Year in Search (Google Search)
The moments that mattered most to the world
The campaign —
Google's first year in review goes back to 2003, when we published the first report on annual search trends. Over the years, it became one of the company’s most important marketing moments. We successfully transformed this into an integrated campaign, showcasing it on TV, cinema, print, and OOH — reinventing the storyline every year, adapting it to our evolving brand narrative.
At the core, there's the emotional, awe-inspiring video tributes to the years as they end. They take viewers through the events that shaped the year — seen through the lens of the world's searches. We also crafted a digital experience allowing people to deep-dive into those searches, and what they say about who we are.
The outcome —
These annual campaigns have amassed over 90 million views since I joined the team, and the 2014 video I managed from brief to delivery, is Google’s most-viewed video ever on YouTube, with 34 million views. Over the years, they've contributed to how our users perceive our brand in the United States, becoming an end-of-year rendez-vous.
In Cannes, the 2016 campaign won 2 Silver Lions in Film and in Film Craft, a Bronze Lion in Entertainment/Music and was shortlisted for Print and Digital Craft - Data Storytelling. The Year in Search videos won ACE’s “Ad of the year” in 2013 and 2014. It won a "People's voice" award for Best editing from the Webby’s in 2014, and a "Digital Brand Expression" award from D&AD in 2015. In 2016, the campaign has claimed 2 Gold + 2 Silver pencils at the prestigious One Show, 2 Silver + 2 Bronze cubes at ADC (Art Directors' Club), a Wood Pencil (3rd place) at the UK's D&AD, and 1 top honor plus 2 People's Voices at the Webby Awards.
Case study (2016) —
