Fellistowe said:
beez_andrew said:
MVM are a publisher, not a distribution partner - nor would they have any real interest as it doesn't benefit them greatly.
Andrew, am I right in saying the key word in that sentence is "partner" ?
Just quoting from MVM's
website:
MVM is unique in the UK Anime industry in it’s multi-level supply, acting as licensor, distributor, wholesaler and retailer.
So MVM are basically in-house for all but advertising (which is handled by the same third part advertising company as Manga Ent).
Actually that's not so true either, for sales they use another company as well - like Pinnacle called Elevation Sales. My point is this - why would ADV-US cut costs by removing their fully staffed UK office to move their stock to another UK office who uses a sales company. Why not just talk to the sales company itself?
Apologies for not explaining better, the whole subject of companies such as Pinnacle is a long explanation really and one of the less covered issues as it's not usually of interest to fans ^^;. Will explain more in a second!
beez_andrew said:
Is it true to say this is MVM's biggest strength? They run a tight ship, keeping costs low by handling all aspects of the licensing and distribution process efficiently with minimal manpower and labour overheads, whilst leaving the more expensive and labour intensive process of PR to a third party, or as is more the case, the fanbase (through sites such as this).
ADV UK spends a lot of money and manpower on a strong public face, be it running events and bringing guests over for expo and conventions, extensive website and social networking sites, and talks and presentations.
The above is all true but it misses an important business element out. By running a very small ship, Elevation Sales (like Pinnacle) take the DVDs and talk to all the retailers out there, persuading them to buy X units of DVDs at a rate below RRP (let's say £13 for now for a 19.99 title). Of each £13 sale they make, they take a cut from that as well as charging for storing DVDs in their warehouse.
After the cut and cost to manufacture DVDs versus typical number of units sold per anime release at present, the profit for a company is small as is.
Now if you add in that MVM is not a charity - they would be charging a reasonable price of each sale also for the service, or a monthly flat out charge for the service of using the same distributor as them.
MVM are indeed tight ship - outsourcing most of its work to outside contractors (PR, Sales etc). But this would not transfer to them taking ADV UK's titles on, there's no profit to be made there and would be consistently more hassle relaying the requests for their titles onto the likes of Pinnacle or Elevation than it would be worth! Especially when you could arrange a deal with Pinnacle/Elevation/Whoever yourself.
All the above is true, but keep in mind we marketing types are let out of our cages talk to one another too, so we know roughly the score already
Fellistowe said:
MVM's public exposure in comparison is very minimal (possibly their weakest point I'd say) and low key. (Beez I'd say is inbetween
)
I'd be interested just how much sales figures are effected either way by both approaches, as I still feel the work that ADV UK do (or did) is critical for keeping the fanbase alive.
Beez is indeed in between - though there are reasons for that, which will change around May time!
In all honesty - there is no holy grail one approach. Each are good but you really need both to do well (i.e. good supplier links as well as good customer links). ADV UK's work was indeed very good for keeping the fan base alive, stuff like arranging cinema screenings at the Barbican, running events alongside others like Anime Day at HMV etc. They help bring new fans into the fold so would hopefully increase sales figures.
Of course how much it affects sales on a title-to-title basis is very difficult to establish however. As you may be a fan popular company, but to increase sales you also need to be popular with the retailers or fans have to request the titles they want from their preferred shops!
Fellistowe said:
Without those events at expo, without the social contact, does anime in the UK just become a flat import business rather than a vibrant and interesting experience? I'm open to thoughts and ideas either way
I'd argue that you can't remove the social element of anime in the UK easily - take Minamicon and such for example. These were around even when the VHS scene was going through major setbacks - with numbers around 300 or so attendees at the time max.
Thus I'd argue it's a bit of a moot thought experiment there - but that being said I would say anything of this kind of genre without a social element becomes a bit flat.
Take that ever shining example of fantasy series
Hercules starring Kevin Sorbo and
Xena: Warrior Princess starring Lucy Lawless- there aren't any events dedicated to Xena and Hercules thus it has become kind of flat nowadays. People may buy the DVDs if of interest, but nothing else really. There's certainly not a vibrant and interesting community relating to it now!
You could argue the same to be true, broadening out over many series of course, to anime if you took the social element away.
Mind you - the fact that there are fans in the UK willing to talk on the internet if nowhere else about their favourite shows - suggests that the social element will live on I'm glad to say (for any number of reasons again - that's a whole essay waiting to happen!) So long as that keeps going as well there's always a chance for the industry to grow with it
.
