GOOGLE | Know What Your Data Knows | 2018
Making a TV Ad in Minutes, Live / GOOGLE "Know What Your Data Knows"
In 2018, during a live NCAA basketball broadcast watched by 43 million people across the US, Google Cloud built and aired a commercial on the spot, shaped by how the game was actually unfolding. A commercial coming together in real time, right alongside the commentary—just hearing about it is stressful enough.
The problem
Google Cloud needed to get IT decision-makers at companies to consider it as an option against AWS and Microsoft. But those decision-makers didn't want to be "marketed to"—as individual people, they wanted to be genuinely impressed.
The insight
People who actually work with data analysis don't look at an ad and think "wow, impressive." They think, "wait, how did you do that?" So instead of talking about the technology, why not just do it live, in front of everyone?
The idea
Google Cloud brought in decades of college basketball data and built prediction models in advance for 21 different in-game outcomes per match, covering things like free throws and turnovers. As the game progressed, a team of data engineers monitored it in real time, built a commercial around whichever prediction turned out most accurate, and got it on air within minutes.
What happened
The campaign won at D&AD 2019 and was also entered in the Media category at Cannes Lions 2019.
Afterthought
This was a live broadcast—one shot, no do-overs. The system could have crashed. The predictions could have all been wrong. The commercial might not have made it to air in time. It was a bet made entirely of risk. And yet, instead of talking about what data can do, they went out and actually did something with data, live. Being a B2B brand is no excuse to play it safe.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2018
