Google and Amplify Supply Festive Joy with Giant Immersive and Kaleidoscopic Cracker

Google has tasked Amplify – the brand’s creative agency specialising in experience and culture – with creating an experience that spreads warmth, hope and seasonal cheer as a gift to the community of Kings Cross, home of Google’s London HQ.

Opening on 10th December 2021 and running until 5th January 2022 at the north end of Kings Boulevard, Amplify worked with Google to conceive, design, build and install an immersive and ultra-festive explosion of colour housed inside a human-sized Christmas cracker.

The installation features two split halves of an enormous cracker, each half measuring nearly five-metres in length and two-metres high. Both halves burst with a feast of festive colour, taking the form of playful graphics, mirrors and lights.

As a joyful and vibrant reward for riding out what has been a challenging year for many, passers-by can walk into the cracker to fully immerse themselves in ‘Googley’ patterns, while creating highly shareable photo moments as they play with mirrors and lights to create unique patterns.

Cracker ‘gifts’, such as concrete dice, double as street furniture as they spill out to foster a stayable experience that people can enjoy over the holidays. Warmth and goodwill is further heightened by surrounding OOH billboards wishing everyone a happy holiday from Google.

Google’s head of creative strategy, Amy Brown, said: "The holidays are my favourite time of year and it's been a joy to work with Amplify to create an experience designed to spread a bit of cheer in Kings Cross. The project involved working with a number of stakeholders across the estate and Amplify has been a brilliant partner in making this possible.”

Amplify’s business lead, Emma Cockeram, added: “2021 wasn’t quite the year many had hoped for. So we’re delighted to once again help Google end the year by creating a joy-filled festive experience that gives back to the local community. This year, we instinctively knew we had to create a playful, colourful and interactive experience. And this giant kaleidoscope of a cracker does that in spades.”

As a precursor to the cracker experience, Amplify also worked with Google to light up the brand’s Kings Cross office in purple as a show of support for the global #PurpleLightUp movement on 3rd December 2021, which draws attention to the economic contribution of the 386-million disabled employees around the world. The event marks the first time Google has lit up its Kings Cross site and was undertaken to increase public awareness, understanding and acceptance of people with any form of disability.