Accure together with the Ad agency George Patterson Y&R were heavily involved with a promotion for Foster's Australia called VB Boonanza. This promotion centred on a little interactive talking figurine.
The Boony figurine was built using technology from Veil Interactive to react to pings from the TV network telecasting the cricket games. The Boony figurine would come to life every time the cricket was on and talk to the consumers at home in his typical Aussie Bloke demeanour
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Fetching RSS feed... please stand byThe Summer of Boony
The Boonanza campaign and how it captured a nation
On Friday 13 January 2006, an army of Boony figurines we produced for Foster's Australia Cricket campaign awoke to ask: "When are we going to the pub?" This sent VB drinkers, cricket fans and technology buffs into a frenzy trying to secure their own talking Boony.The figurines were offered as part of the VB Boonanza Campaign supporting the VB International Series of Cricket. The promotion featured the first Australian use of new interactive technology from Veil Interactive that excited media and consumer interest.
How it worked:
Audio triggers - the figurines would respond to audio triggers transmitted by the teolecast during the cricket and embedded in VB TVC's. Depending on which trigger the figurine heard, it would respond with a particular style of phrase, allowing it interact with what was happening during the cricket. The phrases were grouped; "good shot", "good ball", "appeal" and "random silence". The random silence phrases include comments like "Anyone seen me thongs?" and "I feel like playing totem tennis".
Pre-programmed phrases - the figurines were timed to power up and down to conserve battery life. They were also designed to come to life at certain times and say a particular phrase such as "Hey get me a VB, the cricket's about to start" before each innings. They also announced a daily code word during the telecast that consumers could SMS for the chance to win exclusive merchandise.
The idea of a Talking Boony figurine brought the VB Boonanza campaign to life and allowed the idea to flow through to all the other touch points. An amazing anecdotal response resulted with Boonys appearing on ebay and website debates on how the figurines worked.
David Boon resonated strongly amongst VB drinkers as a great sportsman and good Aussie bloke who likes a drink and a bit of a laugh with his mates. The campaign aimed to recapture the halcyon days of cricket with a unique retro feel that would tap into cricketing and drinking folklore by making an unexpected hero out of 'Boony'. We think it worked!!!
The VB Boonanza reinforced VB's position as Australia's favourite beer, with a heavyweight advertising campaign piggybacking the highly successful VB Series that was won by the Aussies of course
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