Pixel 3 launched into a market dominated by competitor brands, and an audience ambivalent about making the switch away from the phones (and iOS) they’ve become conditioned to love. We had to radically disrupt the status quo with undeniable evidence of our phone’s superiority over the competition. Only then would we stand a chance to draw eyes and motivate change.

We set out to contrast and compare our most talk-worthy feature (Night Sight on Pixel 3) against the competitions’ equivalent functionality, using iconic side-by-side placement to show off a category-first innovation at work. We knew the stark contrast would get people talking and sharing the unmissable superiority of our camera and device.

When your feature is so powerful and so persuasive, the best you can do is get out of the way of it, and let it shine. We simplified the execution into a low light photo shootout between iPhone XS and Pixel 3, resulting in a disruptive campaign that showed a precise and accurate comparison of the same shot, taken at the same time, in the same light — but resulting in wildly different outcomes. In a category that throws around empty superlatives, we didn’t want to just say we had the best. We also didn’t want to spark a shouting match that would betray our brand’s premium visual language and design principles. We designed the images to speak for themselves, ending the debate once and for all, and in a way that still felt right for Google and aspirational for our audience.

The Night Sight campaign put Pixel on the map, earning 416 total online impressions and a 28.5% increase in Night Sight mentions. Social engagement increased by 109%, and everyone from Pixel fans to iPhone owners lit up with excitement over a feature they described as “magic” “unreal” and “amazing”. Amazement was the #1 driver of positive sentiment (29%), followed by amusement for the cheeky iPhone vs Pixel rivalry (8.2%) and brand advocacy for #teampixel (7%).