Boony doll
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The Boony Doll first came into existence in the Australian summer of 2005/2006 as part of the VB One Day Cricket Series, also dubbed VB summer of Cricket and VB Boonanza.
This Australian first campaign created by George Patterson Y&R, Veil Interactive and Accure Marketing provided the opportunity for consumers to own their own piece of sporting legend David Boon in the form of an interactive Talking Boony figurine.
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’. The element that set it apart from other campaigns was the use of the ‘magic box’ technology that allowed consumers to interact with the figurine by bringing it to life during Channel Nine’s coverage of the VB Series.
Each Talking Boony contained a 60 sec sound chip that contained over 35 unique phrases and individual code words.
There were two elements to the technology:
• Audio triggers – the figurines would respond to audio triggers transmitted by Nine 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.
BOONANZA II - The Battle of the Tashes
The phenomenon that was Talking Boony returned in 2006/07 for the Ashes series. The ‘Battle of the Tashes’ marked the return of talking Boony and an old mate – legendary English cricketer Ian ‘Beefy’ Botham.
Boonanza II – ‘The Battle of the Tashes’ paid tribute to the glory days of test cricket. Talking Boony and Talking Beefy figurines with their signature moustaches, harked back to 80s Test cricket and Ashes rivalry between the Old country and Australia . Using advanced infrared technology developed by Veil Interactive again, the new Talking Boony and Talking Beefy figurines engaged in friendly banter throughout the season. In-built timers, when positioned approximately 20cm apart (with the infrared panels facing each other), triggered commentary between the figurines.
Other technological updates to the figurines featured a push button, allowing each figurine to talk on demand and Extended life batteries that can be easily replaced. With the new advancements in technology enabling Talking Boony and Beefy to talk to each other, the figurines no longer relied on pings emitted from the TV during the cricket coverage.
