Total fulfilment for major UK game launch

With the revolutionary Guitar Hero PS2 game enjoying phenomenal sales in the US, UK publishers Red Octane teamed up with The Producers in March 2006 to provide a range of services for the UK product launch and future sales. Following massive publicity in the national media and at retail, it was vital that all aspects of the launch and post-launch sales were perfectly coordinated.

The scale of this operation, especially taking into account the size of the packaging, was unique in the launch of a PlayStation game −  50,000 units (463 pallets) were stored in the warehouse prior to the launch date.

• Manufacture and assembly − Print box sleeves and manual; pack the software, manual and all peripherals alongside the guitar in the inner fitment and box; apply security sticker.
• Website and e-commerce − Design and build a multi-currency European sales website, integrating e-commerce and reporting functions into the client’s US sales website.
• Warehousing and storage −Supply warehousing with all stock lines and ensure sufficient space requirements for the unusually large size of the product and the high quantity of stock held.
• Account management − Appoint an Account Manager to coordinate all services and oversee production-related issues.
• Fulfillment − Pick, pack and ship all orders; issue despatch notes for all shipments on specially branded stationery and send copies of delivery notes to the client at agreed intervals.
• Reporting − Develop a live and secure extranet to provide a suite of reports encompassing stock details, trade shipments by customer, back orders and stock movements.
• Returns processing − Accept all non-faulty returns, return them to stock and update reports accordingly; consider faulty/damaged returns for testing and reconditioning or secure stock destruction if necessary.
• Accounting services − Raise invoices for client on despatch of products; maintain sales records and collect payments from invoices raised.
• Customer support − Provide technical support to end-users and provide a first point of contact for sales and general enquiries; monitor support calls and e-mails and provide a detailed monthly report.
  
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Full range of services for an independent magazine publisher

PC Pilot is a full-colour magazine aimed at the flight simulation market. Sold in retailers worldwide, it has a circulation of around 30,000 per issue. During the six years in which the magazine was published independently, The Producers handled all production, trade and subscription distribution and customer service requirements.

• Printing and gloss laminating covers
• Cover CD-ROM replication, insertion into plastic wallets and cover mounting
• Bulk delivery to UK magazine distribution centres
• Packing and mail delivery to subscribers worldwide
• Fulfilment of online orders through a custom e-commerce system
• Maintenance of subscription database and payments
• Automated subscription reminders and promotional e-shots
• Design and manufacture of promotional CDs, leaflets and branded trade show materials
• Back issue sales and real-time reporting on magazine stocks
• Full accounts, trade invoicing and reconciliation service
  

We were able to respond to the deadline-critical requirements of the magazine trade by adapting our existing facilities and creating new ones to provide an integrated range of services not only for the small publishing team but also for the magazine’s readers and subscribers. We’re particularly proud of the innovative e-shot service we developed to enable readers to pre-order the magazine on an issue-by-issue basis so they would receive a copy before it was available in the shops.

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Responding effectively to retail requirements

The Producers have played a key role in supplying PC games to both retailers and end-users for Sold Out Software, the market leader in the value software publishing market. As well as sourcing all packaging components and overwrapping the completed products in house, we store and ship them to customers, distributors and direct to retail.

Around three million units pass through The Producers' factory each year, and an advanced e-commerce system and Internet shopping site links directly to the main Sold Out website. Technical support, customer services and returns are also handled by The Producers. 

With the larger retailers now placing stringent demands on their suppliers, it has become increasingly essential for software publishers to respond quickly to ensure that  their products are quickly replenished and prominently displayed. 

The Producers have provided numerous retail display solutions for Sold Out, and the supply of branded free-standing display units (FSDUs) and metal display stands (spinners) to major software retailers and supermarkets has proved essential in servicing their requirements and maintaining the publisher's in-store profile.

The Producers design and procure whichever display units are required. These can then be delivered to retail distribution centres accompanied by boxes of finished product from our warehouse and printed planograms so that the units can be filled as required and despatched to stores.

An increasingly popular alternative is for The Producers to pre-pack the product into the display units and deliver them direct to the shops, where only a few minutes are needed to make the products available for sale. An included planogram makes the task of replenishing the units simple.

This flexibility of service allows Sold Out to meet the particular demands of each retailer, strengthening the publisher/retailer relationship and ensuring maximum sales potential.

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Physical fulfilment for online organisations

With more and more companies expanding their online operations and operating essentially ‘virtual’ business models, The Producers are ideally placed to offer them a complete physical fulfilment infrastructure.

