INTRODUCTION DECK
ALL ABOUT US
OUR FOCUS:
. We are a company like no other, offering a broad array of professional services for tabletop gaming companies.
. We’re passionate about building long-term partnerships and enacting positive change in our industry.
. Our team acts as a non-exclusive extension of your own, allowing you to explore new opportunities without drastically increasing your overheads.
. We deliver results for your long-term success. Our goal is to generate 3-10 times our fee in revenue for you across the first year of working together.
OUR OFFERING:
We provide a comprehensive range of professional services for the games industry, allowing us to offer support across many key business functions. We take a hands-on approach that directly helps your team to grow your business in an enduring and sustainable way. Our services can add value and increase profitability at all stages of your product’s life cycle, from production to marketing to sales.
OUR PROCESS:
. We generate results and improve your revenue by placing your products in front of new audiences and building your brand on a global scale.
. We’re not a simple sales agent who brokers a deal then disappears once their commission is secured. Instead, we act as a bridge between you and the third parties, remaining actively involved from start to finish, for a fixed and transparent fee.
. We’ll provide strategic guidance and become part of your work flow, empowering you to make the best decisions with the best information available.
. More than 90% of our partners work with us on a retainer basis. This gives them confidence that we are invested and dedicated to the long-term success of their business.
ALL ABOUT US
Expertise — Our close-knit team has 130+ years of combined experience operating at the forefront of the tabletop industry. We have an unmatched level of knowledge ready to benefit your business.
Reputation — Our founders are former Director level employees of the Asmodee Group, which was recently acquired for €2.75 Billion. We’re passionate about building long-term partnerships and enacting positive change in our industry.
Professionalism — Our team treats our partners’ brands just as protectively as our own. We don’t ever recommend a course of action that we don’t firmly believe will benefit your business.
Innovation — Our work on revolutionary new products leaves us perfectly placed to push the bounds of what is possible, whether it’s unique decks of cards or the best miniatures on the market.
OUR SERVICES INCLUDE:
ALL ABOUT US
Our Founders
Our founders first worked together during their time with the Asmodee Group.
All About Games Consulting CEO, Cedric Delobelle, is a specialist for all Sales, Production and Business Development topics, with over 15 years’ experience in the industry and an education in Economics and Languages.
He successfully restructured Asmodee’s English Language Distribution and worked as the Brand Manager for Fantasy Flight Games. He first met our co-founder, Dan Steel, during their time working together at Asmodee UK (formerly Esdevium Games).
During his 30-year career, Dan grew his own business from a high street store into one of the world’s most profitable board game distribution networks. After a successful multi-stage sale, he became Head of the Asmodee Group’s EU Distribution until the sale by Eurazeo in November 2018.
Cedric and Dan soon reunited and began discussing ways to offer their knowledge and experience at the forefront of the industry to support smaller publishers and help them to grow. From this idea, All About Games Consulting was formed in early 2021.
In the first three years, the team has grown significantly but the core goal of the business has not changed. We are driven to create sustainable, long-term partnerships that allow publishers to thrive and do what they love; producing great games�
CEDRIC DELOBELLE
DAN STEEL
OUR SERVICES
International Sales & Localisation
All About Games Consulting can represent your products to the best localisation and distribution partners across the world and help you to build lasting partnerships with them.
Our first step is to work with you to define an effective and commercially viable pricing strategy for potential partners. Then we identify suitable markets for your products across North America, Europe and Asia.
You’ll benefit from our existing network of international publishers and distributors, our experience in the market and our knowledge of global product trends. The deals we negotiate will help you to grow globally and establish your brand beyond your home territory.
Our involvement doesn’t end once we’ve secured these sales though. We remain involved, offering advice and guidance as you manage these new partnerships. Our team acts as a vital bridge between you and your partners to troubleshoot any issues and foster a mutually beneficial relationship.
In the first six months of working together, we secured a medium-sized publisher 11 new localisations that generated €485,500 of revenue and introduced the publisher to key new markets around the world.
We also reduced the manufacturing cost per unit by scheduling these localisations to print simultaneously alongside the English language product.
OUR SERVICES
Mass Market Presentation
Bringing All About Games Consulting onboard as your representative for Mass Market Sales allows you to work directly with Mass Market retail chains to generate demand for your product. By placing product directly in this channel or by working with your distributor, we can secure you nationwide exposure - directly benefiting your brand awareness.
