Cannes Lions: Radio & Audio winners 2019 /

The Cannes Lions Radio & Audio jury today awarded the Grand Prix in its category to Westworld: The Maze, created by 360i, New York, and HBO, New York.

Described as a 'fully immersive voice game' designed for the Amazon Echo smart speaker, The Maze allows people to play an audio choose-your-own-adventure game set in the fictional theme park of Westworld. The game features 36 voice actors, 11,000 lines of script, 60 possible paths and up to two hours of gameplay. The agency reports that over 10,000 people opened the voice skill in the first week of its release, and generated over 500 million earned-media impressions.

The jury president and CCO of MullenLowe Group UK, Jose Miguel Sokoloff, said that The Maze was selected to win the Grand Prix because, 'This is completely pushing the boundaries. It's got gameplay. It can only happen if you talk to it. It's voice activated - it talks back to you. It takes you on a journey. It's impeccably produced. The craft is incredible.'

Commenting on the category as a whole, Sokoloff observed that, 'It's one of those categories that's gone through difficult times. We're always saying that radio is hard to create. But right now you find that the boundaries of radio - and audio particularly - are expanding. It's almost exploding. But it still retains the magic of being one of the few categories that has zero barriers for a person with a pen, paper, an idea and a voice to change the world'.

Gold Lions in the category were also awarded to:

Broadway The Rainbow / Mars Wrigley Confectionery / DDB Chicago

BK Bot 92 Whoppers, BK Bot Chicken Persons, BK Bot Tastes Like Math / Burger King / David, Miami

Night Weeping, Pleasure Cave, Lumpy Futon, Makoti, Umsebenzi, Nsizwa / City Lodge Hotel Group / TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris