Creative Execution

“The Perfect Night” is Google’s first search-your-own-adventure game that’s driven by the player’s searches. They’re asked to “Google mo lang!” and search the answer for the given situation. It is housed in a website that shows videos from the first-person point-of-view so that it appears that YouTubers are interacting with the player. The beauty of the game lies in the seamless integration of Google into the story, and by demonstrating this, we clearly show the relevance of Google in everyday situations. The campaign utilized local YouTube sensations and their respective social media accounts to share the game and their experiences.

The campaign reached over 1.6 million unique users – a total of 2,110,507 sessions. On Facebook, the microsite was shared 336,576 times and on Twitter, had more than 8 million impressions. Some players shared photos of their completed badges, while others even asked for more stories to play and even created cheat-sheet timelines. In total, the campaign earned US$400k worth of social media mentions and US$250k of press pick-ups. Search queries increased up to 16%. Even more than the numbers, Google mo lang started a shift in the perception of Google Search: from serious and boring to relevant and fun.

Searching for information is neither considered fun nor a regular behavior in the Philippines. This is because in a country that prioritizes fun, Google Search was not. Filipinos are heavily influenced by celebrities and their friends. Together with local YouTube creators, we created a non-traditional interactive online game to help Filipino users discover how Google Search can actually be fun, social, and relevant on a daily basis. Working with the biggest YouTube creators allowed us to create talkability over the game, and ultimately, insert Google into online and offline social conversations by making the game engaging and viral-worthy. The campaign kicked-off a movement to encourage Filipinos, to “Google mo lang” (Simply Google), as a response to any and every question. By creating a movement of Filipinos using Google more often, we are helping Filipinos get more out of the internet.