We know how mass market buyers think, how they differ from purchasing teams in hobby distribution and what they are looking for from prospective business partners. This means we’ll never put a product forward to mass market buyers that we aren’t confident will be well received.
You’ll also benefit from our expert knowledge and guidance. We don’t simply present an offer and ask you to assess whether it is worthwhile. Instead, we’ll give you the context to make an informed decision based on our analytics of market trends and our knowledge of the consumer base for each mass market retailer.
Mass Market placement isn’t a process that can be rushed. We act as a bridge between you and mass market partners over a six to twelve month period, working through multiple rounds of sampling and submissions to present and promote your products. Our fee is fixed and agreed in advance so you have complete clarity on what you’ll pay us and at which stage you’ll do so.
A publisher of family plus games that had done well in hobby distribution contacted us, unable to break into mass market distribution. By curating a selection of their titles and creating a unique pitch specifically for individual Mass Market chains we secured them a selection by a national retailer with over 1000 stores across the UK.
OUR SERVICES
Manufacturing Support & Negotiation
All About Games Consulting can fully analyse your manufacturing needs and product specifications to strengthen your production pipeline and prioritise quality and profitability.
Using our knowledge of production processes and our analytics of a vast array of tabletop products, we will help you craft and adapt your product specification to make sure it suits the intended audience and MSRP.
We will then help you to identify suitable production facilities and approach them on your behalf to secure manufacturing quotes, using our roster of verified manufacturing partners. Each of these partners is personally vetted for quality and reliability by our team on an annual basis.
We then check these offers alongside market trends, raw material costs and your current pricing. If the quotes are not competitive, we will negotiate and represent your interests to the manufacturer in order to secure the best possible pricing.
Finally, we make a recommendation to you based on quality, price and efficiency.
CASE STUDY
One partner approached us for support producing a range of collectible statues based on the artwork form their games. They hadn’t produced miniatures or 3D renders before and their existing factories weren’t able to support them.
We sourced them two expert 3D Sculptors and negotiated them a fantastic production price with a factory that had won several awards for the quality of their collectibles manufacturing.
OUR SERVICES
Ethical & Ecologically Sustainable Production
All About Games Consulting are proud to help publishers shift towards more ethically and ecologically friendly production methods, materials and processes.
There has recently been a definitive shift in public awareness of ethical and ecological consumption, both in our own industry and the world at large.
It is easy to think that materials like single use plastics or glossy card coatings are unavoidable. Sourcing or creating alternatives can be seen as time or cost intensive and can be a daunting process if you don’t know where to begin.
Our team has the expertise and the knowledge to advise on how you can produce more sustainable products, and meet your ecological production goals.
CASE STUDY
One new publisher wanted to have a completely eco-friendly production for their debut card game focused on the adventures of futuristic rangers dedicated to ecological stewardship.
We worked closely with a top European factory to create new processes and use new materials that would keep the game as ‘Green’ as possible. In doing so, we avoided several common materials and practices that appeared eco-friendly at first glance but were actually quite damaging in the long term when we scratched beneath the surface!
The final product has won awards for its sustainability credentials, and all of the components and packaging are biodegradable- with no plastic used at all.
OUR SERVICES
Crowdfunding Strategy Review
All About Games Consulting can give you the help you need to confidently launch your next Crowdfunding Campaign. The Strategy Review gives you access to our crowdfunding experts and their strategic guidance in how to successfully promote your campaign.
We start by producing a low/average/high revenue estimate for the campaign, based on our expertise and analytics of similar projects. Using these estimates, we provide you with a suggested schedule for when to launch, how long to run the campaign for, and key dates for you to run marketing activity- both before and during the campaign.
Next, we review your marketing graphics and other assets for the Campaign page and digital advertisements, suggesting visual or formatting improvements that can be made to increase the impact of the messaging to end consumers and maximise conversion into pledges.
Finally, you’ll receive a campaign marketing strategy from us that is ready for your team to implement. This will contain our recommendations for cost effective influencers to work with, the correct social media avenues to pursue for digital advertising and guidance on how you should engage your community throughout the campaign.
If you need more hands-on assistance managing the marketing activations and running the campaign then consider our Crowdfunding Campaign Management service on the next page.
CASE STUDY
When a partner asked us to review their campaign before launch we discovered that their advertising ROI was low and their audience was not growing. We identified the issue was that their digital advertising had been set-up incorrectly by a third party- and they were targeting end consumers in two very small countries that weren’t interested in boardgames or crowdfunding! By correcting this mistake, we prevented them from launching prematurely improved their advertising ROI by more than 700%.
