Brands Need To Get Closer To Real Life, Says Google’s Marketing Head

Group of young adults (18-20 years) using mobile phones.
Emma Mackenzie
By Emma Mackenzie



Even with all the technology spurting forth from numerous companys’s orifices every which way, it has never been more important for marketers to get closer to real life, said Google’s head of marketing, Lucinda Barlow.

“As marketers, we’re inundated with data, but this is actually where we need to get back and closer to real life,” she said. “We need to bring out our…inner empathy”

Her comments were made during the digital disruption event, Daze of Disruption, in Sydney, where she explained to the audience the shift mobile has created in the media landscape.

Mobile has changed everything. Consumers engage with brands a lot more sporadic and spontaneously. It’s raised the bar in customer expectation. There’s no denying it’s king of the castle now.

And brands need to really crunch themselves into what Google has termed ‘micro-moments’.

Micro-moments in essence, explained Barlow, are those times when consumers need something then and there.

“I want to buy, I want to go, I want to see,” she said. This is where brands can pop themselves into the conversation to be the first one out the gate. The early bird catches the worm and all that.

Using an example of her personal life, Barlow took the audience through her quest to find a pilates class when she returned from an overseas jaunt. Asking Google for a Pilates class and her day and time preferences, one brand popped up which looked plausible.

Clicking through to the site, albeit not a mobile optimised site, quipped Barlow, the option was right for her need at that point in time. Done and dusted. It’s an example of how brands need to be in that moment, in that micro-moment, to get consumers.

“For marketers, it’s critical to be there in these spontaneous micro-moments,” said Barlow. “Because these are the moments where decisions are being made and preferences are being shared.”




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