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Like many young people in Singapore last year, Gaviota Rajendhiran graduated in a tough environment. The economic impact of COVID-19 meant there were fewer jobs to apply for and more competition for the positions that were available. So when she heard about Skills Ignition SG, a Grow with Google program, Gaviota rushed to put in an application — earning a placement with Omnicom Media Group. She impressed the team there so much that they offered her a full-time job, making her one of eight Skills Ignition trainees to secure permanent roles with Omnicom. 

Gaviota’s story is testament to her talent and determination. But it also shows the power of governments and businesses working together to create opportunity. We created Skills Ignition last year as a partnership between Google and three Singapore government agencies: the Economic Development Board, Infocomm & Media Development Authority and SkillsFuture Singapore. The program equips trainees with the skills they need for an economy becoming increasingly reliant on technology — helping build a talent pipeline that will benefit Singapore for years to come. 

When we launched Skills Ignition, we set a goal of training 3,000 Singaporeans and permanent residents: 2,400 through online vocational training and 600 through a combination of online training and on-the-job learning with 38 (and counting) global and local host companies. We’re on track to meet that target, and 90% of the trainees who’ve been through the program so far feel it’s allowed them to gain the right skills to succeed in the digital economy. The 100 trainees we hosted at Google certainly made a huge impact with their energy and enthusiasm.

Connected TV (CTV) and audio streams flow into people’s screens with hours of entertainment. So successful brands like Adidas and Nestlé turn to programmatic technology as a way to connect with their viewing and listening audiences while simplifying the execution of CTV and audio ad strategies.

Last week, we introduced new Display & Video 360 tools to help you forecast the reach of your audio and CTV campaigns on an ongoing basis.

Today, we’re spotlighting three additional features that will help you easily capture the attention of CTV and audio streamers and understand what encourages them to become customers.

Pick the right context for your CTV ads

Reaching viewers based on their interests and passions remains one of the most promising opportunities of CTV advertising. That’s why we invest in features like similar audiences for CTV devices that help you find new connected TV viewers who share similar attributes with the audiences you already know.

But we’ve heard many of you want to combine these new tactics with best-in-class techniques inspired by traditional TV advertising that give you confidence that your ads are displayed in a safe and relevant context.

To help you do just that, we’re soon integrating new CTV contextual signals in Display & Video 360. This will allow you to pick inventory by genre, length or livestream content.

Let’s say you want to associate your ad message to some of the highly anticipated sports events of the summer, like the Olympics or the U.S. Open. Using Display & Video 360, you’ll easily select CTV live inventory that falls under the “Sports” genre. Then you’ll also be able to verify that your ads served against content that is suitable for your brand.

Measure the sales impact of your CTV ads

As pandemic restrictions ease in some parts of the world, ad spending is rebounding. But advertisers’ preference still goes to ads that can prove they’re effective at moving products off the shelves.

This fall, we’re introducing sales lift measurement for CTV ads using Nielsen Catalina Solutions (NCS) in the U.S. Harnessing sales data across NCS’s extensive retailer network, this feature will give you a chance to quantify how your CTV ad impressions led to offline sales. The report features useful metrics such as percentage sales lift, total incremental sales and return on ad spend that can inform future campaign optimization. This data will be available right in the Display & Video 360 interface, meaning that no pixel implementation or log file data crunching will be required.

And because the Display & Video 360 integration with NCS already covers all other digital environments, publishers and formats, you can now understand the incremental lift attributed to campaigns spanning across CTV apps, display, audio and more.

Create professional dynamic audio ads

On top of the big screen, people will also turn on their smart speakers and headphones this summer to enjoy live sports and music festivals, or to listen to a podcast while relaxing in a deck chair. Creating great audio ads can be a chicken-and-egg problem. How can you justify a big incremental creative investment if you haven’t yet proven you can run fantastic digital audio campaigns?

That’s where Display & Video 360 can help. With Audio Mixer, you could already assemble a multi-track audio ad using simple drag-and-drop editing features. Building on Audio Mixer, we’re adding new dynamic production capabilities so that you can build tailored audio ads, quickly and efficiently, at scale. This new dynamic production tool allows you to use various segmentation rules, like location, schedule or audience, to create customized, relevant ads, all from a single audio creative.

For example, you can create a back-to-school audio campaign that has customized offers for different markets. Once you record the audio asset, you can use the dynamic audio tool to create additional custom assets with local in-store promotions based on where the ads will run.

