In these socially disconnected and polarizing times, consumers support and resonate with brands whose values align with theirs. And while Google has proven our commitment to our most marginalized users through meaningful action over decades, we needed to build a brand framework and a company ‘why’ that connected the dots across our impact-focused work. Belonging allowed us to showcase the concrete actions Google is taking and humanize the work with the stories of the passionate employees driving it forward every day.

The aim of Belonging is two-fold. Firstly, connecting the dots across Google’s DEI initiatives and elevating them into a positive future vision to inspire further progress at Google. And earning brand love with consumers by demonstrating that Google cares about them and shares their values.

Belonging evolves Google’s long standing DEI efforts into a bold new company-wide commitment: to help build a world where everyone can belong. This commitment is born of the truth that everyone must feel they belong in order to thrive and focuses where Google can make the greatest impact: building belonging at work, in our products and in society. Featuring a new website, film, and series of employee stories, it connects key issues like racial and gender equity and disability, LGBTQ+ and veteran inclusion to this single universal goal.

We anchored Belonging on the insight that brand values and emotional connection are the key drivers of brand advocacy. All in all, people support brands with aligned values to their own. That’s why we set out to speak to our everyday consumers as well as key opinion formers who were skeptical or unaware of our commitments and actions. Our Belonging film and site highlighted the concrete action Google is taking and most importantly humanized the company with the stories of the passionate employees driving it forward every day.

Belonging began as an internal employee engagement program spearheaded by Melonie Parker (Chief Diversity Officer) and Lorraine Twhohill (SVP, Marketing) highlighting employee contributions, product inclusion, and representation at Google. In order to increase visibility and share Google’s commitment to DEI/B with the world, Belonging became a public facing program.

Because Google’s products impact billions of people daily, we acted upon our core responsibility to ensure we positively impacted the lives we reach. In order to do so effectively, we partnered with dozens of inclusion-focused community experts and cross-functional teams to sharpen Belonging’s approach and content.

The team also worked closely with members of the disability community to test, optimize, and build the Belonging website to be screen-reader compatible and highly accessible for low-vision and blind users. The site and film went live in April 2022 and was engaged by a combined 208.9 million people across the world.

The belonging anthem film reached 207M users across YouTube, social, and paid media. The belonging.google website engaged 1.6M visitors worldwide. Together, the campaign drove a double digit lift in brand love.