OUR SERVICES
Crowdfunding Campaign Management
Our Crowdfunding Campaign Management service features all the benefits of the Crowdfunding Strategy Review and adds our expert team’s time actively managing the campaign and executing the marketing strategy we prepare.
Our team will meticulously and carefully plan your campaign page, working closely with your graphic designers to create an evocative campaign page that conveys an emotive message designed to convert potential backers into stalwart supporters of the project. We’ll help you to set pricing, stretch goal content and pledge levels to encourage higher consumer spending, as well as setting up the Pledge Manager page for you post-campaign.
Working within an agreed daily budget, our team will execute tailored digital ad campaigns designed to drive traffic to your preview page pre-launch. Our goal is to maximise funding in the first 48 hours of the campaign to create further visibility and climb ‘hotness’ rankings. You’ll also benefit from our team’s pre-existing relationships with influencers and the crowdfunding platforms, helping you generate increased visibility for the campaign page and leverage better marketing support from your chosen crowdfunding platform.
When the campaign is live, we will also actively support you with the community management during our UK office hours. The team will help you communicate with backers and followers by engaging via the campaign page, BGG and social media.
By scheduling regular calls throughout this process, we’ll provide progress reports and suggestions for reactive marketing opportunities that allow us to make relevant adjustments to the strategy as needed.
We worked with a publisher who couldn’t exceed $200,000 in funding during their previous campaigns. With our guidance, they achieved maximum impact with a small marketing budget. We secured them over $475,000 in funding and generated substantial interest from distributors and localisation partners.
OUR SERVICES
Retail Activation and In-Store Promotion
From word-of-mouth marketing to placing sales representatives directly on a shopfloor, our Retail Activation options are an effective grass roots activity that generates direct interest in your product.
Deployments can vary from country-wide campaigns that support key account retail chains to highly targeted activations in hobby stores. Regardless of the venue, the goal is to engage with the public, raise awareness of your brand and generate sales.
Broadly speaking, this activity falls into one of two categories:
. In-store Promoters — Our promoter teams act as dedicated sales representatives for your brand in stores. Their interactions with customers are sales focused, with conversations offering a brief summary of the game and it’s unique selling points rather than a gameplay experience. Their goal is to generate immediate sales, and they actively track this data while on site. Promoter visits are a fantastic way of supporting key product launches or showing support to new retail partners.
. Store Demonstrations — Store Demonstrations are an excellent opportunity for direct to consumer marketing that sells the experience that lies at the core of your products. By offering an opportunity for consumers to directly interact with products you generate sales from end consumers making an informed purchase. Previous sales data shows that this has a ripple effect after the activity as these consumers become advocates for your products and promote them to friends and family.
CASE STUDY
Independent Consumer Behaviour studies show that for 92% of consumers, a recommendation from a friend or family member is more effective than all other forms of advertising.
Another study found that word-of-mouth marketing is responsible for 20-50% of all consumer purchasing decisions.
OUR SERVICES
Event Management & Experiential Marketing
The All About Games Consulting team has delivered first class results in all sorts of events from trade show booths and international conventions to nationwide store activations and invite-only influencer events.
We represent dozens of US and European Publishers across multiple booths, providing turnkey solutions that include booth design, build and logistics as well as retail solutions and product demonstrations.
For publishers, this reduced the impact on their workflow as they could send one or two members of their team to handle B2B interactions while leaving B2C sales and interactions to our friendly and professional team.
Thanks to our in-house graphic design team and our network of professional character actors and cosplayers we are also able to offer experiential installations, costumed character visits and other irresistible ‘selfie bait’ for end consumers, leading to digital amplification on social media.
Our team doesn’t simply rely on what worked before working again. Instead, we always look for the best way to surprise and delight your customers, providing them an experience that is unique and tightly aligned with your brand and products.
CASE STUDY
After a staff departure, a US Publisher discovered that they had a booth booked for Essen SPIEL but had no way of staffing or building the booth, let alone selling any product. Due to the short notice, cancelling the booth would have meant forfeiting the full price of the floorspace.
They approached us for help and we were able to deliver a fully branded booth build featuring key game art, company logos and matching flooring. We sourced them a bilingual team for the booth and were able to include their products in the shop on our booth nearby.
