Situation

With Google Trends showing a global rise in searches for takeaways and cooking recipes, Google wanted to show people the delightful diversity of Japanese cuisine. So we created a virtual culinary theme park that did just that. Powered by Google Search, Umami Land is a washoku-themed-theme park that teaches about the different types of Japanese food while shining a spotlight on local establishments that serve them.

Brief

Create an interactive WebGL experience that’s accessible from anywhere in the world. It had to be colourful, creative, inviting, and informative to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

Objectives

To help expand people’s knowledge of the diverse types of Japanese food beyond popular dishes like ramen or sushi. To increase the use of Google Search. And lastly, to encourage people to seek out and support local takeaway restaurants that serve these foods by directing them through Google Search.

With Google Trends showing a global rise in searches for takeaways and cooking recipes, Google wanted to show people the delightful diversity of Japanese cuisine. Powered by Google Search, Umami Land is a washoku-themed-theme park that teaches about the different types of Japanese food while shining a spotlight on local establishments that serve them. We created an interactive WebGL experience that’s accessible from anywhere in the world. We knew that it had to be colourful, creative, inviting, and informative to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. With this experience we want to help expand people’s knowledge of the diverse types of Japanese food beyond popular dishes like ramen or sushi while at the same time increasing the use of Google Search. And lastly, we want to encourage people to seek out and support local takeaway restaurants

The idea for Umami Land stemmed from an increase in searches for Food Delivery (55%) and Easy Recipe (30%) between 2019 and 2020. So a rising interest in both food and takeaways was apparent. Opting to raise awareness around the beautifully diverse Japanese food available around the world, we made Umami Land as a homage for the world to enjoy.

Since everyone enjoys food, our demographic was practically everyone, and Umami Land was translated into simplified Chinese and Korean to increase that reach. It’s browser-based and can be accessed on both desktop and mobile, with Google Search integrations.

We started with the park’s design, much like an architect would. Then we researched the list of dishes for each section since each had its own theme:

Main Rice Street is the main lane, with its rice palace and garden full of seasonal plants. Sizzle Yokocho is a bustling street-food market packed with protein-rich dishes. Long Valley is the adventurous land of noodles, ramen and soba. Sweet Kingdom encapsulates delightful, squishy, and fluffy Japanese desserts.

Savory Bay is the underwater zone hosting dishes with ingredients fresh from the sea.

Finally, we implemented gamification components such as collectibles as well as side challenges to increase engagement.

While the initial idea was to attract inbound visitors in Japan to the digital park, COVID made this complicated. We realised that regardless of location, people could still visit the park. Food interest crosses borders, so people internationally could still find Japanese restaurants locally.

Unfortunately, no results can be shared. However, Umami Land was well received and a great success.