Finnish educational publisher WSOY Oppimateriaalit, a part of SanomaWSOY Education, has launched a new edutainment product category during Summer and Autumn. Oppi&ilo product portfolio starts with books, games and exercise books among others. The products are aimed at children aged under 12 to be used in leisure time.
"Our goal is to encourage children to find the joy of learning. The new product portfolio supports the development of skills and knowledge outside of school hours. The products are entertaining and pedagogically high quality," explains Anja Kahri, Director of WSOY Oppimateriaalit Consumer Markets.
The new product category has been developed for years and the new Consumer Markets business unit was established in the beginning of 2007. "The development work is based on the several decades' experience of educational publishing of WSOY Oppimateriaalit. In addition, a thorough survey was conducted among Finnish families, children, parents and grandparents," Kahri continues.
In the beginning of September opened Oppijailo.fi website with lots of material. The website offers for example puzzles and games for children and products to purchase as well as articles to read for adults.
Co-operation within the Group
"Cooperation within the SanomaWSOY Group has had a big role in developing the new products. WSOY Yleinen kirjallisuus (literature) has published books for us and together with Ilta-Sanomat a puzzle magazine was published in the summer. Distribution of products has been developed together with book store Suomalainen Kirjakauppa and R-Kiosk. The content of website has been developed together with Sanoma Magazines' family magazines," tells Kahri about internal cooperation.
Co-operation within the SanomaWSOY Education and Books Division will continue. "The size of SanomaWSOY Group, the wide portfolio and enthusiastic personnel give us an excellent competitive edge. There are a lot of good experiences about edutainment products in the Netherlands and Belgium," Kahri explains.
The student magazine EMIL – the result of divisional co-operation in Hungary
Divisional co-operation had an important role also in Hungary, when educational publisher Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó (NTK) last November launched a new EMIL magazine for pupils aged between 10 and 14. When starting to prepare EMIL it naturally wasn't possible to leave out the magazine publisher belonging to the Sanoma Group – Sanoma Budapest. The co-operation has been successful from the beginning. Presently the Editor in Chief of Sanoma Budapest's EXIT magazine and its journalist-team create most of the articles for EMIL.
"EMIL is a 48 pages long colourful monthly magazine that besides entertaining also gives a basic knowledge and information about the everyday life," describes Andrea Menyhárt Hámori, Sales Director of NTK. The magazine is published free of charge and distributed through schools for all students who have ordered it," continues Menyhárt.
The aim for this school year is to finance the magazine only by advertisements, but instead of regular ads the "sponsored article" solution is preferred. When reading the headings students could get useful information and besides they will memorize the ad a lot better. "We are looking for partners who would help the children in their everyday life by introducing the advantage of their company. For instance, a bank can buy a financial heading and could explain under its name simply for the children what bank account is, how to get one, what is the direct debit authorization and THM etc. Students hear these words and other similar expressions for example on TV but may not know what these specialized words really mean," explains Menyhárt.
WSOY Oppimateriaalit and Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó (NTK) are part of the SanomaWSOY Education and Books division.
Sanoma Budapest is a part of SanomaWSOY's magazines Division, Sanoma Magazines.
As of 1 October SanomaWSOY will change it name to Sanoma and SanomaWSOY Education and Books will change it name to Sanoma Learning&Literature.