Our on-site team took full care of the build and teardown, so one of their team was able to show up on the first morning of the show and had everything ready and waiting for him to meet with influencers and press while we took care of the booth.
OUR SERVICES
Business Development & Brand Establishment
The All About Games Consulting team has significant experience launching products internationally for some of the largest companies in the industry. Now, we leverage that experience to help small and medium sized publishers reach a wider audience and grow their businesses.
Our team will undertake a thorough analysis of your business and will identify potential paths to increase your profitability. For some companies this can mean securing external investment or funding, for others it can mean drawing upon our network to secure you key strategic partnerships. Throughout this process, we will schedule regular ‘sparring’ calls to discuss your current focuses, challenges and obstacles in order to offer guidance and help you to steer your business towards further success.
Alongside this, we can help you to set out the key elements of your brand identity, basing this upon where your company and your leaders came from, as well as where you wish to go as a business. Once we have established this, we will help you to raise awareness of your brand internationally, through activity tailored to this brand identity.
Recruitment & Talent Acquisition
All About Games Consulting maintains contact with a network of high value and high potential industry professionals worldwide. We have a strong track record for placing excellent candidates from among this community into high level positions within the tabletop industry.
If you have a senior role that you need to hire for, we can help you to identify the correct talent for the position and advise you on an appropriate salary and renumeration package for these individuals.
We will also support you with the interview and onboarding process to help you gain the benefit of these candidates’ strengths as swiftly as possible and to encourage them to make an impact from the outset.
OUR SERVICES
IP & Licensing Acquisition
The All About Games Consulting team attends the Brand Licensing Expo in Europe and Las Vegas each year in order to maintain our network of licensing industry contacts and to acquire new potential partners.
Previously, we have worked with brands like Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pokémon, Lord of the Rings, My Little Pony and The Smurfs.
Our knowledge of the current focus categories for licensed product helps us to identify a list of target Ips that will fit your studio DNA and compliment your existing catalogue. Using this list, we will then approach and contact licensors both within and outside our existing network. Through these conversations we will assess the limitations and expectations for each licensor to identify how viable a tabletop project is. With this information we will help you identify opportunities that are commercially viable for your studio.
Once we have identified the right opportunity for you we will introduce your company and your product range to the license holder(s) and help you to establish a business relationship with them. We will guide you through the negotiation process as we broker the best deal for you. You’ll benefit from our market knowledge as we help you navigate minimum guarantee and royalty fee agreements.
CASE STUDY
Previously, a publisher we worked with needed help securing additional IPs following their success launching a tabletop adaptation of a video game. We learned that they didn’t want to be seen as a company that only worked on video game IPs but they were struggling to make licensing contacts in other sectors like film or television.
Our team was able to identify key potential licensors, pitch them a partnership, explain the benefits of the tabletop category and secure deals for the Publisher. Within a year they had contracts in place to produce two additional product ranges based on popular family-friendly IPs, with generous contract terms and a fair royalty structure.
Our Partners Are Our World
OUR TEAM
Cedric Delobelle
FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR
A specialist for all Sales, Production, and Business Development topics with over 15 years of experience in the board games industry.
Cedric successfully restructured Asmodee’s European English Language Distribution and later worked as the Brand Manager for Fantasy Flight Games. Through his substantial network within the industry, he is well placed to find the perfect people and partners your company needs.
Favourite Game: Vampire: The Masquerade RPG
OUR TEAM
Philip Hatch
HEAD OF MARKETING AND EVENTS
Philip is an experienced troubleshooter, with substantial experience promoting product to end consumers and businesses alike. He now leverages that experience to help maximise the potential of tabletop projects, identifying possible pitfalls and avoiding them.
Philip’s previous roles include Experiential Marketing, Organised Play and Events for Asmodee in both the mass market and hobby trade channels.
Favourite Game: War of the Ring
OUR TEAM
Tim Hitchman
MARKETING EXECUTIVE
Tim is responsible for all of our marketing and external communication at All About Games, making sure all our external communications to partners run smoothly and helping our sales team to generate new leads via our mailout solicitation process.
Tim also maintains our relationships with key influencers and media contacts in the industry, helping our partners to generate coverage and find the right influencers to place preview product with.
