Dive Brief:
- Pillsbury is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its Doughboy mascot with an interactive experience powered by augmented reality (AR), according to a press release.
- Consumers can scan packages of Pillsbury products and visit a mobile website to explore the pillowy character’s abode. Inside, several items are available for purchase while supplies last, including slippers, a glass set and a throwback ceramic Pillsbury cookie jar from 1988.
- The General Mills brand also listed the Modern Doughhouse Revival on real-estate site Zillow with an asking price of 1 million biscuits. The campaign was inspired by a pitch made on a recent episode of Jimmy Fallon’s new advertising competition show, “On Brand with Jimmy Fallon.”
Dive Insight:
Pillsbury is bridging nostalgic storytelling with modern technology through its interactive home experience. The effort celebrating six decades of the Doughboy is loaded with Easter eggs referencing the mascot’s history, along with shoppable AR elements. It was created in partnership with Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Zillow and Current Studios.
Items available carry a heavy holiday theme, with fleece-lined slippers displaying Christmas tree, snowman and reindeer motifs and a glass set meant for milk-and-cookie pairings. In addition, the Modern Doughhouse Revival has hidden recipes and historical fun facts in each room. Visitors can also snap a selfie with the Doughboy as Pillsbury looks to encourage user-generated content on social media.
Consumers can access the mobile activation by scanning cans of Pillsbury crescent rolls, biscuits or cinnamon rolls and going to a microsite, doughplacelikehome.com.
A branded Zillow listing provides extra color on the Doughboy’s home, which claims to cover 2,358 square feet and sit at “1 Pillsbury Lane” in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where parent General Mills is headquartered in real life. The house was constructed out of dough by the Doughboy’s “great doughfather,” the Zillow page asserts, and features accommodations like a state-of-the-art kitchen and “doughcave” home theater in the basement.
The concept was pitched to Pillsbury by Pyper Bleu, a contestant on “On Brand with Jimmy Fallon.” The NBC reality competition series tasks non-industry professionals with coming up with winning ideas for brands, which then bring those campaigns to life. The show has received a mixed response from the advertising community and echoes “The Pitch,” an unscripted AMC program from the early 2010s that followed creative agencies. The “On Brand” episode focused on Pillsbury aired Oct. 17.
