Case Study: Major Global Toy Manufacturer

The customer is a major toy manufacturer with branded retail stores. New product launches are major events requiring coordination with TV commercial campaigns, online ad campaigns, and in-store promotions. Critical On-Time Delivery of POP Displays (Point of Purchase) for major global marketing campaign inside retail locations across Canada, United States, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe.

Challenges

In the midst of recovering from Covid-19, orchestrating a major marketing campaign demanded meticulous synchronization across various channels, precise delivery deadlines, and careful coordination with retail staff, especially in the context of safety procedures. The challenges were magnified by the unpredictability of winter storms, stringent EU customs regulations, and the need for comprehensive track and trace operations across multiple regions.

• “Return from Covid-19” marketing campaign critical for a successful launch. Launching
  in-store, online, and TV marketing simultaneously with precise “deliver by” dates.
• The campaign requirements: 200 retail delivery sites across North America and Europe all within a 4-day launch window.
• Retail location closures due to Covid-19 require detail/personal coordination with store staff to execute appointments and deliveries.
• Retail locations at malls and shopping centers require additional coordination for inside delivery. Necessary accessorials with current Covid-19 safety procedures need to be provided.
• Mitigating potential transit delays due to multiple unexpected winter storms across North America require dynamic planning and execution.
• Navigating EU customs regulations to avoid an intellectual property custom hold and ensure in-country custom clearance.
• Track and Trace operations across US, Canada, UK, and EU offices need to be coordinated into regular customer updates.

Solution

To overcome the challenges, the solution involved gathering Covid-19 safety regulations for informed planning, optimizing European shipments, and implementing faultless execution of logistics processes, including customs clearance and tracking. Additional efforts, such as pre-calls to stores and 24/7 monitoring through Regional and Global Control Towers, ensured timely deliveries and flexibility.

• Covid-19 safety regulations were gathered from NA, UK, and EU for effective planning.
• European shipment destinations were coordinated into two major access points to consolidate air freight and distribution optimization.
• Planning, managing with faultless execution – routing & consolidation, customs clearance, sortation across multiple countries, detail personal coordination with retail outlets due to Covid-19 complexities, final-mile delivery, track/trace, and POD.
• Detailed in-country EU customs coordination due to Intellectual property authorization and verification process to ensure timely customs clearance release of goods.
• Detailed tracking and tracing was managed in destination countries, with updates collated by Omni US into daily customer reports.
• Pre-calls made to each store for appointment deliveries, store managers met onsite, and flexibility for last minute rescheduling.
• Regional and Global Control Towers provided 24/7 visibility/control and monitoring.

Result

The successful implementation of the solution led to an on-time global marketing campaign rollout, achieving a 99.5% on-time delivery performance. This effort facilitated five new store openings in the EU and ensured timely deliveries to 200 retail sites across North America and Europe within the 4-day target.