Favourite Game: Forest Shuffle
Evangelos Foskolos
CROWDFUNDING EXPERT
Evangelos is a skilled and dedicated member of the team, bringing a wealth of experience managing crowdfunding campaigns. He has a nuanced and intuitive understanding of the back-end management and marketing strategy required to enable campaigns to thrive, as well as a wealth of experience finding manufacturing solutions.
In his previous roles, Evangelos has been responsible for many campaigns, driving engagement before, during and after the launches. His skills maximizing the impact of marketing budgets allowed even small projects to achieve better results. Now, he puts those skills to use for our partners, guiding their crowdfunding strategy and helping steer their campaigns to success.
Favourite Game: Through the Ages
OUR TEAM
Lucas Ferguson
EVENTS EXECUTIVE
Lucas is an outgoing, reliable presence at events. Behind the scenes he brings a fresh new perspective to our veteran events team, offering insight gained from his years of service at grassroots convention and store demonstration experience
A skilled coordinator, Lucas has organised live events for radio stations in his previous roles- bringing together a college student body with corporate sponsors and business partners to deliver a memorable experience for attendees and a great return on investment for exhibitors.
Emma Welford
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Emma is an experienced designer of both B2B and B2C marketing within the board games industry. Specialising in experiential marketing, branding and layout design, she has joined our team as the AAGC Brand Guardian as well as our in-house Graphic Designer.
Here, she creates impactful designs that bring our event spaces to life, sets the tone for our corporate and consumer-facing visual style, and art directs our crowdfunding campaigns. Emma also coordinates and manages our network of freelance designers, ensuring they create effective, affordable branding for our partners and their projects.
Favourite Game: Manhattan
Favourite Game: Wingspan
Stephan Brissaud Rob Fort OUR TEAM
SENIOR
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE NORTH AMERICA
A seasoned veteran of the industry, Stephan joins the team with a wealth of experience from previous positions at tabletop giants such as Funko Games, IELLO, Asmodee, and Wizards of the Coast.
With a strong track record in both the North American and European markets, Brissaud brings a valuable blend of strategic insight and practical expertise to All About Games Consulting. His extensive background includes brand building, market development, marketing, sales strategy (B2B and B2C), eCommerce, industry networking, and specialty sales management.
Favourite Game: Innovation
After more than 19 years’ experience at senior levels within the Toy and Hobby Industry, Rob has a wealth of knowledge in UK, European and International markets.
His background in Direct Retail, Supply Chain Logistics and Sales Leadership leaves him perfectly placed to improve efficiency and increase sales. Meanwhile, a deep understanding of customer engagement and passion for creative problem-solving drives impactful contributions to any Marketing campaign.
Always mindful of the elevation of product at retail, Rob has an impressive track-record of unlocking sales and creating growth opportunities for new and existing products alike. “This is the goal,” he says!
Favourite Game: Carcassonne
MASS MARKET SALES SPECIALIST
Jacob Button
Emilie Bedford OUR TEAM
SALES EXECUTIVE
Jacob is a data-driven, analytical member of the team who joined the AAGC Sales team after working in corporate accounting and investment banking. Gaming has always been a passion for Jacob. His first job was in his friendly local game store, so returning to the industry was a great full circle moment for him.
Now, Jacob is responsible for tracking product information and sales leads for partners across the AAGC portfolio and providing data-led insights for our sales team. His skills allow us to maximize our efforts when promoting partners games to localisation and distribution partners, as well as provide clear and accurate reporting tools for the publishers we work with.
Favourite Game: Yu-Gi-Oh
OFFICE ASSISTANT
Emilie is an enthusiastic and energetic member of the team who joined us after working in the hospitality industry while travelling the world. She manages our office, our diaries and a lot of the digital platforms that keep the business moving and keep our growing team working as effectively as possible.
Emilie also works to identify new avenues for us to grow our network of publishers, factories, distributors and game designers internationally. As an essential part of the office team, her work allows us to remain agile and proactive in delivering results for our partners.
Favourite Game: Catan
OUR TEAM
Freelance Specialists
GAME DESIGN / PRODUCT TESTING / GRAPHIC DESIGN / LOGISTICS / FREIGHT
We maintain a roster of specialist consultants and contracted freelance teams, allowing us to provide our partners with specialist support for graphic design, product development and more.
We have hand-selected an array of trusted professionals we can call on to work reactively to opportunities within a range of budgets.
PLEASE DIRECT ANY QUERIES OR APPROVALS TO:
emma@aagc.games THANK YOU
Please contact us if have any questions:
info@aagc�games
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