Title	GOOGLE YEAR IN SEARCH
Brand	GOOGLE
Product/Service	ONLINE FILM
Category	B01. Digital Design
Entrant Company	R/GA LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Advertising Agency	R/GA LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Rodrigo Sobral	R/Ga London	Vp/Executive Creative Director
Remi Abayomi	R/Ga London	Group Account Director
Ricardo Amorim	R/Ga London	Creative Director
Paris Lawrence	R/Ga London	Associate Creative Director/Design
Emma Lightfoot	R/Ga London	Associate Creative Director/Copy
Lachlan Williams	R/Ga London	Senior Planner
Phil Hawksworth	R/Ga London	Technology Director
Jai Tedeschi	R/Ga London	Group Director/Production
Andy Shora/Dom Geargeoura	R/Ga London	Senior Open Standards Developer
Luke Wicker	R/Ga London	Copywriter
Wilf Eddings	R/Ga London	Designer
Clara Tudela/Muriel Bougherdani/Craig Jones	R/Ga London	Senior Visual Designer
Souad Setti/Ali Proctor-walsh/Nicola Spence	R/Ga London	Senior Producer
Paul Kennerly	R/Ga London	Creative Director/Film
Pete Brown	R/Ga London	Senior Copyrighter/Film
Alex Wills	R/Ga London	Executive Director/Content
Abdou Cisse/Akwasi Poku	R/Ga London	Junior Creatives

Brief Explanation

Google Year in Search is a breakthrough film telling the story of 2014 through the trillions of searches made around the world. More than a wrap up of the year, ‘Year In Search’ was a totally data driven narrative, exploring our burning questions and heartfelt reactions to big events and the minutiae of our every day lives, giving one of the most genuine perspectives of our world today.We crunched millions of lines of data to uncover the human insights hidden within Google search and turned big data into an even bigger story. It turns out that the things that we search out for say a lot about us…

The Brief

Google has lost a little of its brand love in the last few years. People see the business more than the personality and lack a powerful emotional connection. Every year, Google makes a campaign to be a part of the world’s reflection on the year that was. Increasingly, other brands are cluttering up this space making it imperative that Google stands out and delivers something genuinely unique. People search in an unfiltered and instinctive way. In 2014 the world searched trillions of times, a massive data set that offered us a snapshot of the times we’re living in. When you look at it properly, search data is a valuable survey of humanity.

How the final design was conceived

More than a wrap up of the year, ‘Year In Search’ was a data driven narrative, exploring our burning questions and reactions to big events, giving one of the most genuine perspectives of our world today. This whole process had to happen in real-time and be 'circular' as many rights could not be secured and therefore back up and replacement footage, trends and whole stories swapped in and out. To make this happen, all 3 parties, in conjunction with our excellent edit and motion graphics team had to be in constant communication to ensure that we were synched throughout the production. As we were getting close to edit lock and traffic dates were looming, we had to ensure that master footage was obtained, and transcoded as we were because we were dealing with a range of formats, frame rates, and elements that all had to be onlined, then versioned and cut down for multiple deliveries and multiple markets. We successfully delivered to TV in the US on for one of the biggest buys of the year – ABC’s NYE show. We also delivered for the biggest billboard in Time Square and a wide range of additional channels and formats.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Google Year in Search is a breakthrough film telling the story of 2014 through the trillions of searches made around the world. First, we produced an inspirational film, called “Year in Search”, that brought people into the idea. Then, we invited them to explore the stories in greater depth in a responsive site translated into 42 different languages. The collection of stories we uncovered were turned into a Film, TVCs, an immersive website, a booklet in the New York Times, and a social content strategy. On NYE, we lit up Times Square in NYC with the biggest digital screen in the northern hemisphere, a monument to the year in the middle of the collective emotions of 1million people. We searched for science more than fiction, hope more than fear and we asked ‘how’ more than ‘why.’ From the purest questions, like ‘what is love?’, to our reactions to global tragedies, this film was a revealing look at humanity and a snapshot of the times we’re living in. We increased positive sentiment for Google by 26% during the campaign. We set out to offer a perspective of the year that only Google could tell, and we ended up creating a totally new storytelling platform.