Festival and EventsThe festival that i decided to go for was the Singapore Arts festival. There were a few reasons that drove me to making this decision. One reasons, was that, the Singapore Arts festivals is a big event and thus, there would be quite a number of things that i will be able to write about. Another reason is that, the festival itself will be held over a number of days, which meant that i will be able to select a day that i am free to go attend the festival, and that is really convenient. To be precise, the Singapore Arts Festival will start on the 15th May to the 14th June. The Festival will be lined up with different events, ranging from the exciting dance, the different kinds of music, the theatrics world, the many visual arts and also the mind-blowing outreach events.
b) Compare the selected festival with a similar festival that has been successful in another city in terms of its marketing strategy;
The Singapore Arts Festival which I have selected has a similar festival in the far lands of UK. The festival there is the largely celebrated and known British festival, and it is called The Lichfield Festival. The Lichfield Festival will start from the 9th of July to the 19th of July. The Lichfield festival is a festival that brings national and international artistes and performers who will be showcasing classical music, dance, drama, film, jazz, literature, poetry, visual arts and world music. The entire aim of the festival is to try and reach out to as many people through high quality events in order for them to gain new experiences.The Singapore Arts Festival and The Lichfield Festival are both very successful. This is due to both of the marketing strategy that each of these festivals uses. The marketing strategy can be divided into eight ‘P’s.By comparing the two festivals using the eight ‘P’s we will be able to find out, which festival is more successful.
Using the first ‘P’ Product;
( The overview of people at the festival)
The Singapore Arts Festival has a lot of events catered for a wide range of audience, and thus many people will want to attend their desired event. This can be seen, by the crowds of audiences trying to catch the event that they feel most comfortable with. For example, there are dance events that people can attend, and there are also music events for the music lovers and there are also theatrics for the theatre lovers and the outreach events for the people who would enjoy meaningful performances through dance, music and different style of arts.
The Lichfield festival also has a lot of different events to try and cater to the wide needs and wants of the audiences. That is why, it has events that comprises of classical music, dance, drama, film, jazz, literature, poetry, visual arts and world music. This is to allow everybody to come and take a look at the events that captures their attention. There are also sudden appearances from the artists and performers without warning, which grant people with a new experience.
These are the reasons why people are still flooding these two festivals every year. This is because they always have something for everyone.
The second ‘P’ Place;
The Singapore Arts Festival is held at various places all over the island. The places chosen to hold the events are usually popular places that the crowds would want to linger at, in order to watch the performances by the artists and performers. The places chosen are known to be more convenient for audiences, so that they can easily gain access to the performances.
The Lichfield Festival on the other hand is held in, Lichfield’s glorious Cathedral and excellent Garrick Theatre. These two venues have beautiful exteriors and interiors that can almost be an attraction themselves without the events. This two venues are however, slightly inconvenient compared to the event places in Singapore. This is because; Singapore has many venues where their events are held, while The Lichfield Festival has only two venues.
The third ‘P’ Programming;
There are various programs in The Singapore Arts Festival. Programmes such as the opening and the closing ceremony of the festival, and the special events happening every now and then during the festival. The special events are sort of a bonus for the people who can’t get enough of the events.
In The Lichfield Festival, other than the planned events, there are also extra programmes being included such as free community events and classes and school projects to help the people to explore their more creative side. There is also an annual autumn Literature Weekend being included as part of the festival, occasional December events, and year round education and outreach work. In addition there are also people that go to the Medieval Market and Festival Fireworks.
The fourth ‘P’ People;
(The performers)
For the Singapore Arts Festival, the people involved were mainly the artists and the performers who are the front line in terms of showcasing their talents to the audiences, which will in turn, affect whether audiences will return in the future or not. The crew of the artists and performances also operate well without any screw-ups, to ensure that the events are running well, which will in turn create a better experience for the audiences.
The Lichfield Festival on the other hand, has volunteers that helps out at the show every year exceeds over two hundred people, and their age ranges form 18-80 years old. These volunteers signed up for the festival with only one thing in mind, and that is to use their passion for the arts to help the crew and the management to run the festival smoothly.
The fifth “P’ Partnership;
There are many partnerships for The Singapore Arts Festival, and the partners are channel 5, Okto, Coca-cola Light, Shaw Foundation, Tote Board, Lee Foundation, and the government body that supports this event is the Singapore Tourism Board. There are many more partnerships, for example, venue partnerships and sponsors.
For The Lichfield Festival, the organisers have also managed to get BMW to be their principal partner. However, the festival itself has many partnerships including, funders, sponsors, trust and foundations. The government bodies for this event are, Lichfield District Council and Lichfield City Council. In terms of partnerships, the Lichfield Festival is more successful because of the many partnerships that they have managed to get.
