Jell-O, a Kraft Heinz brand, has remained an iconic food for both kids and adults alike for decades. Now the gelatinous dessert brand is reaching families in an all-new way, through an animated digital television show called The JELL-O Wobz, created in partnership with DreamWorksTV.
The six-episode series is the latest project produced by Springboard, a Kraft Heinz platform that is “dedicated to nurturing, scaling and accelerating” the growth of disruptive food and beverage brands in the US. Springboard officially launched in March with a focus on natural and organic, specialty and craft, health and performance and experiential food categories.
New JELL-O Wobz episodes will premiere each week on DreamWorksTV’s YouTube Channel and on Amazon Prime Video, the latter of which requires a Prime membership to watch. That kind of dual-platform release is a rarity these days, but it could be that the length of the episodes, only about four minutes each, played into the fact that Prime didn’t require exclusive streaming rights. DreamworksTV also has a dedicated subscription channel on the platform, which made Amazon Prime a natural addition for distribution.
To spread awareness of the show, the company will focus on targeted media channels including cinema, print, social media and online videos, where parents and kids go to discover content.
The Wobz are wobbly Jell-O characters shaped like different household kitchen objects, and they adventure through a fantasy kitchen world. The show tackles relevant parenting and developmental issues such as coping with imperfection, accepting physical appearances and embracing free play, which are themes that resonate strongly with today’s parents.
The animated show’s debut coincides with the recent launch of JELL-O Play, a gelatin toy brand comprised of differently shaped molds and edible stickers designed to engage families by promoting free play and creativity. The toys also happen to be available for purchase on Amazon.
“Jell-O has a legacy as a family brand,” Springboard marketing and sales lead Katy Marshall told AList. “The JELL-O Wobz and JELL-O Play are opportunities to bond and connect as a family, as parents and kids have become increasingly over-scheduled and free play time has been on the decline.”
Marshall added that parents are searching for easy and convenient solutions for creative play, and Jell-O seemed to fit the mold, so to speak. That led to putting the dessert at the core of its toy products while the show complements it by dealing with relevant topics in a humorous and playful way.
“Today’s parents and kids feel more pressure than ever before, and yet families spend less time talking about important issues like self-acceptance,” Marshall said in a statement. “As a brand whose values center on family bonding and free play, we wanted to create a show to foster this important dialogue.”
