Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Singapore art festival 2009
1.1.Background of Singapore art festival 2009
The Singapore art festival originated in 1977. The festival is actually a celebration and cultural sharing of dance, visual arts, theatre, outreach and music. Singapore art festival has been developing and improving every year and have currently been considered one of Asia's top art festivals. This year, the Singapore art festival 2009 is being held at 15th may - 14th June. They will be more than 30 countries compromising 1255 artists participating in the performances. The latest creation will also be showcase during the art festival. The location of the art festival is actually not fixed; it will be all over various places of Singapore to give a better experience to the spectator. It month long plan and activity list is being released in 08 April 2009 and was reported by National Agency News. The art festival will have free and ticketed, indoor and outdoor program. It is known that they will be more than 400 performances. This art festival is known to be engaging with all the Singaporean as they have different theme to cater to different target market. E.g. (Spectacular! Spectacular!- Coming to a location near you, Special events such as Red and many others, Entertainment where you least expect it, Fun with family, Engaging the senses and many others,)
1.2.Background of Edinburgh art festival 2008
I will simply give you a brief background of what is this Edinburgh art festival all about, so that you are able to interpret and understand what I will be comparing on in the later part of the blog. The Edinburgh art festival is successfully done in 2008 and it is an annual event. Meaning this year, there is an Edinburgh art festival 2009. The festival is basically a collective of arts and cultural from different countries and it will take place in the august period, which is also during the summer. The Edinburgh festival holds the largest record for the world largest art festival.
1.3.Introduction
Basically the reason why I am doing Singapore art festival instead of other festival is because i enjoy the program that is in the program list. The thing that i would like to watch most is the musical performances. Although I enjoy music a lot, the amount of instrument that i can play is very little. E.g Piano. I am still learning in the process. The most important thing is that I feel that i will be enjoying the process of going to the art festival with my classmates and totally enjoy blogging the festival.
b)Comparing the selected festival with a similar festival that has been successfully in another city in term of its marketing strategies.
2.Comparison between Singapore art festival 2009 and Edinburgh art festival 2008
I will be comparing Singapore art festival 2009 with Edinburgh art festival 2008. The thing i will be comparing is their marketing strategies, which also means I will be comparing the 8p and integrated marketing strategies of the two festivals. The 8'P's' stand for product, place, partnerships, promotion, programming, people, packaging and distribution and price.
2.1.Product
The first thing I will be comparing is the product of the two festival. Product is mostly a service and is intangible. So what are the similarities and differences in the product of Singapore art festival and Edinburgh art festival?
The similarity in the product is that for both festivals, they use performers from many different countries to enhance the appealing of the festivals. This makes the festivals more unique than the normal festival and it brings out different cultural essence of the festivals.
The differences is that for Singapore it is more of a street show,dance,theatre, visual arts and music kind of performances.For Edinburgh their product is more of a kind of gallery and special event being showcase in the museum than the music performances compared to Singapore. Thus the kind of experience, education value and atmosphere of a galleries is completely different from the street show,dance,theatre, visual arts and music kind of performances.
2.2.Place
The second P in the marketing event is the place. Place of the art festival is very important as it will affect the overall experience of the people going for the event. By positioning the event in a good place, it can enhance the beauty of the event and even help to market the place of the event.
For the Singapore art festival, it is located around the island and not in a fixed place. For the opening of the art festival, it is located in the marina barrage. By locating in marina barrage, it is blending the performances well with the theme of water in the marina barrage. It enhances both the place and the festival itself. It also gives an opportunity for both the locals and the tourists to know more about the various places of Singapore. Let's take marina barrage as an example; it is a newly opened place. I believe many of us first when to marina barrage because of the art festival. This shows that the art festival is actually helping to market and promote marina barrage as a place. I do believe that this concept applies to other places of Singapore too. As the festival is being located in various places around the island, many of the tourists who is not familiar with Singapore will be wondering about the transport. Transport will not pose as a problem, as Singapore is very accessible as we have SMRT, SBS and many different taxis companies.
For Edinburgh festival, it is located in Edinburgh which is the capital of Scotland. The festival is known to be held in every August of the year. It is during the summer season of the year, where is the most suitable weather for people to travel around in Scotland. The place of the festival is also similar to Singapore, whereby it is not in a fixed location. The gallery is being showcase in various places of Edinburgh too. The transport is not a problem as they have train, bus and even taxis. The information of the transport can be found in http://www.eif.co.uk/visiting-edinburgh/getting-around/getting-around-city. The fringe festival of Edinburgh is known to be the largest art festival in the world. Thus, by having this art festival in Edinburgh, it already stands in an advantage position in term of their marketing. This shows that reputation is also very important in every festival.
3.3.Partnership
The third P of the marketing strategies is the partnership. Almost every festival and event, they will be partnership between different company as other they require different resources and various expertise for the festival.
