National Geographic’s Bravo Tango (Brain Training) Google Action was recently recognized as a 2018 Clio Award Gold award winner. The Google Action was the winner in the Television/Streaming Category for Social Good. Since 1959, the Clio awards have recognized excellence for the “creative business,” and are a widely sought after accolade. 360i and XAPPmedia were listed respectively as the media and interactive agencies responsible for the project’s design, development and launch.
Bravo Tango is a military-inspired abbreviation for “brain training.” The interactive voice app was developed to help soldiers returning from combat in their ongoing efforts to re-adjust to civilian life. Bravo Tango is a Google Action (i.e. a voice assistant app) that can be accessed through Google Home smart speakers or the Google Assistant app on smartphones. Once activated, users are invited to participate in relaxing exercises or access resources that assist military veterans. The app design was supported by Air Force combat veteran and psychologist Michael Valdovinos.
Notable in Both Mission and Design
The Google Action is notable not only in its mission, but also in design. It begins with a short introduction followed by a simple open-ended request, “Tell me how you are feeling right now.” The natural language understanding then makes recommendations based on the response and can even help a user go through mindfulness exercises designed to re-establish focus or relieve stress. The primary goal is to help any veteran in need. However, the Google Action is available to all consumers.
National Geographic launched the Google Action in conjunction with its docuseries, The Long Road Home, that chronicled events of a single day in Iraq from the perspective of multiple participants. The Google Action was a way to both draw additional attention to the topic of PTSD and highlight some of the themes of the program. Earlier in 2018, Bravo Tango was also awarded the top people’s voice Webby Award in the machine learning category.
You can learn more about Bravo Tango by clicking the button below or trying it yourself on Google Home by saying, “Hey Google, Talk to Bravo Tango.”
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