It's bread rolls at dawn as Hovis takes on market leader Warburtons with its latest sepia-tinted advert - featuring a lass rather than a lad.

Hovis's follow-up to the blockbuster Go on Lad ad first aired on Friday as part of a £1.5m marketing campaign to support the relaunch of Hovis bread rolls six weeks ago.

Over the past year, Hovis has been a minor presence in the bread roll category, dwarfed by Bolton-based rival Warburtons.

Compared with Warburtons' 25% share of the rolls category [Nielsen 52w/e 16 May 2009], Kingsmill has a 6.8% share and Hovis just 2.4%.

Nevertheless, Jon Goldstone, marketing director and boss of the Premier Foods' bread brand, was confident the advert would prompt a significant rise in sales, and this week asked retail customers to adjust sales forecasts of Hovis rolls.

"It's too early to tell how our relaunched rolls are selling, although they've been helped by the warm weather. However, the 25% share Warburtons has in the rolls category has been relatively stable and unchanged for a while now," he said. "It will be interesting to see what inroads we can make into its share."

The new ad depicts a young girl walking through a Victorian street and into a bakery that is selling oven-fresh Hovis-branded rolls. As she leaves the bakery the scene shifts to the present day.

Goldstone said the rolls advert was on a significantly smaller scale than September's Go on Lad epic, but added that another blockbuster ad for Hovis bread would hit screens in autumn or the new year.