ESJ ELT SERVICES JAPAN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING OVERVIEW
Jun 26, 2015
ESJ ELT SERVICES JAPAN
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENTAND MARKETING
OVERVIEW
Product Development, Marketing and Sales Services for Publishers
INTRODUCTION
ESJ is part of the iEnglish.com group and operates in Japan, where it specializes in working with publishers to produce and market great products, especially those with a focus on English language teaching and learning.
Our clients range from international companies such as Pearson, Oxford University Press, the BBC, Guinness World Records, and the British Library to Japanese companies such as Benesse, Asahi, Yomiuri, and Nikkei.
Our team has decades worth of experience in the ELT (English Language Teaching) market in Japan and has a deep understanding of product development (via its in-house team) and marketing (working with the key ELT-related companies in the country). We can ensure that products developed for this market are truly localized for Japan.
As part of iEnglish, the ESJ team has worked on a wide range of products both ELT-related and otherwise. In this document we show you some of the products we have worked on and introduce you to our key people.
• We localized OUP’s Bookworms series for Japan and the Alice iPhone and iPad apps hit the No.1 spot in the App Store charts for education and overall.
Product Development, Marketing and Sales Services for Publishers
LANGUAGE LEARNING APPS
The printed OUP Bookworms series is one of Oxford’s most successful books. We licensed the series, and took
the Alice in Wonderland app to No.1 in the App Store chart. Having sold hundreds of thousands of copies we
were asked by Oxford to handle the production of apps for the global market.
The Japanese apps feature English-Japanese glossaries, audio, Japanese rubric, auto-play mode and quizzes.
In Japan we handled the press and publicity for the launch on a minimal budget, and hit the No.1 spot in
the App Store.
• The licensed titles for OUP were so successful that Oxford asked us to produced apps for them on a global basis.
Product Development, Marketing and Sales Services for Publishers
KIDS’ LEARNING SOFTWARE
Japan’s Gendai Kyoiku Shinbun (Modern Education Newspaper )
described “Eigo No Shima” (English Island) as the best language learning
software for kids, period.
Children are totally engaged in the fun of the software, but at the same time following an effective, pedagogically
sound syllabus.
Product Development, Marketing and Sales Services for Publishers
WEBSITES
We’ve handled bi-lingual websites for Nikkei Weekly, Guinness World Records, Sky PerfecTV and many more...
Product Development, Marketing and Sales Services for Publishers
AUDIO BOOKS AND PODCASTS
ESJ has produced a number of extremely well-received audio books and podcasts, with its Classic Story Series being chosen by Apple as “Best of Year” 3 years in a row, and its TIME magazine podcast going
to No.1 in the iTunes charts.
Clients worked with include Benesse, Tokyo University, TIME, and Tourism Ireland.
Product Development, Marketing and Sales Services for Publishers
OTHER LEARNING APPS
BritQuiz produced for the British Council is their most-downloaded app in Japan. Ellie the Reindeer is a bi-lingual story app, with in-app purchase. Peta Peta Santa (Stick, Stick, Santa) is a sticker game for creating Xmas cards.
Product Development, Marketing and Sales Services for Publishers
The ESJ team has been involved in conceptualizing and producing a variety of
printed publications, including Gateway UK for
the British Embassy, a giveaway phrasebook for
Japan’s largest travel agency, a free English-learning
magazine for students, and a book on business English
with Macmillan and Nikkei.
Product Development, Marketing and Sales Services for Publishers
DIGITAL COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS
SEQUENTIAL is considered the “gold standard” for graphic novel apps. The Phoenix comic for iPad is raved about for both its content and the great design of the app, and the British Library asked us to create the in-exhibition iPad software – and digital
comic – for their major summer 2014 Comics Unmasked exhibition.
Product Development, Marketing and Sales Services for Publishers
KEY PEOPLE
Russell WillisManaging DirectorInvolved in publishing for over 25 years, Russell specializes in digital media. He has produced and programmed customized learning software for universities with Canon and published a large number of successful learning software products for the retail market. Russell has produced CD-ROMs and magazines for the British Government and websites, podcasts, audio books and iOS apps with clients ranging from Tokyo University and the Nikkei Weekly to TIME and Oxford University Press.
Chloë PurseyEditorial DirectorChloë graduated from Oxford University where she worked on ISIS before joining John Brown Publishing. At John Brown she worked as an editor, writer and project manager for a wide variety of publications featuring characters such as Dora the Explorer and Thomas the Tank Engine. At our Japan office she worked on a range of software development projects including our interactive Bookworms with OUP. She now runs our London office, liaising with our UK-based clients.
Yohei SanoGeneral ManagerWorked as a English-Japanese translator and editor for many years before joining Price Waterhouse as a Senior Associate. Yohei co-ordinates Japanese editorial and marketing functions for ESJ. He is bi-lingual.
Hayden HughesSenior Software DeveloperBefore joining the iEnglish group, Hayden was a games developer in Japan for many years working on newly-developed games for Sega, Konami, and Hudson as well as managing the localization of popular games from the US and the UK. He specializes in Objective C, PHP and HTML.
Matthias ReichSoftware Development DirectorMatthias has led or co-led a wide range of IT projects, from podcasts, to e-commerce websites to iOS development. Clients include Oxford University Press, TIME magazine and the British Council. Matthias is expert in a range of technologies, including PHP, CSS, Javascript, MySQL and HTML. He is tri-lingual.
ESJ ELT SERVICES JAPAN
JAPANHasebe 12 Building, 2F
Hiroo 5-23-4Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 150-0012TEL: +81 3 5420-2703
•
UNITED KINGDOMUnit 7 Ability Plaza
Arbutus StreetLondon E8 4DT
TEL: 07456 [email protected]