We made a direct impact by combining consumer interest and digital tools to drive support for a social issue. To address the disproportionate impact COVID-19 had on Black-owned businesses, and to leverage the biggest shopping moment of the year, we turned Black Friday into Black-owned Friday and tapped celebrated Black musicians to write and perform original jingles in support of Black-owned businesses. They shared with their fans via YouTube, Instagram, and Spotify, directly driving viewers to shop from Black-owned businesses. This work supported the Black-owned badge on Google Search and Maps, making it easier for consumers to find Black-owned businesses.

We wanted to continue to fulfill our brand promise of ‘helpfulness.’ In 2020, everyone needed some help, but particularly small businesses.

Digging in, we found Black-owned businesses were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. A stunning 41% closed in its wake, more than any other racial group in America.

Knowing the holiday season would be critical to their survival, we decided to flip the focus of the biggest shopping moment of the year—turning Black Friday into Black-owned Friday.

Our brief was simple, yet incredibly challenging: How do we cut through the noise of Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year?

Our objective was twofold. We wanted Black-owned businesses to adopt the new Black-owned business badge to their Business Profile on Google Search and Maps to make it easier for consumers to support them. And we wanted to drive consumers to shop from Black-owned businesses for their holiday shopping.

We created an initiative to promote real change and support of Black-owned businesses. We co-opted the biggest shopping moment of the year, to flip the focus (and most importantly funnel some of the massive amounts of spending) towards Black-owned businesses. Partnering with the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc., we reimagined Black Friday as Black-owned Friday.

To encourage consumers to shop from Black-owned businesses and cut through the noise of the holiday season, we decided to use a nostalgic throwback: the good ol’ jingle. We asked celebrated Black artists Wyclef Jean and Ari Lennox to write personalized jingles for real Black-owned businesses they loved, which we turned into animated videos created by Black visual artists, as well as Spotify tracks. Wyclef also created a Black-ownd Friday anthem and helped spread the word via press and social media about the value Black-owned businesses bring to their communities and the help they need.

2020 had a disproportionately negative impact on the U.S. Black community due to COVID-19 and racial injustice. The pandemic caused 41% of Black-owned businesses to close their doors, more than any other racial group in America. And 1 in 3 Black Americans had suffered from symptoms of anxiety or depression between April and June 2020.

We were also conscious that there was a groundswell of support for the Black community, and in particular, Black-owned businesses. By October 2020, search interest for "Black-owned business" surpassed 2019 levels by more than 2,100 percent in the U.S.

Against this context, we decided that we wanted to help the Black community in a positive, uplifting way. We also wanted to ensure that our efforts would generate real help, not just nominal or performative support. Thus, our campaign’s CTA would build on the existing consumer interest to shop at Black-owned businesses.

The juxtaposition of beloved musical artists creating songs to promote small businesses they love is what made these jingles so compelling for consumers. The jingles were posted on the artists’ Spotify channels, garnering more than 4 million streams, driven in part by (organic!) placement on Spotify’s “Are & Be” playlist. We also turned the jingles into music videos, animated by Black visual artists, which have garnered 5M+ YouTube views.

We made this an ongoing campaign by launching in mid-October, each Friday highlighting a Black-owned business or resource for Black-owned businesses on Google’s social channels. We encouraged followers to share their favorite Black-owned businesses, plus provided sticker packs and social assets that consumers could download and share. We also encouraged businesses to add the Black-owned badge to their Business Profile, and consumers to search for Black-owned businesses.

All of this was housed on a campaign landing page, g.co/blackowned.

The campaign garnered 80+ press stories in consumer and ad trade outlets, including CNN, People, AdWeek, and a 5 minute segment on CBS This Morning. With almost no paid support, we saw 830K visitors to the landing page, 5M+ total YouTube views, and 260M+ social impressions.

We impacted social conversation with a +300% increase in mentions of ‘black-owned businesses’ and social sentiment was also very high, 84% positive or neutral, despite politicization of the topic online. Excluding a spike during the BLM protests in July, Google Trends data showed that searches for "Black owned businesses" had a five-year peak on November 27 (Black Friday). Most importantly, we drove real impact for the businesses featured — GROUNDED (the subject of Ari Lennox’s jingle) saw a 3000% sales increase from Instagram traffic.

Helpfulness and making connections are at Google’s core. This campaign built directly on grassroots organizing in support of Black-owned businesses during the Black Lives Matter protests in May and June of 2020 on social media. Ordinary people and activist celebrities were sharing lists of Black-owned businesses to support. We similarly tapped into the power of fandom and personal connection between musical artists and specific Black-owned businesses to drive impact and authentic enthusiasm for this issue. By driving Black-owned businesses to add the Black-owned badge to their Business Profiles, and directing consumers to search for Black-owned businesses on Google Search and Maps, we were able to tap into Google’s core purpose to make a true impact.