??Online shopping grew exponentially during the pandemic. In 2020 alone, the US experienced a decade’s worth of e-commerce growth in 3 months, fundamentally changing consumer shopping habits and expectations. And as consumers spent more and more money online, Google’s Shopping platform gained traction and became the ideal place for small businesses to get the visibility needed to elevate them to the same playing field as larger retailers.

So we wanted to show support for small businesses by reimagining holiday shopping—instead of relying on sales and discounted products that are difficult for small businesses to offer, we set out to reach consumers on a more emotional level, and have our message show up in unexpected places.

Teaming up with American Express and their Shop Small initiative, we looked for a way to use physical spaces to help drive customers to shop digitally from local, underrepresented small businesses in an innovative way.

Our qualitative research showed that people found online shopping to be disorganized, overwhelming, and hard to sort through. Since people already turn to Google for help with anything from directions to answering life questions, our strategy was to bring the helpfulness of Google to the madness of online shopping. We had to show that Google Shopping removes complexity and helps you find delightful products that are tailored for your specific needs.

Focusing on Google Shopping’s ability to help you search for products that align with your personal values, this campaign easily let people identify and shop products from small businesses that are also women-led and/or identify as Latinx, AAPI, LGBTQ+, or Black-owned.

We sought media placements that felt iconic to a neighborhood, allowing us to target local consumers who would have ties to the community and feel a connection with the underrepresented businesses featured in the campaign.

We partnered with local artists from four major U.S. cities (Boston, Chicago, NYC, and LA) to illustrate experiential murals that benefited their own communities. The artwork was unique to each location, bringing to life that neighborhood’s spirit through iconic landmarks and characters, while seamlessly integrating products from 26 local small businesses.

By scanning a painted product on the mural with the Lens feature in the Google app, consumers could directly shop that real product right from their phone.

Launching at the kickoff of the busiest shopping season of the year (just before Black Friday and Small Business Saturday), the murals added vibrancy and a sense of community to our featured cities, and transformed city walls into pop-up retail locations that benefited businesses that needed it most.

The making-of was documented and turned into an online launch film, telling the stories of some of our featured retailers and artists.

The shoppable murals resonated with people in every neighborhood, garnering over 2M in-person impressions from local pedestrians, with each passerby having the opportunity to shop unique products from at least 5 local shops. With a digital launch film that led viewers to a microsite detailing our featured businesses and their products, our click-through-rate goal was exceeded by 30%.

Though the murals only appeared physically in four cities, we received news coverage from across the nation, through 23+ positive press stories from influential publications like Forbes, Essence, and Business Insider.

Partnering with Google and American Express also gave our 26 featured small businesses added exposure and credibility for their brands. Business owners overwhelmingly shared campaign assets to help market their products during the busiest shopping season, and are now able leverage the relationship in future endeavors.