The saying goes that the only limit to what you can achieve is the limits of your imagination, and if that’s true then Joanna Birchjones and Kelli Chambers could well be onto a huge hit. If so it will not just be the two friends and entrepreneurs that benefit, but the wider produce industry and even the waistlines of younger Brits.
On 18 September at New Spitalfields Market, Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes will be the guest launching a new online kids’ games site with ambitions one day to be as popular as global hits like Moshi Monsters and Club Penguin.
Popadeli is the brainchild of Birchjones and Chambers and is the culmination of three years’ work and several incarnations from toy project to TV show. With the support of illustrator Emma Hildreth and comedy writer Dean Wilkinson, the site sees kids exploring a studio where they can discover all about different fruit and veg, where they come from and get ideas for what to cook with them.
Interactivity is key to the site, with kids able to upload images and videos of their cooking creations and, eventually, perhaps also visit areas such as chat rooms and blogs. Initially free to play, as it grows and further elements are incorporated it could become a paid-for site in the Moshi mould.
Popadeli – the inspiration for which came after the two women watched Jamie Oliver’s exposé on school dinners – is predominantly aimed at kids in the four to 11 age bracket, though Birchjones and Chambers haven’t ruled out expanding its appeal as its users grow older. When they visit the home page children find themselves outside the Popadeli studio, from where they can choose to visit rooms such as a kitchen, garden, storage cupboard, music room and dressing area. In each room are things to do such as creating recipes – complete with information on the provenance of the fruit and veg.
Aside from produce, the other key element to the site is music, with Popadeli’s catchphrase of ‘Eat to the Beat’ summing up the culinary and musical mashup. A kids’ rap has even been written especially for the site. “We are trying to tie together the music and food sides of the project,” explains Chambers. “We’ll be taking kids down to Len Goodman’s dance school in Dartford, and there’ll also be a street dance for kids, which we hope will start a YouTube craze.”
The ambitious second phase of the project would see an entire online world created with more rooms, characters, games, multiplayer possibilities and much more.
Where Popadeli perhaps differs from other initiatives is that the game targets kids directly rather than mums, Birchjones points out. It’s about getting them to understand where food comes from in a fun way rather than preaching to them.
The success of the project will inevitably come down to cash, with the entire initiative having been funded by the two founders so far, who are yet to see a penny back on their investment.
They won’t put a figure on how much they’ve put into it so far, but they admit it’s been sizeable. Taking it to the next level won’t be cheap, and Chambers estimates they would need as much as £1.5 million in funding over three years to really let the project achieve its potential. As well as the financial costs of developing and keeping the game online, it will need full-time paid staff to maintain and create new and interesting content that will keep demanding online users interested. But should it take off, anything from merchandise, toys and food to a magazine or TV show could be created, with expressions of interest already having come from Pete Coogan and Martin Baker of The Muppet Show fame, and Open Mind Productions, the company behind kids TV favourite Numberjacks. It’s clearly a project that, if it really resonates with the public, could prove lucrative as well as educational.
The venture has the support of New Spitalfields Market, which is keen to get involved in engaging with schoolchildren and helping them understand about the provenance of fruit and veg. Although it is not providing financial backing, Spitalfields is hosting the launch event, where one child will win a competition to have their drawing turned into a character in the Popadeli universe.
“We wanted to get a project up and running, something we could take out into the community,” says Jan Hutchinson, chief executive of Spitalfields Market Tenants Association. “The idea for us is to build on that and maybe run other events seasonally with schools.”
Popadeli is launching into a congested online world where users make decisions in seconds. It can be brutal, but when something resonates it can quickly become a huge hit. And if it does, kids in Britain may find themselves a little better educated in fresh produce. —
