Airing during Saturday’s AFL Grand Final, Google’s ‘Season in Search’ campaign took a look back at the biggest moments of the year through the lens of people’s searches.
The two-minute spot features clips accompanying an overlay of search queries relating to the AFL both on and off the field.
“Why is the AFL postponed?” people asked, alongside footage of the 2025 Queensland floods. With mental health increasingly front of mind, people searched, “How to support a friend?”, while a search query for “How to make progress?” introduces a clip from Mitch Brown, the first AFL player to publicly identify as bisexual.
On the field, people have looked up “How to bounce like Ash,” “mark of the year,” and “greatest comeback in the AFL.”
Google Australia and New Zealand CMO Suzana Ristevski said she was “so incredibly proud” to see the film air.
“‘Season in Search’ is built upon millions of proprietary Google searches from the 2025 season, making it a powerful cultural barometer of AFL fandom. For 120 seconds, we transformed the halftime break from a pause in the action into an unmissable celebration. It was a powerful reflection of the highs, the lows, the triumphs, and the heartbreaks that captivated the nation, all based on what Australians searched for,” Suzana said.
She thanked the AFL, the Seven Network, EssenceMediacom, and creative partners at Whooshka Media and WPP’s Sport & Entertainment team “for bringing this ambitious idea to life.”
The campaign launched alongside a report from Google Trends further analysing the top trending questions, people, and teams of the 2025 AFL season.
The most searched team was Collingwood, despite the Magpies not making the Grand Final, whilst Collingwood player Nick Daicos took the title as the most Googled player.
In the women’s league, Melbourne Demons were the most Googled team, with star player Tayla Harris the most-searched player.
The campaign follows 72andSunny’s ‘Get In On It‘, which launched earlier this year ahead of the 2025 AFL season. Developed in partnership with production company Good Oil, and fronted by local Melbourne band Sleepazoid, the launch film for the platform featured a long list of AFL traditions, artefacts, and if-you-know-you-know moments.
The most recent work for Google was also through 72andSunny, with ‘Just Ask Google‘, positioning search as an “act of love” as a father uses it to learn about LE SSERAFIM.