Google prides itself on being a tool for gender representation. The company understands that its search engine is used by members of the LBGTQIA+ community as they seek to understand who they are, and what they want – asking questions like, “what does intersex mean?” “How do I come out to my parents?” “What should my body look like?”

The brief was designed to bridge these questions and the everyday life of LGBTQIA+ individuals across the globe. Every community is different; each queer community has its own language. The common denominator across these disparate communities? The power of throwing questions into the digital void, using Google as a means of discovering the nuance of self-expression.

Thus, our objectives were to explore what it means to become yourself, using Google search questions as a starting point, and letting that blossom into complexity and nuance.

The idea was to use online documentary films to celebrate LGBTQIA+ communities with stories of wonderful queer spaces that celebrate who you are, no matter who you love.

For many LGBTQIA+, understanding their identity begins with a google search. The idea showed how google enables LGBTQIA+ people to find answers, understanding, and pride.

To realise this, we created a series of online documentary films, and scoured Asia-Pacific for people who lived in homes, communities, churches and countries where they had not been not accepted. People who, in spite of this, had accepted themselves and were now willing to tell their story publicly.

Says Tara McKenty, creative head at Google: “Hopefully Finding Pride can help members of our community to see themselves and stories like theirs so they don’t feel so alone, or so different. I wish I had access to stories like these when I was coming out.”

As a company, Google has long been a supporter of LGBTQIA+ rights, and has worked hard to create products and platforms that allow people to express their views while fostering an open environment where people of different perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences can come together and show up for one another.

The audience was the Asia-Pacific LGBTQIA+ community.

Our approach was to reflect our audience as authentically as possible, beginning with creatives, director, producer and crew who are LGBTQIA+.

The team drew on their experiences, and then went through an intensive research and interview process, in order to draw honest, country-specific portraits of the LGBTQIA+ experience in Asia-Pacific.

The film ‘Finding Pride in Asia Pacific’ is a 4 minute documentary piece released on YouTube on the 3rd of June 2021. It is the hero film of the campaign, assembled with footage from several 7 minute films which each conveyed the experience of one LGBTQIA+ person. The four minute ensemble piece, and the single protagonist pieces, were released simultaneously on Google’s YouTube channel.

The Hero video ‘Finding Pride in Asia Pacific’ has received 405, 000 views to date.

The films across the campaign made a total of 835,000 impressions.