• The British Heart Foundation created Yoobot - a personalised avatar-based online application aimed at 11-13 year olds
• They advertised on Nickelodeon with 10", 30" and 60" spots
• BHF estimated that more than 780,000 have already taken steps to eat more healthily

The challenge

The British Heart Foundation's youth initiative has one core aim - to reduce the risk of today's children developing coronary heart disease by impacting the food and health choices they make now. With their Food4Thought campaign they wanted to encourage 11-13 year olds to take greater responsibility for their own health. They created Yoobot - a personalised avatar-based online application. Children were given the opportunity to create virtual versions of themselves and then they could choose to feed their Yoobot either healthily or with junk. They could also speed up the aging process to see how their diet and exercise choices would affect their life expectancy. The BHF set 4 key objectives for their Yoobot campaign which were:

1. Engage 11-13 year olds with the issue
2. Educate them about the long term consequences of their current food choices
3. Empower them to take control of their diet and make healthier lifestyle choices
4. Achieve 100,000 sign-ups to the Yoobot.co.uk website

The TV solution

Although the content was online based, TV was chosen as the primary driver for the communications strategy. This decision was made after research into their target audience revealed that TV would drive awareness and create credibility for the application. According to the research, TV was the most influential medium for 11-13 year olds. Furthermore, TV was shown as the medium they talked about the most and TV also emerged as the 'coolest'.

Initially, TV was not included in the media plan because it was perceived as too expensive for their modest budget.. However, PHD was certain that without TV the 100,000 online registration target would not be achieved and so went in search of a solution. PHD identified Nickelodeon as the perfect channel for the campaign. Not only did it hit their target audience but they were able to take advantage of Viacom's Force For Good Initiative. This is where advertisers who are using TV as a force for good to change behaviour in a positive way, on issues such as health and the environment have their TV spend budget doubled by Viacom. Ultimately, through this scheme BHF were able to afford to advertise on TV.

BHF launched the Yoobot in the same style as a retail gaming release. They commenced the TV campaign with 10” teasers leading up to the launch, giving viewers a glimpse of Yoobot and promoting the launch date. Then there was a 60” launch spot, followed by 30” spots revisiting the stars of the 10” teasers to reignite interest.

To supplement the TV campaign, posters were placed in schools and 1 million pieces of DM were distributed to the desks of 11-13 year olds in schools nationwide. Furthermore, to maintain momentum post launch, digital advertisements with online click-through reminders and SMS and email messages were used to remind children to continue to look after their Yoobot.

Results

The campaign exceeded all expectations with the target of 100,000 Yoobot registrations being smashed with 1.15 million Yoobots being created. The role TV played in the success of the campaign was evident as TV was the most recalled media with 51% having seen the TV campaign. 40% of 11-13 year olds were aware of any advertising activity and 28% of these went on to create a Yoobot. Awareness of Yoobot (driven by the communications) made it the 3rd fastest growing search term in the UK at launch (beating Britney Spears!).

As well as exceeding the registrations target, the campaign also met all of BHF's other objectives:

Engage 11-13 year olds with the issue - 85% of kids who registered continued playing with their Yoobot for up to 2 months afterwards

Educate them about the long term consequences of their current food choices - 87% of users said the game had "made me think more about the food I eat and do more to keep healthy."

Empower them to take control of their diet and make healthier lifestyle choices - 79% of the target now say they "think about my diet a lot, it's important to me" - a 32 percentage point increase pre-to-post (from 47%).

Achieve 100,000 sign-ups to the Yoobot.co.uk website - BHF estimated from all the post campaign data combined that out of the 1 million+ registrations, more than 780,000 have already taken steps to eat more healthily.

"This campaign has been a phenomenal success, far outweighing our expectations. This is largely due to the part TV played in capturing kids attention and getting them excited about the launch of Yoobot."

Nick Radmore,
Head of Social Marketing & Brand,
British Heart Foundation