One such company is Fripperies, a successful business which sells its fashion accessories and jewellery through a network of consultants who organise sales events in their homes.

The Producers manage the physical aspects of their business all the way from assembling the components of the consultants’ sales kits to sending out the sold items for consultants to pass on to their buyers.

All products available for sale are shipped in bulk to our warehouse and identified with both a customer code and a unique internal product code. Adding a photographic image to records of every stock item ensures that each product in a range of similar items can be accurately traced and visually identified during picking and despatch.

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Innovation in marketing materials

Flight simulation specialists Just Flight needed some marketing material to promote their range of products in a distinctive and light-hearted way at a trade exhibition. Considering their range of products and their customer base, a set of cards in the style of the popular Top Trumps game seemed perfect.

Rather than creating a passable imitation, it was agreed that the closer the cards and the packaging were to the actual Top Trumps brand, the more effective the marketing would be. While our design house studied the details of the artwork, the account management team found a printer capable of producing the replica cards in every detail of shape, stock and finish.

While attention to authenticity demanded that the plastic boxes to hold the cards followed the Top Trumps style exactly, manufacturing suitable boxes to the specific dimensions required would exceed the client’s budget. We sourced the plastic boxes, therefore, direct from the company which produces the actual Top Trumps boxes, and 40 different cards featuring products and staff members were produced and packed by hand into sets.

500 completed sets were then transported direct to the exhibition venue, along with a range of branded t-shirts, bags and posters, and distributed to consumers and trade customers. Just Flight were convinced that this creative approach was successful in raising their profile and report that they still get asked for the cards, which have since become something of a collector’s item in the virtual aviation community.

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Secure software download solution

Just Flight are the leading publisher of flight simulation add-ons but, like so many software publishers, they can’t always get the shelf space they would like in the perpetually competitive retail arena. When they decided to sell digital downloads via their existing e-commerce website – which The Producers host and manage – they turned to us for a solution.

Our programming team quickly discovered that there was no single method of securing their products against piracy, so we took the issue up with Macrovision, the leading exponent of digital rights management systems. With their help we developed a new method of wrapping (encrypting) Just Flight products so we could deliver them via the Internet, set up the key servers and back-office functions necessary to take orders for download products, generate and deliver the keys automatically, and unlock the product on demand by validating the installation against our records.

The download service took off rapidly as soon as it was launched and now accounts for a substantial percentage of Just Flight’s sales, giving them an effective and self-contained method of getting their products to customers.

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Physical fulfilment for online organisations

YouthNet is the UK’s first exclusively online charity, delivering information and support to young people through the Internet, mobile phones, digital interactive TV and hand-held devices. With no suitable facilities of its own, the charity required complete fulfilment, delivery and project management services to enable them to run a campaign to sell charity wrist bands direct from their website and encourage the recycling of mobile phones.

Adding the the necessary pick, pack and ship service into existing operations was straighforward. Once a wrist band had been ordered, the buyer’s address and contact details were supplied to us. The information was then logged,  converted into address labels and printed on our versatile labelling machine. The wrist band and phone recycling bag were packed into padded envelopes ready for posting.

An additional and vital feature of the service was adding a return label to The Producers to all envelopes despatched. This enabled us to act as the contact centre for any undelivered mail and queries, reassuring YouthNet that its service was administered professionally and efficiently.

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On several occasions we have worked with games publishers to design and produce unusual and visually distinctive packaging for products such as FS Global Upgrade. The Associates’ approach to creating distinctive packaging for their innovative software was to integrate a small flashing LED into the packaging to simulate the light on top of an aircraft.

After extensive research we successfully sourced an LED of the correct size and colour which was already connected to a small circuit board and included a battery and on/off switch. The LED was fitted into the cardboard box by cutting a clean circular hole in the lid, which meant obtaining a specially commissioned cutting tool made specifically for this purpose. Accuracy was critical, as the hole had to be cut to align perfectly with the aircraft on the box artwork; it turned out that this was only possible by adjusting the tool settings and fixing its position for each individual box. The LED and circuit board were then fixed securely to the inside of the box lid.

The finished boxes were shipped with printed cardboard outer sleeves, so it was also necessary to punch a slightly larger hole in these outer sleeves, to align correctly with another aircraft in the artwork featured on the sleeve. Before packing the products into outer sleeves and shipping the units, the LED lights were all tested. The Associates reported that the time and effort spent in creating this unique packaging paid dividends in terms of sales, which far exceeded their expectations for the product.

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