Objective

Google's annual Year in Search campaign reflects on the year’s biggest trends and moments. In 2024, for the first time ever, we celebrated Year in Search through the lens of Breakout Searches (trends with a 5000%+ spike in Search interest). By introducing this new approach to data, we were able to capture emerging cultural shifts and niche fandoms like never before.  From record-smashing and internet-breaking Olympians to a worldwide country music revival, 'brat summer,' and an irresistible baby hippo, the campaign highlighted the year's Breakout moments that shaped the year in ways no one saw coming. 

The campaign goal was to deeply connect with Gen Z by celebrating what they love. So we used Google Search data and social listening to find the biggest Breakout fandoms of the year. Then we created fan-focused social content celebrating trends within those fandoms and shared it on social and across Google's biggest stages, including the Google Doodle and Search easter eggs.

Strategy

We started with the data. We sorted and ranked trillions of searches from around the world, in multiple languages, to uncover a database of the Breakout people, figures and moments from 2024 across multiple culture-defining categories, from arts and entertainment to sports and gaming.

Our long-form film formed the bedrock of the campaign, bringing all of these data points together to recap Breakout trends from around the globe. By designing for social, integrating across Google products, and focusing on fan interests, Year in Search 2024 became the most positive brand moment for Google all year.

Some key points that made this year special:

• We introduced a new Trends methodology called “Search Breakouts” (Trends with a 5000%+ spike). This allowed us to capture emerging culture like never before. By focusing on trends that had an undeniable grip on culture, the campaign felt authentic and relevant, especially for Gen Z.
• For our social strategy, we built a proprietary model to identify Breakout trends that would maximize social conversation and authentically resonate with fans.
• We also created a special Google Doodle that invited the world to our hero film. On social media, we made content for all the biggest fandoms—gaming, anime, sports, Chappel Roan stans, and more. We also created a social media treasure hunt to unlock 16 different Google Search Easter eggs celebrating Breakout Searches from the year. And of course, we shared 2024's top trend lists with news outlets around the world.
• Across the campaign’s 300+ assets, the iconic Google Search bar served as a unifying design element, helping drive Google Search brand equity.

Overall, we used data to spotlight a variety of stories and moments from 2024. From everyday to the epic, we looked to strike the right balance between celebrating the icons themselves and the fans who they inspired, ultimately ensuring that everyone could see themselves in this Year in Search campaign.

Results

With 765M video views across platforms, the campaign became the most-viewed Year in Search yet and Google’s most positive brand moment of 2024. Driven by the first-of-its-kind Doodle, the long-form film saw a 10x YoY increase in organic views on launch day, reaching #8 trending on YouTube. Our fandom-centric social films resonated with a variety of fan bases, including Chappell Roan, Bluey, Steph Curry, Sabrina Carpenter, and more. The Stray Kids video alone reached 4.7M views on IG without any paid support.

The campaign also broke into culture, with parodies by Twitch, Stephen Colbert’s Late Show, a segment by Jimmy Fallon, and thousands of UGC reactions and positive sentiment on social, resulting in a 6X lift in Year in Search conversation on Meta (a record for the platform’s Buzz Lift studies). Additionally, we partnered with NPR to bring Sabrina Carpenter, one of the biggest Breakout artists of 2024, to the Tiny Desk stage.

Our curated Trends Lists earned over 4.2K articles globally, with positive coverage in mainstream (AP, NYP), consumer (Architectural Digest, Conde Nast Traveler), and Gen Z social outlets (Pubity). We landed TV interviews on multiple national and local shows, garnering 2M English and 1M Spanish language live TV viewers.

For the first time on a Google campaign, we created a series of 15+ easter eggs in Search, igniting millions of engagements among fans. They popped in on online community forums and even on the Grammys red carpet, where Shaboozey mentioned his Easter Egg in a live interview.

Media