James Duvall

• Oversaw Global Entertainment research vertical, covering all sectors across visual and audio, with a team publishing annually over 30 different research reports.
• Managed P&L, including client budget in excess of £500k.
• Delivered strategic and actionable insight through reports, client debriefs and presentations, providing ongoing proactive support to Futuresource's business development function.
• Led insight programme driven by 2-core research approaches, Market reports and Custom Consumer surveys.
• Managed quality and consistency of analysis, insight and forecasting across all vertical sectors within Entertainment.
• Represented and participated as speaker and moderator at external events, including trade show conferences and international client events.
• Contributed to strategic direction of Futuresource's service and product roadmap at vertical level, with key output being launch of new visual entertainment service (via Power BI), developing alongside this the analyst team to ensure new approach to research structure and report delivery went smoothly, all helping to onboard new clients.
• Along with delivering research on AI, new tools were incorporated into everyday research processes, aiding improved efficiencies in delivering projects and ensuring that more time is then spent directly engaged with clients.

• Lead the insights programme for trade association and its members across the transactional entertainment sector.
• Provided key industry reporting metrics.
• Represented interests of BASE and DEGI members at external events.
• Delivered insight events both based in the UK and within Europe, bringing together the latest research providers, content distributors and retailers.
• Worked across departmental teams to ensure the latest research, insights and trends can be applied to marketing and commercial strategies.
• Commissioned research agencies and utilised agency data (Kantar, Omdia) and drove forward consumer research in non-English markets to aid DEGI member initiatives.
• Oversaw creation of an industry campaign to engage and grow the consumer base for those transacting across entertainment content. A campaign that was active in 7 different European markets.

• Vision provides a VMI/CIM solution, mainly utilised within the Entertainment Industry, where, for client Disney, I acted as key interface with local stakeholders and the rest of the UK Vision team, providing analysis and insights into trends occurring within the retail landscape.
• Enhanced Disney/Retailer relationships through the use of deep dive retailer/store level data.
• Developed merchandising toolkit, allowing ROI analysis down to store level across all off-fixture space, thus ensuring efficient use of point of sale budgets.
• Improved supply chain forecasting to over 95% post introduction of new bottom-up benchmarking.

• Overall responsibility for turning complex data into strategy, providing trend analysis, and forecasting consumer spend at market/product level. Selected achievements include;
• Created and presented to internal stakeholders and external partners showcasing consumer market forecasts across video and game home entertainment sectors, which were used to drive strategy for a Market worth over £4bn.
• Delivered trend analysis and competitor insight, delivering number one market share and helping maximise P&L, having worked on 2 of the top 5 film franchises in entertainment (Harry Potter and Hobbit/Lord of the Rings).
• Developed new reporting processes for capturing daily digital EPOS performance, reducing lead time from 12 days to 2 post-event on 70% of partners.
• Drove business learnings on consumer profiling, through utilising Kantar World Panel and commissioned research to help target the right product range in the right retailers.
• Led a team of 3 Analysts and created an environment to share best practices, develop skills and maintain work/life balance, resulting in a team that became the central source of insight and trend analysis.

Previous roles within my time at Warner Home Entertainment;

• Senior Insight Analyst - Overall responsibility for generating suite of performance reports, robust product forecasts and campaign reviews.
• Business / Market Insight Analyst - Implemented reporting structures for Games division for forecasting and tracking market and title performance.
• Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) Forecaster / Planner - Managed delivery of account KPI's and led user development of partner systems.

A road of development that saw commitment and versatility through a number of roles from initial days as a colleague on the shop floor, through various management roles in store and then to the Business Centre in London.

The latter included the following three roles;

• Business Project Analyst (Online Fulfilment Depot) - Supported growth of online grocery shopping through analysis, reporting solution development and presentations.
• Business System Analyst (System Replatforming) - User lead for delivering new forecasting systems, through process mapping and user acceptance testing.
• Supply Chain Operations (Forecaster) - Managed category level forecasts for stores, responsible for KPI targets of availability and stock management.