Google's Cardboard Takes Home Grand Prix in Mobile

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Grand Prix winner for mobile at Cannes this year was not a campaign about a mobile device, or a campaign executed on mobile devices. It was one the jury called an "enabler"-- a winner that itself facilitated multiple campaigns that were also hoping to take home the Grand Prix.

Google took the top prize for the mobile category for Cardboard, its inexpensive virtual-reality reader made out of cardboard, and it won without the help of any of its numerous agency partners.

Joanna Monteiro, VP-creative director at FCB Brazil and mobile jury president, said that Cardboard won because it enabled a type of technology that was low-cost and widely available. Consumers can build the virtual-reality reader themselves, or purchase it for a few dollars compared to other VR devices with price tags reaching several hundred dollars. Cardboard gave "mobile new possibilities to really change behavior and have a huge impact on consumer life," she said.

Google Expeditions
As an enabler it was only a matter of time, but now even teachers around the world can take their students on Virtual Reality field trips to amplify their studies thanks to Google Expeditions. It’s an evolution of Google Cardboard, that has a central tablet that powers the tour and automatically syncs each Google Cardboard VR set, so that each individual child is experiencing the VR tour at the same time, allowing for a next level learning experience just about anywhere! Very cool.