Lollos and Lettie need your help to offer educational entertainment for pre-schoolers
Lollos and Lettie have so far raised R13 016 towards their goal of R500 000, and have 24 days left to fund their project.
If you have a child younger than the age six, you will undoubtedly recognise the fictional duo, Lollos and Lettie.
Lollos and Lettie was conceptualised in April 2008 after two Stellenbosch-alumni drama students realized a noticeable gap in the Afrikaans industry for wholesome, educational entertainment for pre-schoolers.
Inspired by motherhood, Alta Joubert approached Minki Burger with an idea to marry their shared love of music and acting to create a unique concept to encourage young children to find the joy in learning.
Alta and I studied Drama together and have also always been making music together and one day the perfect opportunity arose up for us to collaborate. We noticed that our children were spoiled for choice when it came to English programming and we wanted to use our creativity to offer an alternative in our mother tongue. And so Lollos, was penned by our illustrator Luan Serfontein and named by my son, Mika who was only 6 years at the time – said Minki.
As budding female entrepreneurs, Minki and Alta learned the hard way to fight for their ‘LalaLand’ dreams and found themselves working harder than they anticipated to defend their passion project.
“In the beginning we had to beg and borrow to record our first album and have the suit made to put on our first show at KKNK. We dived in head first, convinced that we would sell 300 CDs on opening night. In reality, we sold about 30 copies, I think my dad bought half of them and proceeded to hand them out on the street to anyone who would listen,” said Minki.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN: On this day in history: Afrikaans declared an official language
“We were laughed at and people definitely thought we were crazy as we walked through the streets of Oudtshoorn in 40 degree weather, with a Lollos costume that resembled a frog/crocodile hybrid,” said Minki.
From humble beginnings, the word got out and soon enough, Lollos and Lettie captured hearts, they booked more shows and the project started to gain momentum.
We then decided to produce our first DVD. We asked two of our friends to invest in our business and they were very kind to trust us and believe in us.
Hanli Brink, joined sister, Alta and Minki shortly after the Lollos 1 CD was released and handles the ‘colourful chaos ‘behind the scenes. Alta has since left the Lollosteam but remains in spirit.
In the last nine years, they have become living room legends and have performed close to 1000 shows across South Africa. They have produced 8 movies with accompanying soundtracks. The Lollos brand has shown longevity and critical acclaim, accepting the SAMA award for ‘Best Children’s CD’ in 2011 and the Huisgenoot Tempo award for ‘Top Selling DVD’ in 2015 and 2017.
Lollos and Lettie have also made a number of famous friends on their trips to Earth from Lalaland, from which they originate. The likes of Bobby Van Jaarsveld, Emo Adams, Nianell and Dowwe Dolla have created memorable moments in South African entertainment with the colourful creatures.
Crowdfunding
For their latest project Lollos 9 Mallemeule , Lollos and Lettie, are hoping to achieve Fokofpolisiekar -type success with the help of rewards-based crowdfunding platform, ThundaFund.com.
After witnessing Fokofpolisiekar’s record breaking crowdfunding campaign on Thundafund that raised over R1million, we were inspired to launch our own initiative as an interactive way to engage with the audience that has been with us since we started – Minki.
Looking back at almost a decade in the industry and 33 971 Facebook friends alone, Minki and Hanlie decided to go big for their latest DVD release.
“When we started producing our DVDs our production budget was R100 000 and to be honest we do cringe a bit if we watch Lollos 1 – even though some of our most memorable songs are from there!” says Hanli
“With our crowdfunding campaign, we wanted to create unique rewards and experiences for our loyal supporters” – says Hanli
“Our crowdfunding campaign will enable us to produce high quality entertainment we can be proud of and maintain our DVD selling price of R100 which has remained the same the last eight years, despite production costs skyrocketing,” said Hanli
“The only obstacle delaying their new release is the R500 000 that needs to be paid up front to begin production. Through crowdfunding, customers essentially pre-order their DVD and the production company doesn’t need to fork out a large initial investment and wait 6 months before getting a return on investment. Your ‘backers’ also feel like true stakeholders, pledging to support their favourite projects – Perfect business sense!” said Nicholas Dilley, ThundaFund Marketing Manager.
Minki and Hanli understand their responsibility as entertainers to spread laughter as well as provide wholesome educational lessons to their young audience.
“We have an opportunity to teach our audience a meaningful message while understanding that children also need to be children. We always try to marry the two elements and in the end we find a fun way to teach basic principles that we believe will help build a better society. The thing about Lollos content that I am most proud of is that there is absolutely nothing ugly in it. It is 100% safe and wholesome. No hidden ideas or agendas,” says Minki
Hanli and Minki also highlight the importance of preserving their first language, Afrikaans.
“Being educated in your mother tongue is very important,” said Hanli.
Afrikaans is such a fun and expressive language! I believe this vibrant, indigenous language – will be evergreen and we have to do our part to make sure it never dies out – said Minki.
Lollos and Lettie have so far raised R13 016 towards their goal of R500 000 and have 24 days left to fund their project.
You can support their crowdfunding here:
https://www.thundafund.com/project/lollos
