Challenge

Google over the last decade has been emerging as a strong challenger brand in a highly competitive Smartphone market. With its Pixel series, while Google has redefined photography, it has also successfully managed to integrate its suite of services to provide a seamless user experience. Google, driven to simplify everyday problems for its users, tasked us to launch the new Pixel 6a with a focus on its key ‘Live Translate’ feature that enables users to instantly translate a variety of languages across applications in real time, thus enabling them to seamlessly engage in their preferred language without any barriers. Our focus audience segment for the launch were millennial Mandarin speakers in Canada who were identified as a key segment for driving market share. Our challenge was to ensure that we not only create buzz for the launch but also effectively demonstrate the “Live Translate” feature while avoiding any spillage of media dollars towards non-Mandarin speakers.

Insight & Strategy

Any person who is bilingual is attuned to translating words in real time with a 3 step process, you see a word in one language, your brain maps those words to a language you are most comfortable with and finally process it as meaningful information. This everyday process for Mandarin speakers ranges from a few seconds to a couple of minutes depending on their language proficiency with English, but we wanted to make them understand that at least on their Pixel 6a they can now skip the hassle of this 3 step process. Our other insight was rooted in the generic behavior post pandemic wherein more and more people were out and about hence making OOH as a central pillar of our Media Strategy to ensure that we are able to cut through the clutter of Digital advertising.

The solution, amalgamating from these two insights and based on our millennial target audience was identified in a decade old format that millennials have grown up engaging with - Lenticular. A simple ad format wherein two frames are simultaneously put up such that on changing a slight angle of observation one is able to switch between different frames, instantaneously!

Execution

Lenticular printing technology gave us the solution to our first challenge of an impactful ‘real-time’ demonstration of the product feature relevant to the target audience.
Our second challenge of ensuring efficient use of dollars to avoid spillage was addressed by identifying the high density Mandarin speaking geo location leveraging FSA as well as the Meta digital data. The data points enabled us to strategically buy Transit Shelters, Store Posters and Horizontal banners within communities with the maximum Mandarin footfall across the Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver Areas.
The creative leveraged was simple yet engaging with the same message in Mandarin that transformed to English as people moved, thus enabling Mandarin speakers to experience Live Translate, the core feature of the Google Pixel 6a come alive in front of their eyes.

Result

The OOH campaign was complemented by digital, radio, TV, online video and print. The OOH medium delivered the highest brand recall for the campaign indicating people comprehended the message to its fullest. It was also estimated to deliver approximately 38M impressions, a stellar number considering a highly niche audience, thereby making the campaign an “Instant” success.