Originally released as an independent illustrated book, Nelly Jelly, known as Kakė Makė locally, has sold approximately 2.3 million copies of its primary picture book series. But that, it seems, is only the beginning, with the brand now looking to engage children with a new campaign that will help to prize them away from their electronic gadgets and into the garden!
Education UAE spoke to NJ World CEO Simona Krasauskienė to find out more.
Education UAE: Can you elaborate on the potential impacts of excessive-tech usage on children’s well-being, and how Nelly Jelly programmes address these concerns?
Simona Krasauskienė: Recent research shows that children who spend too much time on screens are more likely to have poor social skills and lower cognitive abilities. From 4 to 6, children rapidly develop their brains and cognitive skills. It means that they need to explore their surroundings using all their senses to learn about the world, so they need to interact in real-life activities with their families. This provides much more information than looking at screens all the time.
We live in mixed reality, and screens can be a useful part of how a child learns about the world. However, unlimited time spent on tablets is surely harmful to children, especially preschoolers. With our projects, we aim to inspire children to spend more time with their families over excessive screen time.
The Gardenland (Sodolendas) project offers a gardening tool collection for Gen Alpha children and their families. The goal is to invite the whole family to spend time together outside, encourage children to get away from screens, garden together, and care about plants. When a family spends time doing these activities, it fosters re-connection between family members, involves kids in outdoor activities, and teaches them about sustainability in the best way possible.
Recently, we released a unique cookbook that revolutionises traditional children’s books. It’s called Kakė Makė. In the Kitchen with Alfas Ivanauskas and is created together with Lithuania’s leading celebrity chef, Alfas Ivanauskas. It’s interactive, has intriguing DIY recipes, and captivating food servings, and invites children to scan QR codes and watch fun and colourful video tutorials on how to do it.
Last year, we worked on a retail project focused on emotional literacy in partnership with Maxima, the country’s largest retailer. The project included emotion cards, an activity book, and an encyclopedia, and there is more in the publishing line.
Education UAE: How do you ensure that your nature-based activities are appealing to children, especially those accustomed to digital entertainment?
Simona Krasauskienė: It is obvious that the Alpha generation enjoys spending time in front of screens, so we offer them engaging real-life activities, combining elements from the meta world. We make our products look appealing and enjoyable for the Alpha generation.
The seeds in our gardening collection differ from ordinary ones – they have playful names, colourful packaging, and informative resources. The collection includes strawberry spinach, ornamental sunflowers, decorative corn, Butterfly flower mix, Sugar Baby watermelon seeds, etc. Our gardening collection transitioned from being a playful and colourful product to a fun family activity.
Also, we believe children like to copy adults, so we created a project that involves parents, grandparents, and educators.
To make the experience even more engaging in this campaign, we presented special loyalty games. For example, one of them was a giveaway of a greenhouse, where children could grow vegetables. For that, we announced a competition on social media and selected the winner, who won a greenhouse for free.
Education UAE: What strategies do you employ to help children develop a deeper appreciation of nature?
Simona Krasauskienė: Firstly, the Gardenland project provides children with gardening kits and tools to engage them in planting and caring for plants, learning about plant life cycles, biology, and ecology enjoyably. Gardenland’s collection has 35 different items, including 18 types of seeds for vegetables, flowers, and herbs, ready-to-use gardening kits, gardening tools such as watering cans, buckets, rakes, spades, and products for active leisure.
We also highlight the importance of quality family time, encouraging families to spend more time together outside and get children off screens. This helps to strengthen family connections and teaches children to value nature.
Additionally, the children of Gen Alpha really care about sustainability and the planet, the food they consume, and where it comes from. Already 81% of their parents say their Alpha children have influenced their actions or consumption decisions, making them more environmentally aware. So naturally, we give children what aligns with their core values and promotes sustainability and environmental care in our products and campaigns.
Education UAE: Can you tell me about your loyalty programme, which includes a special gardening collection?
Simona Krasauskienė: Our loyalty programme is based on a partnership with one of the major retail chains in Lithuania, ‘IKI’. The retailer was looking for new promotion ideas, and we had an offer that would benefit parents, families, and children by getting them involved in activities away from screens. Since it was the gardening season, we collaborated to create a unique promotion – a three-month digital loyalty campaign to offer gardening tools from the Gardenland collection with a discount.
