WHIZ KID GAMES - 2021 GOTY ENTRANT
Product Description
Passport to Genius is a range of environmentally-friendly educational games for children aged 7+.
Players go around the board answering multiple choice questions, while trying to avoid spaces like miss a go, move backwards or do a forfeit! If any player achieves a score of 15+ they get a Genius stamp (included) to put in the their Passport (also included for children to personalise).
Tell us about your business
Whiz Kid Games is the brain child of Heather Watherston, one of the former owners/MD of The Lagoon Group.
What can you tell us about your entered products? Passport to Genius is a range of 3 subject-themed educational board games namely Maths, English and World.
Players move around the board, answering multiple choice questions with 3 different levels of difficulty trying to avoid the minefield of spaces that demand you miss a turn, go back 5 spaces, do a forfeit etc. Play ends when the first player crosses the finish line. Scores are added up and the person with the highest score wins.
Anyone who gets from start to finish and scores more than 15 points can add a Genius sticker (included in the games) to their Whiz Kid Games Passport (also included in the games for children to personalise).
As few people are natural geniuses it may take a few games to score 15 points. To help, parents can download the Learning Aids below to refresh their grasp of the subjects with their children.
Each Whiz Kid Games passport has room for 4 stickers which encourages the children to move onto another title in the range once they have mastered one title.
Why did you choose to enter Gift of the Year 2021 and has the competition helped boost your brand in the past?
I chose to enter Passport to Genius in Gift of the Year as they are design-led and tick the boxes of categories such as "Educational products for children" and "Eco Friendly".
The products have been designed with the help of teachers to support the key stage 1 and 2 curriculum..
As well as having a mission to bring people together to play and learn, Whiz Kid Games is environmentally-focused.
The Passport to Genius range will be manufactured in Europe not only to avoid the damage of long distance travel on the environment but because our partner there prides itself on its green credentials using 100% renewable energy to power its plants.
The games are printed on FSC paper, playing pieces and dice are made from wood from local, sustainable forests and colours and coating are all water-based and non toxic.
Everything is 100% recyclable.
Has your business been affected by Covid-19?
Whiz Kid Games is a start-up and I think it would have been very difficult had I not had many contacts in the industry, having worked in the gift trade for 25 plus years. Working remotely via zoom etc is perfectly doable but is not a long term solution - it will be nice to start seeing meeting people face to face once again, hopefully in the New Year...
What changes have you made as a result?
I've made sure I keep in touch regularly with contacts - be it with suppliers, designers, teachers - whoever - while we can't meet up either directly or at the various gift shows around the world.
I've also done a lot of market research to try and find the ultimate product that will sell in the changing world we are now living in!
Hopefully Passport to Genius captures the zeitgist!
What other products have you brought to market for 2020, can you share them here?
Passport to Genius is the first product range launched by Whiz Kid Games.
