.”
areas feature a kid-size Muppet-character chair alongside stuffed animals and storybooks. When a parent arrives for a hearing, children are invited into the colorful nooks, which put a welcoming face on intimidating surroundings. Sesame is seeking funding to expand the project and searching out community-based nonprofits to amplify its other content. “We’re struggling with what’s a scalable model, because it varies [from] community to community,” Westin says.
And the trauma keeps mounting. Last spring in Chicago, Sesame held an advisory session on gun violence that included leaders from organizations that service affected communities. “If I had closed my eyes, I could have been in Beirut or Jordan,” Westin says of the conversations. “Regardless of the circumstances, the physiological impact on a child who experiences prolonged exposure to stress is the same, and [their] need is the same.” Sesame plans to roll out content around the topic in 2020.
The challenge for the organization is how to fund this work in order to grow it. In the past couple of years, the nonprofit’s international arm has received a lot of attention and money, thanks to a pair of blockbuster $100 million grants that are enabling it, in partnership with the International Rescue Committee, to create materials for refugees who have fled Syria and Myanmar. Here at home, Sesame Street in Communities is relying on the $16 million that it has raised since
its inception in 2015. Part of the difficulty, according to Westin, is the public’s misperception that Sesame is rolling in money from character licensing deals. (In reality, they accounted for about $35 million of the company’s roughly $124 million operating budget in 2018.) “We want to raise the bar [for fundraising],” says Westin, “to try to have the same kind of impact domestically as we are having in the humanitarian space internationally.”
On a rain-swept evening last spring, Westin joined Sesame Workshop cofounder Joan Ganz Cooney, president and CEO Jeffrey Dunn, and celebrity guests including Lin-manuel Miranda, John Legend, and Elmo (in a custom tuxedo) at Sesame’s 50th-anniversary gala. The event was both a showcase for Sesame’s achievements and an opportunity to raise important dollars. (All told, the gala generated $4.5 million.)
The cavernous ballroom at Cipriani Wall Street was packed with tables, each set with white orchids and yellow feathers that fluttered in the candlelight. After dessert, the gala’s star honoree, Michelle Obama, rose to the podium and described the role Sesame played in her Chicago childhood. As she spoke, a clip from 2014 played of her slow-dancing with Big Bird in a supermarket produce aisle.
Back then, Sesame Workshop was partnering with Obama to get children to eat healthier. These days, it’s just as likely to be comforting them in times of crisis. But for this night, at least, Sesame’s supporters were happy to relive the warm glow of the past. “Boundless aspiration with simple goodness: You take people to that place every single day,” Obama said. The crowd stood to toast Sesame with her, clapping and clapping.