The Sixth ‘P’ Promotions;
The have been a huge amount of promotion made by the organisers, in bid of trying to increase awareness of The Singapore Arts Festival. The Singapore Arts Festival does lots of advertising, from posters to commercials on television. The Singapore Arts Festival can also be heard over the radio from time to time, and there is also a lot of brochures bring given out.There are also vouchers and discount given when you actually buy a ticket for an event at the Art Festival.
For The Lichfield Festival, there are also a range of advertising means that The Lichfield Festival uses. Their main advertising is done using brochures and using the website to promote its events.
The seventh ‘P’ Packaging & Distribution;
Both of the Festivals must have good relationship with the ticketing outlets.For the Singapore Arts Festival, the bookings and purchasing of tickets can only be done at SISTIC outlets. There are special rates available, for students and elderly.
For The Lichfield Festival, the Bookings and purchasing of tickets can be done at Festival Box Office, Lichfield Garrick, Castle Dyke, and Lichfield WS13.
The eighth ‘P’ Price;
The prices for The Singapore Arts Festival vary according to the types of events that you are attending. For example, for the dance and theatrics events, the price of these events are more expensive because these events cater to more people and are usually in high demand. Some of the tickets are also sold in packages in order to try and get people to buy more tickets. The prices of tickets during these events also determine the seating that the audiences will get, and most of the times, the more you pay the better your seat is.
For The Lichfield Festival, all the events are held at a similar venue thus audiences usually pay one fee to get to watch the events for that particular day. This is partly because, the venue is also bigger, thus, more people can be accommodated compared to some of Singapore’s venue. Similarly, the seats for the events are based on the price. Therefore, the more expensive, the better the seats.
c) Inform your reader about these best practices.
The best practices of these two festivals, comes from different areas. The Singapore Arts festival has better practices when it comes to the place and the promotions as compared to The Lichfield Festival.
The Singapore Arts festival has a better place marketing strategy. Mainly because, Singapore itself is smaller, thus it is easier to allocate different venues for the wide range of events. The places allocated for the events are also convenient enough for the audiences to gain access to, which is a plus point for the audiences. In addition, if the venues were to be different for different events, it would allow the events to be more interesting because of the change in environment.
The Singapore Arts Festival also has a better promotion marketing strategy, compared to The Lichfield Festival. The Singapore Arts Festival does advertising on the selected television channels to try and increase public awareness regarding the event. Also, the organisers of the festival made use of the posters and brochures to try and get more people to know about the event. This is because; attractive posters and brochures have proven to be effective in giving information to interested people. To add on, information and event whereabouts can be heard over the radio from time to time. The promotion strategy that the organisers used also includes giving vouchers and discount to ticket buyers.
The Lichfield Festival on the other hand has better practices when it comes to product, programming, people and partnership marketing strategy.
The Lichfield Festival has a slightly better product marketing strategy. This is so because this festival and the Singapore art festival are very close in terms of the kinds of events that the both festivals have. However, The Lichfield Festival has sudden appearances from its artists and performers from anywhere in the venues itself. This alone will give audiences a kind of experience that they have not gotten from anywhere else.
The programming strategy used by the organisers of The Lichfield Festival is better than The Singapore Arts Festival because it includes the community in its programme. There are extra events like outreach work, community and school classes to try and allow people to explore their creative side. Thus, people who go for the festival would be able to do more than just watch the events.
The Lichfield Festival has better people strategy because, other than the artists, performers, crew members, the organisers also try and get volunteers to help out with the running of the Festival. This will get the attention of more people to try and use their passion for the art to create a better experience for the other audiences who are enjoying the events. Thus, the hospitality from the volunteers to the visitors would be very good, because the volunteers once being visitors themselves would try give the visitors a better experience. In addition, people are able to attend the Medieval Market and Festival Fireworks besides the Lichfield Festival itself.
The partnership strategy used by the organisers of The Lichfield Festival is more effective than the partnership in the Singapore Arts Festival. It is mainly due to the large number of sponsors that will allow the budget festival to increase. Thus, organisers will be able to plan more activities and things for the visitors to enjoy and participate in.
The packaging and distribution of both The Singapore Arts Festival and The Lichfield Festival are both similar in strength. This is because; both the organisers of the festivals have a good relationship with the bodies and associations that are selling tickets. Thus both festivals have been running smoothly without any major drawback till today. The sales are also quite good which reflects on the effectiveness of the packaging and distribution for both festivals.
