Most Creative Marketers: Nishma Robb

The director of brand and reputation marketing at Google UK has a fierce reputation for calling out the bullshit when it comes to the matters of diversity and inclusion. But her fiery - and often sparkly self - is definitely not limited to being the poster-child of D&I. She has always been a storyteller, and an excellent one at that. Storytelling that she uses not just as a creative approach to marketing, but a tool to give the consumer a totally different entry to the brand.

Consider Google UK’s most recent #DearLocal work that Nishma helped create. A love letter to small local businesses, that launched last year prompted by the pandemic. Fronted by British boxer Anthony Joshua and a whole host of brilliant diverse cast of characters all supporting local businesses is what fills Nishma with great joy. “I’m super proud [of the campaign] and its incredible impact on our communities. It’s been so great reading the feedback from everyday people championing their local businesses after our rallying call and also the influential cast sharing their genuine love for their favourite businesses. It was like creating an amazing shortlist of great places to shop and dine at.”

Prone to punctuate her quick-talking style with anecdotes, Nishma comes alive when having wider discussions around social inequality and injustice. Like when last summer she came across musician Swiss’ work on the Black Pound Day - every first Saturday of the month, consumers are encouraged to shop at black-owned businesses, as well as help start-ups gain funding or individuals find jobs. She made it her business to support the movement in an effort to address economic inequality and encourage people to shop with Black-owned businesses.

“I'm constantly curious, maybe nosey. And I love learning about someone else's story or how they look at things. And that aligns with my purpose and mission and the fact that I'm very privileged to work for a business that has the tools that can shift the needle.” Google has since been partnering with the community-empowering campaign, and Nishma continues to mentor Swiss (originally of So Solid Crew) to support his mission.

Energetic, with a no-nonsense style that is just as disarming as the first time I met her - when she was appointed as the head of marketing at the search engine in 2014 - Nishma is quick to recognise that she might be making her job sound a “lot more romantic than it actually is.” It is in fact a dual job now - both brand and reputation marketing. “It is one part being a dreamer, driving innovation and the other is managing reputation, whether it's around competitors or regulatory challenges. But at Google we constantly re-centre ourselves around our mission to organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. And we need to continually demonstrate that both the search engine and YouTube, the engine of creativity, can be helpful and powerful tools while being mindful that the size and scale of our business means that we must be responsible as well.”

Working for a big corporate giant, therefore, must come with its own unique challenges, and as a marketer risk-taking must not come naturally if you’re commanding Google UK’s brand reputation? “Life is sometimes very difficult,” she concedes, “but I strip all that away because at the heart of what we do is we show how our products help people everyday fulfil their ambitions - big or small . And it’s not just about behaving responsibly, it's an opportunity for us to do something that is meaningful and has lasting positive impact.”

She explains it’s about understanding the role of technology in people’s lives, but it is more fundamental than that - Nishma talks about an approach that benefits people, businesses and society. People, she says, share some of their most intimate thoughts and conversations on Google. For instance, around the time of the Black Lives Matter, people were searching for what it means to be racist or how to talk to someone who's black. Then there are everyday “cycles of behaviours” that people struggle with or don’t have answers for - like “how to talk to my son about being gay?” or even “how to start a business?” that people are seeking information to improve their understanding of themselves or the world around them.

“To be able to create initiatives that lean into a sense of fairness or opportunity, or indeed unleash whatever someone's internal dreams are, that is an incredibly powerful opportunity we have.” Nishma points to the free training programme in place for over five years now, set up specifically to aid small businesses that are trying to both learn and transform their digital skills and how “intentionally” the programme trains more women than men.

Having watched her for years, I know she is a lot less reserved or indeed scripted than the average big-tech marketer. Which is why she’s always been so much more interesting for journalists and the industry at large, because of this hugely visible role Nishma has had as a storyteller - about how technology impacts people and makes a difference in their lives and how they have always centred much more around people, than around Google products. And coming from Nishma, even cynics like me know and understand that her ambition for her role to optimise and improve Google systems for the greater good is not just rhetoric.

What about her flair as a creative marketer - where does that come from?

"I wanted to be a writer, but I was never good enough,” she says talking about her brief stint at Marie Claire when she first started. “I’ve always been a magazine junkie, I loved it, but realised that wasn't really what my strength was. But I loved the idea of storytelling.”

A stint at Teletext followed, where she rose to the position of managing director before she moved to a business raising funds for travel companies and growing them online. After a break to have her twins, she returned to a career in digital marketing and to one of the most powerful marketing roles in the country.

“Being a dreamer and storyteller - which I think is undervalued because many of us [marketers] cannot see it as a strength - is what attracted me to Google.

“Google is a utility, and most people don't really think about it. But actually, the reason why I came to Google, it was a place where you could really have meaningful impact at scale. It fulfils my ambition to not just tell any story, but a story that actually is going to make a difference.”

Nishma adds she often looks at products created by Google engineers which only come to life when put in the hands of others. “I love the bravery of how others take our product and make it something special. I absolutely love the 'Cadbury Worldwide Hide’ campaign that used Google Maps Street View.” Created by VCCP, the campaign was a virtual Easter egg hiding experience where consumers could hide an Easter egg anywhere in the world for someone they love and then share a personalised clue to find it.

Too downbeat then to be worrying about the role or the power of big tech companies? It is not a responsibility she takes lightly, and indeed neither does Google. “We always want to be telling the story of opportunity that Google can provide and be genuinely honest when it comes to say policing ourselves or taking action on the bad actors abusing our platform. At the same time we want to be helpful for all and that all comes from knowledge and understanding of what people want. And I always get excited when as marketers we can be smart and intelligent about data to help us understand consumer behaviours and then use that information to improve our work."

A combination of her curiosity, a keen eye for the transformative power of creativity and marketing, and her fearless march to be the magpie that follows the sparkles is what will always makes her a force to be reckoned with.

Nishma’s creative heroes

Havas CCO Vicki Maguire and Caroline Pay (the chief creative officer at meditation and healthcare company Headspace) - “When they were together at Grey they were an incredible duo. I’m not sure we celebrated them enough as we should have done.”

Creative champion and Uncommon London founder, Nils Leonard.

The “epic” Leo Burnett CCO Chaka Shobani and the “amazing” Victoria Buchanan [ECD at Tribal Worldwide].

“I also love the new gen of rebel, radical and all round fabulous creatives that are bossing it now.”

Rani Patel Williams - founder & creative Director - FANGIRL

Speaker, entreprenur and photographer Cephas Williams

Misan Hariman, British photographer, and social activist and the first black person in the 104-year history of British Vogue to shoot its cover

Ashley Verse, London-based photographer, specialising in music and fashion

Elizabeth Uviebinene, author of Slay In Your Lane and author

Brand strategist Nimi Raja and the founder of the new fashion house, Rani By Raja.

On Diversity, Inclusion and Equality

"I don't want to be the unicorn, I want to be in a pack. I want to be able to demonstrate that there are many Nishmas or Karens [Blackett] or that people of different backgrounds in leadership don't all have to be exactly like us."