Golden Books, Pillsbury Bake Xmas Icons - licensing agreement, use of storybook characters in advertisements - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Brandweek, June 11, 2001 by Sonia Reyes

Pillsbury will enlist Golden Books' Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as frontline ambassadors to drive sales of its Holiday Shapes refrigerated cookie dough line in a cross-promotion that offers discounts, backed by national TV and heavy in-store support.

The effort, via Ryan Partnership, Minneapolis, extends Pillsbury's strategy to boost its Holiday Shapes line with new SKUs by leveraging its brand equity with Golden Books' most popular characters. A new Frosty the Snowman-shaped cookie dough will ship in November. The cross-promotion, to run November to January 2002, offers $1 off for Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph DVDs on 3 million boxes of the new Frosty-shaped cookie line. DVD holiday titles offer $1 off Pillsbury's shaped cookies.

A 30-second national TV ad, via DMB&B, New York, marks the first TV spot for the line. It will air during popular holiday programming, including CBS' broadcasts of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman during December.

An FSI with the money-saving offer will drop on 20 million households.