Everyone Speaks Food (Google Translate)
A culinary metaphor for the values we stand for
The campaign —
Whether you start things off with "bon appétit," "dobrou chuť” or "itadakimasu," it's over meals that we build community and connect. In celebration of just that, Google Translate opened a multicultural pop-up restaurant in New York City called Small World, taking people on a journey through the lens of food — our universal language.
For four nights, guests were invited to participate in a multilingual dining experience using the Translate app to unlock diverse meals created and prepared by renowned chefs representing cultures around the world. It was an experiment in communication and understanding: what happens when we use many languages in an effort to speak one?
Product: Google Translate
Year: 2016
Role: project lead
Creative partners:
M ss ng P eces, Brooklyn
PARTY, New York
The MP Shift, New York
Our experiential approach for Small World was to create an approachable and interactive experience to help create community, conversation, warmth and app use (all direct connections to our values and the tone we sought to create). We built the experience as one that was social first, where each immersive moment with the app was one that our users wanted to capture and share. Tables were communal, the design and art were interactive with the app, using the AR "Word Lens" feature on Google Translate. Multilingual fortune tellers on the table encouraged conversation and app exploration.
To further extend the experience, we translated some of the world's favorite flavors into a daily donuts selection, available on a cart outside of the restaurant. To discover the flavors, people were invited to use Word Lens as well.
“It’s rare in New York to attend an event this unique, the entire night was really something else.”
The results —
We had a 100% attendance throughout the campaign — never had an empty seat to fill in. We had a total of 486 guests at the restaurant, 40% of which were hand-picked: journalists, public affairs, social influencers, etc. 10.4k people got a free donut from the cart. The two combined generated 511 posts and 2.3k event mentions, leading to 4.3M in social reach, with a stunning 100% positive sentiment [Crimson Hexagon].
“The food was fantastic, the chefs seemed so happy, and the design/experience was so thoughtful, immersive, and detailed. It really was the best pop-up I have ever attended.”
“This space looks amazing. I had so much fun exploring all of the easter eggs. It was all amazing.”
“Really unexpected for Google, so intimate.
You forget it’s being hosted by one of the biggest corporations in the world.”
“I’m going to Paris for a month and now I’ll have a little buddy with me, Google Translate makes traveling more fun.”
“It was a very heart warming experience, and lovely to share it with strangers.”