Baking ingredients company Dr Oetker unveiled its “talking bakes” marketing campaign for the Channel 4 series of The Great British Bake Off (GBBO).

Viewers met three sponsorship characters for episode one on Tuesday night, including ‘The Baker Boys’, a harmonious sponge cake trio, ‘Sasha Swirl’, a sassy cupcake with attitude, and ‘Frederico Fudge’, a dark, velvety smooth character.

Dr Oetker launched the campaign based on the notion that there is “no one better to encourage people to bake than the cakes themselves”.

The characters will feature in TV sponsorship idents at the start and end of the show and rotating in and out with the joint sponsor and on pre-roll ads on All4 Catch Up.

Jan McKee, executive head of marketing UK at Dr Oetker, said the campaign’s main objective was to re-engage shoppers with the category during Bake Off time. 

“We’ve gone for a rather lighthearted and unexpected creative as we are keen to drive reappraisal of baking among consumers and get them back into the kitchen: we want baking to be perceived as a ‘fun in the process’ activity, rather than a stressful strive for perfection,” said McKee.

“When we tested the creative, consumers felt the cake characters were at the same time reassuring them and inspiring them to dare to bake.”

Dr Oetker announced 10 weeks before the new series broadcast that they would be co-sponsors alongside Lyle’s Golden Syrup. This is the first time that Dr Oetker has sponsored a primetime TV programme.