Both Audio Mixer and the dynamic production tool will also be available in the recently announced Ads Creative Studio.

As people shift to on-demand ways of consuming TV and audio content, advertisers need on-demand ways of buying ads on these channels. Stay flexible and relevant by simplifying the execution and measurement of your CTV and audio campaigns with Display & Video 360’s new tools.

Editor’s note: July is Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. To bring awareness to mental health, Asad Abdullah II — a Google engineer, trauma-informed meditation instructor and mental health advocate — chatted with licensed psychologist Dr. Ghynecee Temple about mental health trends, how they affect communities of color and ways to cope.  

Search interest for anxiety reached a record high across the U.S. this year. As we begin to reintegrate into life after an extended period of social distancing and self-isolation, people across the country are looking for ways to cope. 

Marginalized communities in particular have been disproportionately affected and continue to face challenges and stigmas when it comes to accessing resources and talking openly about mental wellbeing. According to Mental Health First Aid, 48% of White Americans with mental illness received mental health services, compared to 31% of Black Americans and Latino/Hispanic Americans and 22% of AAPI populations.

Curious to talk more about the mental health trends we’re seeing for marginalized groups, I sat down with Dr. Ghynecee Temple of the Ladipo Group, a Black-owned company dedicated to the emotional wellness of Black and African-American people and communities. Dr. Temple sifted through these trends, discussed lingering mental health stigmas and shared ways we can take care of our wellbeing and support others. 

Search interest for “why do I feel anxious for no reason” spiked 400% in 2021 U.S. compared to 2020. How is this affecting communities of color specifically? 

There’s always a reason you feel anxious, you just may not have uncovered it yet. For communities of color, both before and during the pandemic, there are unique experiences that affect their mental wellbeing. You may deal with navigating daily discrimination, feel a lack of autonomy being in a system that suppresses or grapple with intersecting identities.

Fast forward to COVID-19, and you have a massive loss of control. You can’t see, smell or touch it, but it’s ever-looming and ever-present. So of course you’re going to feel anxious.

Still in some communities, getting mental health help is stigmatized. What I tell people is: Your brain is your control center for your entire body. If your thoughts are off,  it’s going to impact every facet of your functioning. And if something is off and not feeling right, why wouldn’t we get help? 

As people prepare to return to work and school, what would you say to those who are experiencing uneasiness or anxiety? 

Your feelings about the transition are valid. Some people are excited to socialize again,  others are relieved as home may not always be the safest place for them, and still others are nervous about interacting with people outside of their bubble. Don’t judge your feelings, and accept that you’re going to experience different moods each day.

What are some practical steps we can take to manage those feelings?

There’s still a lot of uncertainty, but part of what we can do to weather that storm is to be present. Instead of thinking about what’s happening in two months or 12 months, ask yourself how you are feeling right now and what you need at this moment. Set boundaries and goals for yourself. For example, if you feel safer wearing a mask, continue to do so even if it’s not required. If you’re struggling with social anxiety, set a goal to socialize for 15 minutes at lunch before allowing yourself to go back to your desk to decompress. Exposure is one of the most helpful things to improve social anxiety. Start small and challenge yourself to build upon it every day.

A lot of people are turning to therapy, and search interest for “black therapists” spiked last summer. How can people within the BIPOC community go about finding a therapist?

A quick Google search will show you resources near you — and even a self-assessment to help you learn more about anxiety. When finding a therapist, many therapists will have an online bio where they can talk about their own identities that feel salient or what communities they’ve worked with before — start there. Then ask for a consultation and evaluate them for yourself. I love when new clients ask me questions! You don’t have to pick the first therapist you find. Remember that you’re shopping and want to feel comfortable and safe.

I’m a Blue Dot Listener at Google. Our aim is to de-stigmatize mental health conversations in the workplace through allyship, peer support and education. I’d love to know from you, how we can be better mental health allies at work?

As allies, we need to check our own beliefs and biases, and embrace a continuous posture of learning and unlearning. I’d also encourage people to know their limits. There are often instances where we try to support people, but it’s out of our scope. Know when to connect people to the right resources.

You’ve been in the mental health space for almost a decade, what makes you hopeful for mental wellbeing for historically underrepresented groups?

The fact that people are even searching for mental health topics is encouraging. It makes me hopeful that people are willing to learn and unlearn things.