As part of this campaign, we introduced a digital solution on the “IKI” app where you can collect e-stickers and unlock discounts on a complete collection of seeds, shovels, and buckets. The most valuable aspect is that this promotion is eco-friendly, as there’s no need for paper stickers, so tech-savvy Gen Alpha children are enjoying it too. We are proud of this digital solution because we are pioneering with it in Lithuania, as it just emerging globally.
Our Gardenland publishing programme features activity books, a garden encyclopedia, and YouTube shows. We are committed to producing more content on these topics for the future Beta children generation. So we are taking steps to expand our reach from publishing to digital content and beyond with the Gardenland project.
Education UAE: Could you provide examples of successful outcomes or testimonials from children and families who have participated in your initiatives?
Simona Krasauskienė: Monika Vilčinskaitė, a well-known local influencer, has been using gardening items from the Gardenland collection to educate her two sons about growing their own plants and caring about them. She shares her educational videos on our YouTube platform telling what the family planted already, explaining the process, and showing the results.
Monika runs an Instagram account named ‘Living in a Farmhouse’, followed by 29.1k people in Lithuania, to inspire others to embrace country living. She advocates for a peaceful lifestyle and promotes the idea of slowing down in a fast-paced world.
Also, we frequently receive feedback from families who have used Gardenland gardening products, sharing pictures of their cultivated plants and planting experiences.
Education UAE: How do you collaborate with educators and parents to reinforce the message of balancing technology use with outdoor experiences?
Simona Krasauskienė: We engage with them via YouTube, where we create and show educational videos to share information with children, and we inform parents through social media, PR, and other marketing tools. We also collaborate with influencers to spread important messages.
Also, we create interactive books that offer alternatives to screens, and our product development focuses on fun activities for families with children. All of them are unique because they come in different interactive formats, including ‘touchable’ books, ones with a QR code, and audiobooks.
We plan to release 17 more books this year, covering topics like education, emotional intelligence, self-knowledge, and creativity. We have three book categories based on children’s age and characters and we will introduce a new category in 2024 called ‘Learning to Read’.
Education UAE: Can you describe any partnerships or collaborations you have with local communities or nature organizations to enhance the impact of Nelly Jelly’s programmes?
Simona Krasauskienė: We are currently experiencing growth on multiple platforms in our local market – we have a best-seller book series, written by initial author Lina Žutautė, theatre plays, events, and a blockbuster movie in 2023. This family-friendly film features six adventures filled with humour, antics, and valuable lessons.
But what I would like to highlight even more is that currently, Nelly Jelly is entering the global market in the animation industry, presenting a new seven-minute pre-school comedy TV show in collaboration with the British animation studio ‘3Megos’. The series is about the world of an intelligent, determined, strong little girl, Nelly Jelly, who often embarks on adventures with her imaginary monster friends, Jim and Jam. The show combines elements of music, fun, surprises, and comedy, making it ideal for family co-viewing, especially Gen Alpha preschoolers aged 4-6.
Built upon the principles of Gen Alpha and future Gen Beta, who prioritise diversity and equality, our international audience will meet Jim, a fluffy pink male monster who is highly analytical and loves books, and Jam, a super-strong green female monster whose main role is to protect Nelly Jelly and spread positive energy.
There is already a trailer released for the show, which along with the scripts and storylines for the co-production, will be revealed this June at the Annecy Film Festival. The finished show is planned to be released globally in Q3 2025. The series will have 26 episodes, each lasting seven minutes.
Education UAE: How do you envision the long-term impact of your efforts in encouraging children to connect with nature, both on an individual level and in terms of broader societal attitudes towards technology and the outdoors?
Simona Krasauskienė: The idea behind Gardenland’s campaign is to encourage children to spend more time outdoors and gain valuable life skills by taking care of their own vegetables and plants. Children learn about the life cycles of plants, biology, ecology, and nature in a practical and fun way.
Such initiatives foster critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, and curiosity. It encourages children to be more responsible, inspires physical activity, and teaches them to consume more fruits and vegetables. Taking care of your well-being is the most important skill to learn in the early years.
Most importantly, we encourage families to spend quality time together through enjoyable activities that strengthen bonds not only with parents but also with grandparents and other family members.