During the Olympics, a few stories are recycled over and again. But, according to the 300 million daily Olympics-related searches, people are curious about so much more. We wanted join our users in being part of the global Olympics conversations by sharing unique insights about the games while making data (derived from trending Olympics searches) fun, enjoyable, and easy to understand. And at the same time draw a more consumer-based audience to the Google Trends' robust tools-based website.
Our strategy was to surface and share Olympics-based Search trends that only Google can provide. We analyzed the data and shared search stories alongside charming, playful and highly adaptable characters called Googins. The Googins are born from data visualizations – the points and lines of the trends they define.
To determine where and when to insert Googins into the conversation, we built an always-on response lab made up of data scientists, strategists, writers, designers, and engineers working together from kickoff through the closing ceremonies. As data came in about trends and topics, our team was ready to respond in a matter of minutes. We created 200 unique trend stories that lived in Google Search, on Google Trends' website, and on 13 owned social platforms. The coverage spanned 17 Days, covering 10,500 Athletes, 206 Countries, and 300 Events.
Our campaign had twice as much reach as any of the Olympic sponsors. We kept users engaged for an average of 3 minutes, with just a 7% bounce rate. We reached 1.8 billion people in 142 countries, with a real-time response creating over 200 stories spanning all 17 days of the competition.
