GOOGLE | Timelapse in Google Earth | 2020

The Day Anyone Could Fast-Forward Through 37 Years of Earth's History / GOOGLE "Timelapse in Google Earth"

Gathering 24 million satellite photos, this project let anyone, for free, fast-forward through how the Earth has changed from 1984 to 2020. Just type in a place name in the search bar, and you can watch your own hometown transform over 37 years.

The problem

Climate change always felt like something happening far away. The data and satellite photos existed, but there was no way to turn them into something people could actually feel for themselves.

The insight

"Visual evidence cuts to the heart of an argument more than words can." That was the starting point for this project. Working with Carnegie Mellon University, they built timelapses around themes like forest change, urban growth, warming, and the fragile beauty of the planet. A climate scientist said, "Stories at this scale are hard to grasp, but this software changes minds."

The idea

They removed clouds from 20 petabytes of satellite imagery, calculated a 'representative pixel' for every place and every year, and mapped it onto 3D terrain to create the timelapse. All the processing ran in data centers powered by renewable energy, and more than 800 videos were made freely available on YouTube, with downloads also offered.

What happened

The campaign won Gold and Bronze at Cannes Lions 2021. Within the first week of launch, it was covered in more than 1,080 articles across 84 countries and 45 languages, and the videos were viewed over 10 million times. Google says it plans to keep updating the project every year with new satellite imagery.

Afterthought

Satellite data used to belong only to researchers. This project made it something anyone, from a grade-schooler to a grandmother, could see with just a smartphone. Watching the Earth move forward in fast motion has a way of leaving you speechless.

Awards

Cannes Lions Gold 2020

Featured in

From 1 Second to 500 Million YearsTen ads lined up by nothing but the length of time they cover

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BURGER KING | CONFUSING TIMES | 2020

Confusion Itself Was the Product / BURGER KING "CONFUSING TIMES"

2020 was a year when everyone felt confused. Burger King made a radio ad that put that exact feeling of confusion into words—things like catching a sneeze with your elbow, then high-fiving with that same elbow. And the twist is, it was actually an ad for the Impossible Whopper, which tastes like meat but isn't meat. Presenting confusion as confusion, honestly, turned out to be the most honest approach of all.

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Earth, Listed as a Company on the Brink of Bankruptcy / B3 STOCK EXCHANGE × UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL COMPACT "EART4"

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