Yoplait Dairy Crest has unveiled ambitious plans to grow the overall kids' chilled yoghurts and desserts sector by £50m over the next three years.

Next month it kicks off a £6m multimedia advertising campaign - Calcium Every Day, The Easy Way - to encourage parents to introduce more calcium into their children's diets.

To coincide with the campaign, which will feature the strapline: 'Children test their bones every day, so invest in their bones every day with Petits Filous', Yoplait has doubled the amount of calcium in the range. A 60g pot now contains 149mg compared with 72mg before.

The Dairy Council's 3-a-day logo will feature on packaging.

Yoplait MD Jean-Christophe Gandon forecast a 15% rise in sales of Petits Filous over the next year and 20% growth in the kids' chilled yoghurts and desserts sector over the next three years on the back of the campaign.

Sales of kids' yoghurts and dessert have risen just 0.8% to £251.3m [IRI, grocery outlets 52w/e 29 December 2007]. UK consumption has remained low compared with the French and Irish markets, said Gandon, predicting that a strong calcium message would help boost sales significantly.

"A British household only eats half a pot of yoghurt a day on average, which leaves huge potential for growth," said Gandon. "The calcium campaign is focused on communicating to mums the importance of kids getting their calcium, and that eating more dairy products is an easy way of achieving this."

Advertising to support the initiative starts next month and includes TV, radio, sponsorship and website activity.

As well as a new creative featuring French child Marine, the company is also introducing advertisements featuring mothers talking about their experiences with the brand for the first time.

The initiative would eventually be rolled out across the company's other brands including Frubes and Yop, added Gandon.

In the past year, Yoplait sales excluding Frubes have risen 11.3% to £54.9m [IRI].

Last year, it added vitamin D to its yoghurts to help maximise absorption of calcium.

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