A media-first voice skill created for the Queensland Eye Institute Foundation’s (QEIF) world-first art exhibition Last Seen has won the ‘Apps, Mobile and Voice – Education and Reference’ category of this year’s prestigious Webby Awards.
Competing against the likes of Harvard Business Review and Encyclopedia Britannica, Last Seen is the only Australian voice skill to be recognised globally in a one of a kind smart speaker experience.
Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honour” by The New York Times, The Webby Awards, presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), is the leading international awards organisation honouring excellence on the internet for websites, interactive advertising, online film & video and mobile content.
With 13,000 entries from 70+ countries, and 2.5 million votes cast by 600,000 people in the Webby People’s Voice Awards, the 24th Annual Webby Awards is one of the biggest in its history.
Webby winners were awarded during The Webbys From Home Internet Celebration, with appearances from Michelle Obama, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Timbaland and Tom Hanks.
The Last Seen exhibition skill was conceived and developed collaboratively by The Studio at SCA, voice software experts Alkira and Publicis Worldwide, and was designed to enhance the experience for visitors to the Last Seen exhibition, a fundraising initiative for QEIF.
Last Seen paired Australians who have been impacted by blindness or vision impairment with artists to create paintings of their last significant memory before their vision started to deteriorate. The voice skill housed unique soundscapes that accompanied each painting. Those soundscapes re-created this poignant memory, bringing the paintings to life in sound.
During the exhibition, attendees could use the skill to listen to these soundscapes on their phones while looking at the painting, hear detailed stories behind the artworks, learn more about the artists and find more information on the QEIF, making the experience far more immersive and impactful.
Publicis Worldwide Executive Creative Director, Ryan Petie, said: “Big ideas like Last Seen can only come to life through trusting collaborative partnerships – like Publicis Worldwide, SCA, Alkira and our production partners have demonstrated here.”
Head of The Studio at SCA Brisbane, Jeanna Manifold, said: “We are so excited to win a prestigious Webby Award and to be the only Australian voice skill to win. The creative concept developed by Publicis immediately brought to mind audio’s ability to create an intimate and immersive experience which could truly honour the stories behind each painting. It’s been a pleasure to work with QEIF and the team at Publicis to create a unique campaign and a suite of assets which sits across all of SCA’s audio platforms.”
The Studio at SCA National Head of Creativity, Matt Dickson, said: “To win a Webby Award is a huge acknowledgement to the talent we have at The Studio and congratulations to our Brisbane team. As humankind’s oldest form of communication, voice is such an intuitive and immersive way to tell stories. It’s been great to pair this with new tech in the form of a smart speaker skill. For brands, voice is the next frontier and it’s been fantastic to work with QEIF and Alkira to create a groundbreaking, audio experience.”
While the exhibition has completed, the skill is still live. To hear the skill in action, just say: “Ok Google, talk to Last Seen exhibition” on any Google Assistant enabled device.
The exhibition can also be viewed at https://lastseen.com.au/
The Last Seen case study video can be viewed here
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