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Yoplait has brought back the highly successful Doctor Who character licence on its limited edition fromage frais Frubes, to coincide with the return of Doctor Who to UK TV screens.

The decision to re-run the Doctor Who licence was made following exceptional performance of the first promotion, which delivered 32% incremental growth to the category according to TNS Worldpanel and the start of the new TV series. The hugely popular sci-fi character replaces the Frubes Simpsons Movie DVD pack launched last year and reported in dairy innovation issue 14.

The new pack incorporates a new design, with a range of exciting features including games, door hangers and 24 different Doctor Who characters on the Frubes tubes. To extend the promotion appeal, from June 2008, each pack will also contain one of six collectable bookmarks, each featuring a Doctor Who character, aimed at increasing frequency of purchase, particularly during the summer.

The limited edition range is reported to be worth £8.3m, accounting for 28% of total Frubes sales. Yoplait Group Brand Manager Angelica Costantini said: “The The Frubes Doctor Who limited edition pack has been one of the most successful licenses to date, seeing average weekly sales double versus previous limited editions. With the huge popularity of the previous Frubes Doctor Who promotion and the new series on TV we are confident that Frubes Doctor Who will be equally popular with consumers and continue to add incremental growth to the category.”

Limited edition Frubes Doctor Who are available in 9x40g tubes in a ‘sonic’ strawberry flavour.