May 21, 2024. Most families these days do not spend enough quality time together, due to the prevalence of screens in households. According to a recent study, about 59% of Gen Alpha prefer watching movies and series on TV as their favorite weekend activity, and 50% of them name it as their favorite after-school activity.
Meanwhile, brand developers understand that the world is changing and that children in most families are the household CEOs, often deciding what the family will eat. Nelly Jelly, a beloved children’s character, and pioneering Lithuanian brand (locally known as Kakė Makė), together with country’s celebrity chef Alfas Ivanauskas just released a unique interactive cookbook titled “Kakė Makė. In the Kitchen with Alfas Ivanauskas” that revolutionizes traditional children’s books.
Dishes featured in the cookbook are designed specifically for children – each one looks like an easy DIY art project in the kitchen. The recipe list includes Halloween spiderwebs from popcorn, edible fruit paper, invisible hotdogs, two-layer love soup, stuffed pineapple, Lithuanian flag color treat, floral lemonade, painter’s cast pancakes, colored porridge, etc. All of them are categorized as experiments, multicultural cuisines, and beloved desserts.
Dishes from the cookbook “Kakė Makė. In the Kitchen with Alfas Ivanauskas”
“By appealing to the Alpha Generation and speaking their language – creating unique titles, sharing intriguing recipes, making captivating food servings, and even inviting them to watch fun and colorful video tutorials on how to do it – we meet their needs. They are screen natives and it’s their normal world, so we want to be the ones who blur the lines between the meta and physical world with Alpha children while waiting for the Beta generation. This kind of publishing project encourages the whole family to come together and create,” said Simona Krasauskienė, CEO of NJ World, the company that manages the Nelly Jelly and Kakė Makė brands.
Promotes equality
In addition to bringing families together, the new project takes a social stance: it emphasizes that both men and women are excellent chefs. “Unfortunately, the stereotype that girls should be more interested in cooking than boys persists in many countries. By inviting a male chef as the main protagonist of our interactive book, we aim to demonstrate that cooking is for everyone,” Krausauskienė added.
This isn’t the first cookbook released by Nelly Jelly. The brand began working on culinary projects during the quarantine, firstly releasing the children’s recipe book “Kakė Makė. Recipes” with well-known local food bloggers Kristina Pišniukaitė-Šimkienė and Indrė Trusovė. This book goes beyond food, emphasizing quality family time, cherished memories, and new flavors. With recipes for all meals and healthier desserts, it also offers tips on aesthetic serving, tasks that children can do on their own when cooking, and positive guidance on teaching proper cooking techniques. Due to its popularity, the book is on its way from the native market and will be available in other Baltic countriessoon.
Nelly Jelly brand (native Kakė Makė) plans to release 17 more books this year, covering topics like education, emotional intelligence, self-knowledge, and creativity. The brand has 3 book categories based on children’s age and characters and will introduce a new category in 2024 called “Learning to read”. All of them are unique because they come in different interactive formats, including “touchable” books, the ones with a QR code, and audiobooks.
IP is aiming high
Lina Žutautė, the original author of Nelly Jelly books, is currently working on an eagerly awaited new picture book, and this year’s edition will have a Christmas theme, focusing on sustainability, diversity, and other important topics. This book has the potential to become the content for a new Nelly Jelly series, created with British animation studio “3Megos”.
“While children today spend a significant amount of time in front of screens, children’s brands have a responsibility to show them that the real world can be equally enjoyable, entertaining, and stimulating as their meta world, so it’s important to take the initiative and encourage them to engage in real-life activities, such as cooking,” Krasauskienė said.
Nelly Jelly emphasizes the importance of family bonding with similar projects. Recently, the brand has launched an all-family gardening project Sodolendas (Gardenland) in the native market, offering a range of gardening products, tools, and kits for all family members to enjoy and to encourage families to spend more time together in nature.
ABOUT NELLY JELLY
Nelly Jelly is a beloved children’s character and a national brand hailing from Lithuania, designed to encourage kids to explore, get creative, and overcome life challenges with the help of witty and fun characters. With a team of passionate individuals who have a special sense for global trends, the brand is currently experiencing growth to multiple platforms, including books, theater plays, events, and a blockbuster movie in the local market in 2023. Nelly Jelly sells over 2 million licensed products yearly through 30 local partners. Also, the brand constantly attends global events, aiming to find new ways to provide educational and enjoyable content for young audiences.
