Yoobot Vs YooNot

Objective

British Heart Foundation needed to reach 11–13-year-olds on childhood obesity — a third of UK kids were overweight or obese at the time — without sounding like a lecture from adults, since that age group tunes out anything that smells like education. The brief was to engage them in the topic, show them the future consequences of today's food choices in a personal, visual way, and hand them the wheel to actually change their own habits.

Solution

The player builds a digital mini-me called a Yoobot, uploading their own photo so it wears their face, then picks its clothes, hairstyle and room. From there it's daily upkeep: feed it, send it out to move around, and choose from a menu of food and drink flagged by salt, fat and sugar content. Because one real day equals three years of Yoobot life, every return visit shows a changed character — bigger, smaller, healthier or worse — plus daily health alerts on things like blood pressure, cholesterol and heart disease risk. The Yoobot texts and emails the player jokes, complaints and gifts, burps and dances on its own, and consequences can be explored further in a mini-lab; if it dies, players get an autopsy screen and start over. The 2009 relaunch, Yoobot vs YooNot, added a rival alter-ego pushing junk food and laziness that players had to beat in a dodgeball mini-game.

Results

Over 1 million Yoobots were created within two months of launch, versus a target of 150,000 — 550% over goal. About 400,000 of those signups were in the core 11–13 target age (roughly 19% of all UK 11–13-year-olds), with about 90% of users under 14. Yoobot reached 40% awareness among the 11–13 target and briefly became the UK's third-fastest-growing search term. 68% of users talked about the game with friends, family or in chat rooms, 76% rated it brilliant or very good, and 85% logged in at least once a week (68% every couple of days), averaging 6-minute sessions. On impact, 85% said the game made them think more about food and health, 72% said they now think about their diet a lot (up 25 points), 63% said they wished they ate more healthily (up 22 points from 41%), and 70% said Yoobot had made them eat more healthily — an estimated 730,000+ children. A follow-up in February 2010 found 60% of children saying Yoobot made them want to exercise more regularly and 63% eat healthier food, while a separate case study reported 78% of participating 11–13-year-olds saw improved diets.