Google set out to put technology to the test in a new way - in an environment that pushes the boundaries of culture. To do so, Google teamed up with one of the world’s most culture-shaping artists and provocateurs today - Childish Gambino, to create a first-of-its-kind AR meets AI mobile experience. Gambino’s Playmoji dances with you, all the while using AI to react in real time to your facial expressions. The everyday application of the technology was also innovative. Amidst Donald Glover’s record breaking Grammy win and no-show at the event, we strategically dropped our AR collaboration.

Our goal was to launch the Childish Gambino Playmoji to create a moment in culture alongside Glover to drive engagement with Playground, ignite conversation, and create a participatory social moment. But here’s the thing...Pixel phones are the undeniable challenger brand in an industry where iPhone and Samsung take the lead. Leveraging Glover’s clout as a globally resonant creator, we needed an idea that dropped the Google Pixel 3 in culture to bring immediate attention to the brand, get people talking about Pixel, and lead to concrete actions.

Our idea: A Pixel Dance Off featuring Childish Gambino and his Playmoji - a get-down battle between human and technology. Knowing Glover had high chances of being nominated and winning a Grammy in 2019, we decided to make the Grammys our cultural moment. Working with Glover, we created a TV spot that aired at the Grammys showcasing Glover dancing alongside his Playmoji Leveraging the cultural conversation around Gambino’s record breaking win and much talked about no-show then commanded attention and we encouraged people around the world to grab their Pixels, download the Playmoji, and try out their own AR dance cover. We tapped into influencers around the world and sparked the #pixeldanceoff, igniting the feeds with people around the world sharing their own covers and dancing together.

Meet our target and aspirational muse: the changemaker. These mobile users are all about progress - shaping culture and industries, leading movements, breaking down barriers and humbly driving society forward. In a Google segmentation study, we discovered that 84% of our target say they’re the first to try new tech with another 84% saying they give others advice when looking for tech. Knowing this, we want Pixel 3 to be a badge for bosses and a statement that they’re pushing culture forward, which influenced us to create an AR innovation to command their attention. WIth our target being social-fluent and mobile-first, we needed to create a social moment spurred by a cultural moment everyone would be watching.

To kickoff our campaign execution, we first worked with Glover to post a teaser on his Instagram the Friday (Feb 7) before the Grammys. This got fans stirring wondering what Glover was up to, especially given the fact that he rarely posts on social. As the official smartphone sponsor of the Grammys, we leveraged the moment and partnership to put Pixel at the center of all things Grammys. On the big day (Feb 10), we dropped our TV spot right when Donald Glover was the leading conversation on social feeds. After the broadcast, conversations around the experience picked up on social and #pixeldanceoff began trending. We tapped influencers around the world to share their own dance cover which lasted days after the Grammys.

Overall, the campaign yielded over 500 million impressions with the spot directly leading to an immediate 18% increase in Pixel searches. This sparked immediate cultural conversation amidst Gambino’s record breaking win and no-show. As the #pixeldanceoff ignited social feeds with over 600+ UGC videos posted within days, we saw a 220% increase in Playground usage and 180% increase in Pixel social mentions. We achieved a 318% increase in earned impressions and getting picked up by over 34 publications globally. The impact was truly global with Europe accounting for 11% of online conversation, EMEA 14%, LATAM 27%, APAC 25% and US/CAN 33%. Unexpectedly, we even saw dance off posts from celebs like Hugh Jackman, who did so without our prompting or involvement. Long-term, the YouTube video racked up 32.5 million views spawning reaction videos, covers, remixes, re-edits and more, extending the relevance of the dance off into the future.