AWARD CRITERIA: Speed of service, Order fulfilment, Customer service, Product condition, Commitment to an orderly market
HIGH STREET DISTRIBUTION TEAM
KOCH MEDIA
With reach to major retail, online and mass merchants, Koch prides itself on having offered a broad set of publishing services to its vendors for a number of years. In 2011 its key industry launches included the Nintendo 3DS and Deep Silverʼs Dead Island. Koch says it has a highly experienced and dedicated sales team comprised of telesales key account executives and national account managers, and has helped create innovative trade marketing plans for its partners. The firm also boasts excellent work on pre-order targets, coordinating with a gameʼs marketing and PR efforts to take advantage of consumer awareness. For launch and post-launch, it also promises excellent stock and price management to extend the life cycle of its releases for vendor and retailer.
SONY DADC
The physical goods side of DADCʼs business has grown significantly since it announced intentions in early 2011 to better serve the games industry. Last summer it acquired a key distributor in France with a diverse entertainment vendor slate. Shortly after it boosted its Russian base by acquiring a distributor in that territory. Plus, its bespoke packaging solutions have proven to be a welcome offer to partners like Bethesda and has hugely helped publishers in a market where special editions of games are the rule, not the exception. The firmʼs UK team faced some very unique challenges in the last year, too – its huge Enfield hub was torched during the London riots, but ground was recently broken on the rebuilding of this important element in its distribution network.