Every holiday season since 2010, Google has turned our questions into a time for reflection, owning the year-end moment more than any other brand with Year in Search. In 2020, Google Trends data showed people asked “why” more than ever before. Our campaign examined humanity’s inquisitive nature via trending queries that spiked over the course of the year, alongside a coordinated custom format debut featuring late night integrations, broadcast media in big live moments, and social channels. We armed these late night icons with the data and trends that shaped the campaign itself and enabled Snapchat users to immerse themselves in the Year in Search story through an interactive Lens experience—pulling key moments from the film into an immersive 360-degree portal. For the first time ever, we produced the film in a native format: vertical and mobile.

Year in Search 2020 lets users—whether the directors of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert or our friends, neighbors and families—explore Google Trends’ unsurpassed data on what the world was searching for in an extraordinarily unprecedented year. While our Snapchat filter created an augmented reality deep dive into Google search queries, we gave late night television shows the tools they need to engage their audience in their own unique styles. Trevor Noah discovered that he’s the most searched for Trevor on the internet in 2020, and Jimmy Kimmel had Google fill in the blanks on why a rise in searches for “Do I have a double chin?” accompanied the rise of Zoom conferencing. This is the first year where Google simultaneously featured Year in Search across all major late night shows, and worked with the shows’ creative teams to make original content centered around Year in Search results.

Google Trends uses aggregated, categorized, anonymized search data on what people search for online. Year in Search sees what Google Trends data reveals about the questions we shared, the people who inspired us, and the moments that captured the world’s attention each year. Alongside Google’s own 3-minute video and the Snapchat filter based on the video, late night show creative teams were provided with data and trends that shaped the film itself, inviting them to dive deeper into specific trends and topics, resulting in long form programming content. Each also tossed to the full 3-minute Year in Search film, which was supported with concentrated social spikes for an audience of American late night television viewers and global audiences on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Specific YouTube targeting for affinities like Media Entertainment and Travel drove high views and video completions.

On YouTube, 202 million primary views total with 1.4% net impact for affinities and in-market and 2.08% for multicultural. Targeting 18+ Gen Pop on YouTube significantly increased the number of views at lower CPV vs. our 2019 Year in Search video. A custom affinity was also built to boost viewership as well. Late Show had 2:49 average watch time on YouTube, 1.2 million content views and .25 TV A1849 ratings, driving a 2.8x lift. Daily Show had 5:38 average watch time on YouTube, 4.7 million content views and .14 TV A1849 ratings, driving a 4.6x lift. Kimmel had a 3:07 average watch time on YouTube, 14.6 million content views and .24 TV A1849 ratings, driving a 2.7x lift. The Snapchat filter had 16 million primary views and exceeded Valid and Viewable benchmarks for each respective unit.