The Self-Driving Bike
Issue 39 | June 2016
Agency
WeFilm and Zoo
Creative Team
Creative team Gaston Serpenti Jort Schutte Jeremy Brook Ilina Scott
Production Team
Production Company Wefilm Directors Martijn de Jong Dennis Lubbers Producer Wibout Warnaar Executive Producer Bas Welling Editors Dennis Lubbers Nick Rozenberg Post-production Studio Whoohoo
Other Credits
Special Effects VANMOOF
Date
1st April 2016
Background
Amsterdam is one of the world's premier cycling cities – flat, safe and largely designed around cycling.
As a result, the Dutch are avid cyclists, covering almost 900 kms per person per year.
Google is already famous for its self-driving car project, designed to push the boundaries of innovation. Could the company demonstrate a similar commitment to the citizens of Amsterdam?
Idea
Google's in-house creative unit, The Zoo, produced a film about a self-driving bike, a localised innovation perfectly in tune with Amsterdam, the bicycle capital of the world.
The film explained how the Dutch sustained some 350,000 bike-related injuries a year and that Google wanted to apply its famous self-driving technology to the bike. There were two additional features: an Uber-style pick-up request facility and a comfort mode.
The only thing was that, launched on April 1st, the film was another of Google's April Fool jokes.
Results
The video achieved views of over 1.8m, and a PR reach of 4.5m via media features on TV and radio.
Our Thoughts
The thing about advertising April Fool's jokes is that they're just not funny. They're either too forced, or too ridiculous, and usually bear no relation to the advertiser's core activities.
The best ones work when they demonstrate complete conviction, playing it so straight that you are strung along before the balloon is punctured.
This one works on a number of levels. First, it's just about believable. Google's technology ambitions are so high that it might just really be working on a self-driving bike. "Ok," you think, "I know some of the stuff Google does is barking mad, so this is possible."
Second, the film is made with complete conviction, from the Googler who frames the issue of bike safety to the interviews with the economist who proclaims, straight-faced, that self-riding bikes allow cyclists to multi-task, thus increasing their productivity.
And last, it gives Google, an organisation with an often-exaggerated sense of its self-importance, a human face.