The Bilingual Stage
"Sé Genial en Internet" and "Be Internet Awesome" side by side. Not as translation, but as twin headlines. The visual statement that Spanish belongs here too.
Role · The launch moment, in two languages at once.
Google Sé Genial en Internet · 2018
Translating Google's gamified internet-safety platform from a virtual world into a physical experience for Hispanic families across LA and Chicago.
Multi-agency partnership: Jelena Group · North Star Alliances · LNL Agency
In 2018, Google launched Be Internet Awesome, a gamified platform that teaches kids how to navigate the internet without getting hurt. To bring the program to the US Hispanic market, they needed a launch that landed with Latino families on a different cultural register.
A multi-agency partnership was assembled to deliver it: Jelena Group on PR and leadership, North Star Alliances on community outreach and grassroots, LNL Agency on experiential. Our piece of the puzzle: take the digital world of Interland and turn it into a physical space where Hispanic families could live the program.
Working with Google is cool. Translating a virtual world into a physical room, in Spanish, for kids and parents at the same time, is harder.
The Be Internet Awesome platform speaks in pixels, neon, and game characters. Hispanic family gatherings speak in colors, food, and craft. We designed the experience at the intersection.
We took the program's five pillars and translated them. Linguistically and visually. Into something a Spanish-speaking ten-year-old and her abuela could both feel at home inside.
Papel Picado bunting in Google's primary colors hung overhead. The Interland mascot got Spanish callouts. Kids drew the pillar words on a giant mural wall while their parents learned about online safety nearby. Bilingual signage carried both versions of the program name side by side, refusing to make either feel like the translation.
The brief asked us to replicate the look and feel of the online platform. We replicated something more important: the feeling of belonging.
We turned a school gym in Los Angeles into a physical Interland. Every surface designed to make families feel both the program and their culture.
"Sé Genial en Internet" and "Be Internet Awesome" side by side. Not as translation, but as twin headlines. The visual statement that Spanish belongs here too.
A giant chalk wall where kids drew the five Spanish pillar words: Inteligente, Alerta, Seguro, Amable, Valiente. The program in their own handwriting.
Custom game stations and modular seating in Google's primary colors. Families played through the Interland missions together. Kids leading, parents learning.
Bunting in primary colors overhead, the Interland mascot scaled into the room, Spanish callouts everywhere. The cultural and the brand layered, not balanced.
Same-day launch in Los Angeles. Community leaders in the morning, families in the afternoon. The room landed. And the multi-agency campaign that wrapped around our work amplified it far beyond the gym.
A platform built in California, brought to a school gym in LA, translated into Spanish, layered with Papel Picado and a chalk wall full of kids drawing in their own handwriting. By the end of the afternoon, nobody in the room was thinking about Google as a Mountain View company. The brand felt like it belonged.