German food giant Dr Oetker is seeking to halt the decline of yoghurt and mousse brand Onken with the first major activity for BioPot in five years.

BioPot is returning to TV screens next month following the completion of Onken Dairy UK's inte­gra­tion into Dr Oetker, which acquired the com­pany in July 2004.

The £1.5m campaign uses the Dancing Man commercial last aired in 2001. At the time the advert generated sales uplifts of 15%.

It ­features the track Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves, and shows a man dancing around his kitchen wearing only a towel while his girlfriend looks on, laughing and eating her BioPot yoghurt. Dr Oetker UK ­MD Peter Franks said the commercial would ­reawaken interest in the brand and highlight its health and quality credentials. He also said it marked the beginning of major investment in the brand. In the UK, Onken has a 2.7% market share but had been in decline, he said.

"Onken has great loyalty but has struggled to attract new customers with no investment in the brand. We are now building the brand, with the message that it tastes good and feels good. The missing link was communicating with the consumer," said Franks.

In Germany, Dr Oetker is working on innovation and new products will be launched later in the year.

Here, it has already gene­rated some activity across the functional sub-brands Wholegrain and Wholegrain Lite BioPot, which include added fibre. It has launched a four-pack of Lite, redesigned the ranges' packa­ging and introduced a Wholegrain Pear variety into Asda and Waitrose.

The company is also formu­lating a Europe-wide stra­tegy for chilled.

The acquisition of Onken is part of Dr Oetker's overall stra­tegy to create a UK business based on three different temperature regimes: frozen, chilled and ambient.

Its Pizza Ristorante brand has carved a strong position in frozen in the four years since its UK launch. With Onken now in the fold, attention will turn to ambient, said Franks.

The yoghurt and pot ­desserts market, excluding yoghurt drinks, has grown 3.1% and is worth £1.54bn [TNS 52 w/e Jan 29, 2006].


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