Spread the Word Sunday: Yoobot versus Yoonot

by Marc on October 4, 2009

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) relaunched their popular Yoobot online game last week. Players can create a miniature version of themself.
Children are in complete control of their Yoobot’s diet and physical activity and see how the health of their Yoobot develops as a result of the choices they make.
The main aim of Yoobot is to encourage children to consider the long term consequences of their current food and activity choices – by offering them a chance to experiment with their future.
The game is a follow up to last year’s hugely successful game YooBot, part of the Food4Thought campaign.
More than one million Yoobots were created in the first year of the BHF’s campaign and research has proven that 40% of 11-13 year olds were aware of the game. It was the third fastest growing online UK search term in 2008, ahead of ‘Britney Spears’.
The new version of the game features YooNot, the alter ego of the original YooBot character that encourages to eat junk food and do no exercise. In the game, users can defeat the YooNot in a game of Ultimate Dodgeball.
Jon Williams, chief creative officer at Grey London, said, “Yoobot’s back and this time he’s got a dark side. We all have the voice within us that tells us to do stuff we shouldn’t. YooNot is the virtual manifestation of that. Let the battle commence. The game just got more interesting.”
BHF is also launching real-life Ultimate Dodgeball throughout schools to encourage children to make changes to their diet and lifestyle.
The campaign is being promoted via desk drops in schools, online and SMS activity and a targeted advertising campaign with Nickelodeon.
BHF head of social marketing and brand Nick Radmore says: “Children are increasingly technology savvy so we decided to disseminate the messages about eating and exercise habits in a medium they are familiar with.”
The nutritional content and benefits of physical activity are modeled on real data in order to give the experience a degree of realism. However, in order to clearly link certain actions with health implications the BHF have exaggerated, and in some cases simplified, reality in order to emphasise the key points they would like users to understand.
The game has been created by Grey London and co-produced with Bloc media.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) relaunched their popular Yoobot online game last week. Players can create a miniature version of themself.

Children are in complete control of their Yoobot’s diet and physical activity and see how the health of their Yoobot develops as a result of the choices they make.

The main aim of Yoobot is to encourage children to consider the long term consequences of their current food and activity choices – by offering them a chance to experiment with their future.

The game is a follow up to last year’s hugely successful game YooBot, part of the Food4Thought campaign.

More than one million Yoobots were created in the first year of the BHF’s campaign and research has proven that 40% of 11-13 year olds were aware of the game. It was the third fastest growing online UK search term in 2008, ahead of ‘Britney Spears’.

The new version of the game features YooNot, the alter ego of the original YooBot character that encourages to eat junk food and do no exercise. In the game, users can defeat the YooNot in a game of Ultimate Dodgeball.

Jon Williams, chief creative officer at Grey London, said, “Yoobot’s back and this time he’s got a dark side. We all have the voice within us that tells us to do stuff we shouldn’t. YooNot is the virtual manifestation of that. Let the battle commence. The game just got more interesting.”

BHF is also launching real-life Ultimate Dodgeball throughout schools to encourage children to make changes to their diet and lifestyle.

The campaign is being promoted via desk drops in schools, online and SMS activity and a targeted advertising campaign with Nickelodeon.

BHF head of social marketing and brand Nick Radmore says: “Children are increasingly technology savvy so we decided to disseminate the messages about eating and exercise habits in a medium they are familiar with.”

The nutritional content and benefits of physical activity are modeled on real data in order to give the experience a degree of realism. However, in order to clearly link certain actions with health implications the BHF have exaggerated, and in some cases simplified, reality in order to emphasise the key points they would like users to understand.

The game has been created by Grey London and co-produced with Bloc media.

Yoobot 2009 TV Ad – version 1:

Yoobot 2009 TV Ad – version 2:

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