25 years ago Google Search made the world’s information accessible to everyone. Today, we treat it as a utility - like turning on the tap. A great marker of progress for humankind, but a challenge for Google’s innovation credentials. The toughest crowd are the ones who grew up with the internet. Increasingly Gen Z are turning towards newer, more visual platforms to discover the world.

Our challenge was to put the Google app back on their radar by raising awareness of one new feature in particular; visual search. As a collective, they are famous for being the most diverse and inclusive generation yet. Fashion is an important vessel of self-expression. So we honed in on shopping as our primary use case.

The goal was to see if a first of its kind 8 week audience-focused campaign pilot could change Gen Z’s perceptions - and most importantly usage - of Google.

The idea was simple. Let’s find a new audience by helping Gen Z find what matters to them. And so, ‘Find that thing’ was born.

‘Find that thing’ is a celebration of visual search; giving this self-expressive, fashion-forward audience a way to find the indescribable items they are looking for by searching what you see. The colloquial phrase and bold art direction took a step out of the traditional Google world, and into the world of our audience.

We partnered with Gen Zers to identify the most relevant fashion items and make an abundance of channel specific social ads; each showing a hard-to-describe, trending item being found. The campaign was amplified with music partnerships like Aitch, brand partnerships like Hypebeast, and an army of TikTokers

We captured over 100 indescribable, Gen-Z relevant items. These took centre stage across all the executions and became the head-tilting, eye-brow raising hook. A spontaneous POV approach to art direction aimed to place the audience at the heart of the action, whilst also acting as a product demonstration. Diverse casting and locations were paired with on trend items which enabled us to authentically reflect our audience.

Our approach to the campaign visual identity was then inspired by the energy of our audience, and the visual way the product works. The Google colour palette was brightened, and the Google Sans typeface was given a bold twist to reflect the 3 dimensional way we can now search.

The campaign look and feel was like nothing Google had done before. In taking this risk, we opened a new door of possibilities. According to one Gen Z user, “it feels like you’re bringing Google into our world.” Google App downloads skyrocketed, and the UK pilot soon evolved into a global campaign. Find that thing has given a new meaning to Search, and with it unlocked a new generation of global users. So whatever you’re searching for, Find that thing.