Black contributions to American history have long been under recognized, so for Black History Month, we set out to create a campaign — intentionally grounded in data — that served as a factually-driven corrective to this painful omission.

Specifically, we wanted to celebrate the incredible culture-defining moments in American history — through the lens of the Black history-makers who shaped it — and remind everyone that Black history IS American history. To do so, we aimed to celebrate Black American icons who have greatly influenced American culture (across history, science, sports, arts etc.) and inspired the country to search.

Our campaign went above and beyond by fully leveraging multiple Google touch points - from products like Google Search and Maps, to the Google Doodle, to the Google.org grant commitment and Grammy airtime donated to NAACP’s Act-So program.

Around 2019’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we had a hunch: could Dr. King’s iconic 1963 “I Have a Dream” be the most searched speech of all time? To answer this, our data scientists combed through 15+ years of data, from January 1, 2004 (when U.S. Google Search Data first became available) to July 1, 2019. Sure enough, “I Have a Dream” was the most searched speech of all time. This insight inspired us to dig deeper: what other Black American achievements were searched most in the same timeframe? The Google Trends methodology formed the campaign’s strategic backbone. For example, being the most searched talk show host means Oprah Winfrey was searched more on google.com than all other talk show hosts over the 15-year span from 2004 to 2019.

Our integrated campaign celebrates these individuals and their impact, from the most searched talk show host and the most searched gymnast, to the most searched NASA mathematician and the most searched Pulitzer Prize winner. These individuals and moments not only have defined American history, but also continue to inspire the nation.

To tell the stories of the iconic cultural-driving Black American individuals featured in the Most Searched, we created a 90-second anthem film that utilizes dozens of film clips spanning over 50 years of professional video, user generated content, and public domain footage. The film debuted during the 62nd annual Grammy Awards on 26 January 2020, and ushered in our larger campaign that ran throughout Black History Month.

We also launched an interactive website at that same time on Google’s main company story hub, about.google. The site celebrates the individuals in the film with additional context on their achievements, and also explains the research methodology that informed our Google Trends analysis.

We amplified our film and website throughout Black History Month, with large-scale digital out-of-home displays that ran in key landmarks in New York City, including Times Square and Penn Station. We ran print billboards in key Black communities like Harlem, Brooklyn, and Compton. And we ran print ads celebrating the Most Searched icons in national and local Black-owned newspapers with high Black readership, such as the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Portland Observer, the St. Louis American, and the Florida Star. And we celebrated the Most Searched story on key Google-owned properties and social channels, from Products like Google Search and Maps, to the Google Doodle.

We showed our commitment to the future generation of history-makers with a $3M grant to NAACP ACT-SO, an achievement program for students. We also donated 30 seconds worth of commercial time at the Grammy awards to ACT-SO, and collaborated with them on the ad to promote their important cause.

The Most Searched film has been viewed over 72M times, and the interactive website hosted on about.google has seen over 556k unique visitors, and nearly 40% of all users who viewed the page spent at least 1 minute interacting with the experience. Lastly, the campaign achieved a 99% positive net sentiment on social channels.