Google World Cup
Google: Search Based Real Time Newsroom
Issue 33 | December 2014
Agency
R/GA London
Creative Team
Associate Creative Director Ricardo Amorim Design Director Pete Jupp Senior Visual Designer Clara Tudela Copywriter Luke Wicker Designer Wilf Eddings Associate Creative Director Craig Mandel Associate Creative Director Tessa Hewson Senior Designer Brian Hurewitz
Production Team
Group Account Director Remi Abayomi Executive Producer Sam Clohesy Senior Planner Lachlan Williams Experience Design Director Scott Shaw
Other Credits
Technical Director Phil Hawksworth Senior Open Standards Developer Andy Shora Front End Developer Pedro Duarte Open Standards Developer Razvan Pavel Senior Software Engineers Alfredo Aguirre Darian Moody Senior Experience Designer Harmesh Chauhan
Date
June 2014
Background
The task was to grow brand-love by connecting Google with people's passions around the World Cup. A space they don't normally have a role in. The aim was to design and build a website that stayed true to the Google style and functionalities whilst creating content that felt relevant to interests of the fans involved in this global event.
Idea
The idea was to look into what people were searching for during the World Cup, turning these searches into interesting, surprising and compelling stories that offered a unique glimpse into what the world wanted to know during the tournament. Real-time stories from the search trends of competing nations were published, revealing the quirks of each country to a global audience.
A destination was built around the World Cup fixtures, with each piece of content designed to be shared – with up to eight pieces of content published on the site every day and even more shared with influencers. They were picked up by some of the world's biggest brands, players and media.
World Cup Trends were a completely new type of information, giving Google a unique and valuable role in the conversations around the event. A dedicated team worked around the clock to capture and produce the trends. Each was translated into nine languages and shared in even more markets, establishing Google Trends as a powerful source of insight into popular culture that will live on beyond the World Cup.
Results
Around 1,000 Trends went out across the world, earning just over 3.4 billion impressions. Media, brands and players weren't just sharing the insights with their audiences, they were requesting their own. The campaign content also earned 4x more Retweets per post on the global @Google twitter than at any other point in 2014. Google Trends became firmly established as a product that could provide real insight into popular culture and of great interest and value beyond just football.
Our Thoughts
I used to be an enemy of Big Data but have become an enthusiastic convert. Matt Keylock at data experts Dunnhumby, has written: Big Data is enabling breakthrough innovations in national infrastructure, biology, medicine and national disasters. It’s also good for business, making it easier for companies to understand their customers and deliver value based on that knowledge. But, so far, Big Data hasn’t succeeded in making advertising easier on brands or on consumers.
Part of the genius of this idea, I think, is that it has at last made data make sense to creative people in agencies.