The Price strategy of both the two festivals is reliantly on the prices of the tickets, the promotions, packages and bookings. Both organisers of the festivals are aware that the price strategy is something that will affect the sales revenue and the desire of audiences to come and watch the events. Thus, prices are being discounted at special rates.
d) Identify the stakeholders in these festivals;
The stakeholders in the events are the host community, the host organisation, the participants, the spectators, the co-workers, the media, the government and the sponsors.
- The host community for the Singapore Arts festivals is the local Singaporeans.
- The host organisation for this festival is the National Arts Council.
- The participants for this festival are the artists and performers that come to showcase their talents and the crew members that help to run the show.
- The spectators are the audiences that crowd to see the events.
- The co-workers are the venues that the events are held at, for example; Vivo City, Esplanade, Marina Barrage.
- The media are the television channels like channel 5 and Okto.
- To represent the government, Singapore Tourism Board is also involved in the festival.
- The sponsors that made this festival possible and examples are Lee Foundation, SMRT, and Coca-cola Light.
- The host community for The Lichfield Festival are the local British.
- The host organisation for this festival is The Lichfield Festival Association.
- The participants are the artists and performers, and also the crews and volunteers.
- The spectators are the audiences that have bought tickets to see the events.
- The co-workers are the restaurants like the Chandlers Restaurants that allowed the Lichfield festival to use it for official hospitality, and the other venues that are used to hold the events, like the Cathedral and the Garrick theatre.
- The media are the national, regional and local press coverage that has provided 11.5million opportunities for people to know about the festival.
- For the sponsors, there are many companies, foundations and trust that are sponsoring this festival. Some examples are, BMW Plant Hams Hall, HSBC, The Ernest Cook Trust, The Golsoncott Foundation and many more.
e) Reflect on the main purpose of this event or festival;
The main purpose of this festival is to allow Local, Asian and international artists to showcase their talents and works to the rest of the people who will in turn, gain new experience and understanding of the Arts through the exposure of Arts in the different events. During the events, crowds of people flooded the venues where the events are held, which also show the enthusiasm within the people to want and explore their more arty and creative side. Tickets to the dance and music events, as well as the theatrics events are usually sold out. This in turn also shows that people want to take the initiative to go take part in these events to experience it for themselves. The festival also wants to increase the public demand for arts, thus, this festival has lots of events to cater to everybody. This is because everybody is different, and a particular piece of art might be considered art to another person.
f) Comment on the amount of tourism benefits received by the host city of the chosen event.
The amount of tourism benefits that the host city Singapore is getting is no doubt a lot. The benefits can also be divided into groups, which are the Economic and Tourism Roles of Events.
- For Place marketing, The Singapore Arts Festival will create a positive image in the minds of many tourists and visitors. Especially when the events are organised very well, the positive image will stay in the back of the audiences’ minds even longer. The festival itself might actually improve the quality of life for the people who are working close to these event venues. In addition, the festival itself has succeeded in attracting over five hundred thousand people over the course of four weeks.
- For Tourist attraction, the festival has been attracting quality tourists from the other countries, and in bulk. These tourists that have specifically come to Singapore for this event will be staying for the entire festival. This is a great result, and in turn, this will also result in the growing demand for the events in the festival. This results in greater public awareness of the Singapore Arts Festival.
- For the Image maker, the festival being successful will most probably help to get rid of some of the bad imagery that Singapore used to have. In addition, the successful festival would further emphasize that Singapore is a cultural capital.
- For the Catalyst, a growth of infrastructure have been done, which help to enhance the image of the city and to also to support the festival. The festival has also benefited other attractions such as the venues where some of the events are being held at. Examples are, The Esplanade, the Marina Barrage.
- For the animator, the successful Singapore Arts Festival will undoubtedly bring people back to Singapore for the next festival, because of the ranges of events being held, and the fact that the events changes every year. The positive image that has been embedded in them will ensure them that they will return to Singapore again for the other festivals in the future.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I think that the Lichfield festival is slightly better than The Singapore Arts festival. I derived this from the comparisim that I have done, between the marketing strategies of both festivals. So for now, the Lichfield Festival is still better in certain terms, and the Singapore Arts Festival will have certain room to play catch up.
References:
http://www.singaporeartsfest.com/flash_index.html
http://www.lichfieldfestival.org/site/content/view/60/80/
http://www.lichfieldfestival.org/site/images/website%20design_v6_r2_c1.gif http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/birmmail/may2009/0/4/image-12-for-
lichfield-bower-festival-gallery-645270174.jpg
http://www.touristnetuk.com/WM/southstaffs/images/displaypics/sstaffs003.jpg
http://www.geeksigners.com/images/home/artfest.jpg
