Vrse.works LA wins Cannes Entertainment Lions Grand Prix for New York Times ‘The Displaced’
Leading virtual reality studio, Vrse.works LA, has won a Grand Prix at Cannes Lions for Innovation in Visual Storytelling and Branded Entertainment with “The Displaced”, its New York Times collaboration, which places viewers directly inside the global refugee crisis.
Vrse.works sent creator Imraan Ismail along with New York Times journalist Ben Solomon to South Sudan, Ukraine, and Syria to follow three children as they navigate their way through the largest refugee crisis since World War II.
THE DISPLACED is available to watch on the Within app www.with.in.
Today more than 60 million people worldwide have been driven from their homes by war and persecution, roughly half of whom are children. For the launch of the NYTVR app, The New York Times premiered “The Displaced” at a mass demo this last November in New York.
The following Sunday, over 1 million subscribers received complimentary New York Times branded Google Cardboards with their Sunday paper, giving them the opportunity to empathize and experience the devastation of the refugee crisis firsthand – an idea considered unattainable in journalism until the advent of VR.
Says Patrick Milling Smith, co-founder and president, Vrse.works: “We are absolutely delighted to win the Grand Prix at Entertainment Lions. Using a new medium like Virtual Reality, the New York Times was able to amplify the reach of their Magazine editorial, immersing people into a spherical 360 world of these three children.
“Having already successfully expanded into the digital landscape, the Grey Lady has maintained its command at the forefront of how we consume news by embracing VR and experiential storytelling.
“This is 21st century marketing at its best, virtual reality has propelled the New York Times brand demonstrating how this discipline could enable a 165-year-old news brand to thrive.”
With “The Displaced” millions of people both young and old were not only exposed to their first VR film, but through this timely convergence of technology and journalism, were lent an entirely new perspective to what has become one of the pivotal events of this century.
Thousands shared the experience on social media with the hashtag “#NYTVR” and media outlets worldwide praised the film and its creators, declaring VR’s arrival into the mainstream.
Within the first three days of its release, the NYTVR app had been downloaded more times than any other app in the publication’s history. Less than six months later, the New York Times has now made VR a priority, changing the way we get our news for years to come.