Unpacking Google’s thoughtful ‘Year in Search 2022’ campaign

What the 2022 data revealed was that people searched “can I change” more than any year previous, suggesting that people were ready to start anew after a challenging two years.

The Brief

Google’s goal was to create a film that connected with people around the world, leaving even the most cynical doom scroller with a bit of hope for the future.

The team pushed themselves to connect with younger audiences and to make this year’s campaign feel more global than ever. This meant capturing moments from the year across the planet and connecting with people everywhere – literally. After two arduous years in a pandemic, Google wanted to make sure its message could reach everyone.

The challenge was to strike a note of optimism and hope while not shying away from the year’s most challenging events, including the war in Ukraine, fears of a global recession and Queen Elizabeth II’s death.

The Idea

The world turns to Google to ask trillions of questions a year. Through these searches, Google Trends reveals insights that are truly of the moment. Its data strategists spend months mining the year’s search data, testing hypotheses and examining user intent behind the queries by comparing data sets with previous years to find shifts in search behaviors.

In 2022, the world was searching “can I change” more than ever; people were also seeking change at both individual and societal levels, searching questions like “can I change careers” and “can I change my community.”

This search data informed every aspect of the campaign, from concepting to creative execution. To bring in timely relevant perspectives it may not have otherwise noticed, Google brought in team members from different markets worldwide to collaborate.

Meanwhile, on social, the brand shared niche trends across platforms to connect with subculture groups where they spend their time. It gamified Trends, created short-form videos and an AR Trends filter, and had content creators give their take on some of 2022’s unique insights. Lastly, it built the first-ever Local Trends experience, featuring different cities’ top searches.

The Results

The film received over 295m YouTube views (the most in Google’s YouTube history), with over 7.5m hours of watch time. Paid social assets had over 69.2m views and 169m combined impressions on Snapchat and Instagram.

The AR Trends filter had 18.9m impressions on Snapchat and 374,000 effect plays on TikTok. Our influencer partners received a combined 1.8m engagements and 450m impressions, while the local Trends experience received over 1.1m visits.

Quantifiable metrics aside, the world’s response reinforced for us the importance of representation in the media. People reacted with emotion and excitement from seeing moments from their own country, such as scenes from the film RRR, the Iranian protests and the powerful Ukrainian voices. And many of their comments showed a newfound appreciation for a year many wanted to forget.

This campaign won at The Drum Awards for Marketing Americas 2023. Find out more about The Drum’s Global Awards program or head to our case studies hub to read more award-winning stories.