Yakka Dee!, a popular CBeebies multimedia animated series for preschoolers with a language acquisition focus, is preparing to expand its footprint around the world with key appointments on board to help the IP to the next level. Produced by King Banana TV and Beakus, industry consultants Rachel Bardill (Bar Digital) and Liz Keynes have joined the brand’s team for its next big step.
The series is an established preschool hit airing on CBeebies and iPlayer. With a dedicated audience watching over 140 episodes across a number of territories and a YouTube channel that has amassed over 1.35 million subscribers and over 1.2 billion views (sales and YouTube channel managed by BBC Studios), Yakka Dee! has proven popular with both kids and their carers.
“We’ve always known the potential for Dee”, says King Banana TV’s Katie Simmons, “We want to make sure she is reaching as many children as possible to help improve lives; speaking and communication is the foundation of everything from learning, building relationships, expressing thoughts… Yakka Dee! engaging children in more ways is such a positive step.”
Rachel Bardill is a seasoned expert with extensive experience in the kids’ digital media landscape, and has developed products, games, video, social content and brand franchises for some of the biggest kids brands in the world. Bardill is leading Yakka Dee!’s new phase alongside Liz Keynes, a strategy specialist in identifying and growing children’s brands for the long term whose previous blue-chip clients include Aardman Animations, Acamar Films, Lupus Films, Magic Light Pictures and TG Entertainment. Together the team will develop a comprehensive franchise strategy that will take Yakka Dee! into new markets, platforms and activations to further grow awareness and engagement so Dee can continue to encourage kids and enhance language acquisition for young children.
![Rachel Bardill [c/o King Banana]](https://www.animationmagazine.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/YB_Press-Release_Headshot_Rachel-Bardill.jpg)
Yakka Dee! brings together creative talents from King Banana TV (Nikhil & Jay, Meet The Experts) and Beakus (Olobob Top, Big Lizard), who have delivered a long-running show driven by a passion to make an impact on the audience’s lives. Yakka Dee! has become a trusted name among parents, caregivers and educators, thanks to its unique ability to encourage children to speak, helping children learn their first words and build early language skills in a fun and engaging way. The series is a complete resource that covers every phoneme needed to speak the English language, and grows with the audience, leading them on to the foundations of phonics and learning to read.
Adults also appreciate the show’s educational value, making it a favorite for families and early years professionals alike. This broad appeal is what gives Yakka Dee! such strong brand-building potential, the producers note, with exciting opportunities for growth across educational and entertainment platforms and products.
“Language acquisition is a pre-requisite for all children as a building block for other learning skills such as literacy and numeracy and yet many young children struggle with it for multiple reasons, sometimes neural, sometimes physical as well as the huge number of children who are learning English as a second language,” explains Keynes. “Dee can be a language learning ambassador with huge potential reach as she engages, entertains and empowers children to help them cope with early language acquisition skills, her unique connection with children is so exciting to explore in other applications and partnerships as we start to broaden the opportunities to engage whilst still keeping the heartland of language acquisition a really positive and fun experience.”
Bardill adds, “The potential for Yakka Dee! to grow is powerful. It’s already a trusted brand with a strong audience on CBeebies and YouTube. Our goal is to build on that success and develop Yakka Dee! into a multi-platform franchise that engages both kids and parents across the full ecosystem. The world of kids media has changed and as a team we will take this brand into the future.”
