The Dolmio Family: Back, and as Effective as Ever

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The Dolmio family have been the face of the Italian food brand for almost forty years, but their big creative breakthrough came in 2003, when the brand decided to give Papa and his brood a radical makeover, moving from live action to animated characters. The brand – and the family – have never looked back, as the distinctive animation style has led the family to become one of the most recognisable mascots in the business.

For proof, look no further than Dolmio’s latest ad with agency T&P, “Bolognese”. It brings the family back to Britain’s screens after a break, as part of the brand’s biggest campaign in a decade. In our Test Your Ad report the ad scores an Exceptional 78% on Fast Fluency – that’s 78% of viewers who recognise the brand after only two seconds of the commercial. All they’ve seen in those two seconds is a small jar of Dolmio and the familiar family characters. Proof that a good brand mascot is immensely valuable.

If you need more proof, there’s plenty of it in System1’s studies of creative consistency and how it drives growth for brands. In our Compound Creativity report we identify consistency – including long-running Brand ideas (like Dolmio’s “What’s Your Dolmio Day?” strapline) and characters – as the key driver of creative effectiveness in the long term. After 2-3 years a campaign will begin to drive proportionally far higher business effects than campaigns that lack consistency.

So it’s no wonder Dolmio elected to ‘look back in order to go forward’, realising consistency is the not-so-secret sauce for commercial gain. They chose to bring back the Dolmio family rather than opt for a fresh creative direction, because such a well-established and well-liked set of assets still has enormous potential to be creatively effective.

The new ad isn’t all nostalgia, of course – Papa is making his famous bolognese sauce because one of his family has a career as a short-form video influencer. Needless to say, the campaign will have a multi-platform presence including social video. Whether it includes Papa’s cheesy hashtag is another matter, but it ends the ad on a funny high point.

The Test Your Ad results speak for themselves – Dolmio’s ad lands in the top 10 of all condiments and sauces ads we’ve ever tested at System1, with a very strong 4.9-Star Rating putting the ad in the top 4% of its category for long-term growth. It also achieves an Exceptional Spike Rating, which predicts excellent short-term sales boosts from the ad.

With Dolmio celebrating its 40th birthday this year, the decision to bring back its most successful recurring Fluent Device isn’t just nostalgic. Results like these show the Dolmio Family still has what it takes to be an effectiveness driver for decades to come.