Lessons from Google on Maximizing Media Opportunities

I enjoy Google’s Doodles – the daily updates to their logo – and especially those that are more inventive and off-the-wall.  My nerdy, ten-year-old self rejoices at their hidden inclusion of the Triforce from Nintendo’s Zelda games, which serves as just one example of how creative the Google team can be.  But last week’s fully functional PAC-MAN game – featuring over 250 levels and a kill screen – surely took the cake, and not just because it resulted in an estimated 4.8 million wasted hours.

What impressed me most about the PAC-MAN Doodle was the way Google turned an event completely unrelated to their company – the 30th anniversary of the release of PAC-MAN – into a story that revolved around Google.  In fact, they completely trumped the story: if you use Google to search for “30th anniversary PAC-MAN,” all but the first result (the “Official PAC-MAN 30th Anniversary Destination“) reference the playable Google Doodle.  That is quite extraordinary. Google took a story that had nothing to do with the company and, with some imagination and programming, turned it into an enormous media blitz, including feature pieces from both ABC and CBS.

Communicators and public relations professionals should take note.  Google created a media opportunity by doing three key things:

1. Google was aware. To create the Doodle in the first place, Google had to know that the 30th anniversary was upcoming, and that their audience would appreciate a PAC-MAN nod in the form of a game.  In the CBS interview, the Google Doodlers responsible explain their inspiration: “When we do homepage logos, we always try to focus on our culture of technology and innovation – and things that will be really fun for our users.”  Watch the interview below.  Without this awareness, the story never happens.
2. Google was imaginative. This was the first Google Doodle – to my knowledge – that was truly interactive, allowing users to actually play.  The idea of putting a working video game on every Google homepage is a wild one – and one completely worthy of the media attention it got.  But Google had to dream up the idea in the first place for it to gain traction.
3. Google invested in a wild idea. After developing a prototype in a day, Google gave the go ahead for what must have been a labor intensive, expensive project: creating a fully functional, lengthy PAC-MAN game that could live on every Google page.  The result?  Google got stories from across the globe on the innovation and creativity of their company.