It may be hard to imagine now, but when Google first entered Japan in the late 2000s, they were the second-largest search engine, behind Yahoo Japan. Our mission was to make Google the number one search engine in Japan, and we carried out various campaigns to achieve that.
One of the most memorable projects for me was the campaign called “Fly over the sky in Shibuya with Google.” We created a special website where people could learn search tips using Google, and with each search made through the site, a balloon was generated. The idea was that eventually, people would accumulate enough balloons to float through the sky.
Imagine this: we utilized the empty lot next to the Tower Records in Shibuya, the heart of Tokyo at the time, and inflated over 100,000 balloons to lift people into the air. Participants wore harnesses and experienced floating in mid-air.
This campaign generated a lot of buzz and became a key moment that drew widespread attention to Google in Japan.
Balloons break within just a few hours (I didn’t know that!), so we need to keep adding new ones. We planned for the colors to change like this.
Google Election Campaign
Voter turnout of Japan is quite low especially young people. Because things politicians are talking is unbelievable (or politicians just care old people who vote.. anyway). We made a system people can ask their true intention with Google tools.
At the website, people can post questions for candidate of politicians. Then people vote and pick 5 questions. The candidates answer for the questions via YouTube. And we made a page that gathers every candidates’ answering videos. That page shows a route of people’s polling place too.
Where is Obama city?
This is so simple, but I still like it. Our mission was to educate people about the driving direction function in 2008, back when most people weren't yet accustomed to using Google Maps.
2008 was a historic year, as Barack Obama became the President of the United States.
At the same time, there is a city called Obama in Japan—just a coincidence! But the people of Obama City were so excited about the connection that it became a funny news story in Japan.
We simply took advantage of this opportunity. The banner read:
“Search the fastest way to Obama City from your city with Google.”
Many people had heard the name "Obama City" from the news, but no one really knew where it was.
When users clicked the banner, Google Maps opened with Obama City already set as the destination. All they had to do was enter their city name as the starting point, and they could instantly see how to use the driving direction feature—in a fun and engaging way.
