Google+Local

Originally called Google Places, Google+Local helps you find the places you love—restaurants, cafes, bookshops—and it'll recommend new places to you the next time you search.

The project was two-fold B2B and consumer-facing to get people involved in ranking small businesses and helping put them on the map.

First, we created various assets for businesses to take ownership of the partnership worldwide. The kits were rolled out in 38 languages and used for events.

Second, we created a consumer campaign that was aimed at using Google’s new tools that worked as both local and social. Encouraging people to vote on local places, pick their favorites and build a sense of community.

Client
Google

Project
Small Business

Portland, Oregon

We tested the campaign by taking over the city of Portland, Oregon—everything from the bike delivery carts to a Blazer's game. 

BLAZER GAME TAKEOVER

Google Getting More Personalized, More Local

(For non-locals, this is a nod to the last time the Blazers won the NBA Championship.

 I wasn't born yet, but I remember my dad talking about the good old days).

Consumer Campaign

Driving awareness and usage of Google’s tools.

A Recommendation Engine for Places.

  1. The places you like

  2. The places your friends like

    “ Local Recommendations on Your and Your Friends' Ratings”

    To get people involved, we created OOH messaging with local, specific ads asking them to participate and to rep their area by rating and recommending.  

San Francisco, CA

San Francisco is a city that identifies by neighborhood. Playing on the existing rivalries, famous places, and even stereotypes of each place, we wanted people to embrace local pride by competing against each other by rating.

The Mission

The Marina

The Castro

Events & Demos

Small Business

1. Your customers are looking for you online.

2. Google Places acts as a one-stop shop for your brand.

3. Google loves (to rank) Place Pages

4. Google Places connects third-party sites

5. People trust online reviews as a marker of the legitmacy of a business. Google didn’t give this as part of the brief, but there has been a big cultural shift for looking online for recommendations vs. just word-of-mouth, especially in cities you’ve never been.

To encourage people to rate their business, Google supplied businesses with bags, fortune cookies, cards, pens, and other goodies with cheeky lines. Google sent out RFID door sticker, and a Google Places bowl to the top-rated businesses in different cities throughout the US.  Madison, Austin, Charlotte, Portland, and Las Vegas.