Singapore art festival 2009 partners:
Edinburgh art festival 2008 partners:
Funders
Media partners
Sponsors
Supporters
The above picture is taken from - http://www.edinburghartfestival.com/supporters/
The Singapore art festival has partners themselves with a lot of partners. In term of government agencies, they have partner themselves with the Singapore tourism board, to help market the event. The Singapore art festival has also found many sponsor to subsidies the event. The list of sponsor will be further explained in 4.1 under the stakeholder-sponsors.
As we can seen from above, both festival have found quite a number of partner to subsidies them. The similar point that they both have is that they mainly partners with the company of the host countries, or international companies. The reason for it is because, the sponsor would definitely want to market their product to the locals and not in some places that they dun have a product or share in.
3.4.Promotion
Singapore art festival promotion:
Great Offers and Discounts
Present your ArtsFest Club Card* or ArtsFest Ticket(s) to receive these great offers and discounts from our partners.
 | Marina Mandarin SingaporeArtsFest Club Members
Subject to room availability and hotel's closed-out dates ArtsFest Ticket Holders
Terms & conditions apply Not valid with any other promotions Subject to hotel's closed-out dates From Now till 31 August 2009. |
Marrakesh - Moroccan Lounge & Bar
- ArtsFest Club Members: 15% off total bill
- ArtsFest Ticket Holders: 10% off total bill
Not valid for tobacco, merchandise and corporate events.
From 14 May - 15 June.
The Rupee Room
- ArtsFest Club Members: 15% off total bill
- ArtsFest Ticket Holders: 10% off total bill
Not valid for tobacco, merchandise and corporate events.
From 14 May - 15 June.
Mirchi - Taste of India
- ArtsFest Club Members: 15% off total bill
- ArtsFest Ticket Holders: 10% off total bill
Not valid for tobacco, merchandise and corporate events.
From 14 May - 15 June.
 | The Heeren Shops
Valid till 30 June 2009 |
 | Dôme
Valid till 31 December 2009 Promotions are not valid at Dôme @ Suntec City Tower 5 |
 | Rendezvous Hotel Singapore
15% discount at Straits Café @ Rendezvous 25% on snacks & drinks at Palong Bar @ Rendezvous 10% discount at Straits Café @ Rendezvous 20% on snacks & drinks at Palong Bar @ Rendezvous Valid till 30 June 2009 |
Hot Stones Clarke Quay
- 10% discount off a la carte food
Valid from 1 May - 30 June 2009
Al Dente Trattoria Esplanade
- 10% discount off a la carte food
Valid from 1 May - 30 June 2009
Barossa Esplanade
- 10% discount off a la carte food
- Produce your ticket stub at Barossa on the performance day and purchase beers and wines for only $6++
Ticket promotion is valid only for shows at the Esplanade.
Ticket promotion is valid only on performance day.
Valid from 1 May - 30 June 2009
 | Business Traveller Asia-Pacific (BTAP)Special subscription offer of up to 50% discountoff cover price BTAP All-In-One package includes:
Offer is valid until December 31, 2009. Click here for subscription. |
*ArtsFest promotions may not be enjoyed in conjunction with other discounts or promotions. Please check with respective outlets for details.
The above information and details is taken from http://www.singaporeartsfest.com/promotions/
The similarities between both festival is that each of them have their own membership. This is to encourage people to support and join their festival every year such that the festival itself can be sustainable.
The difference between the promotion is that Singapore is linking the festival toward its accommodation and Food and beverage as shown in the above promotion. Edinburgh is focusing more on promoting it art festival with other festival, such as the Edinburgh international book festival which also fall in the august.
3.5.Programming
For the Singapore art festival the programming was done in a way such that the festival blends in well with the location of the festival. Let's take the opening ceremony for an example, the theme of the show have linkage with water. An, the marina barrage is being surrounded by water and have lots of water element in it. The programming was so beautifully done and it bring certainly bring out something that is unique. The Singapore art festival is usually presenting it show from a range of 12min- 2hour.
The Edinburgh art festival is different in a way of programming because of the different in the theme of the arts presenting to the spectators. The programming was done in a way that the timing is ranging from several hours - 24hours. We can see a clear difference in the length of the Edinburgh art festival and Singapore art festival. All these are considered programming as it will affect the experience of the spectators.
The only thing I can say about the difference in this two is that they belong to two different style. I believe that they is no clear differences whether which style of presenting the arts is better. It just a matter of which style the spectators like more.
3.6.People
The people in the festival is the "cast", the audience, hosts and guests. They are also the one making alive the whole festivals.
The similarity of the two festivals is that they both had the cast, the audience, host and guest.
The cast of Edinburgh and Singapore art festival are mainly the local doing the job. The similarity in the audience is that the local are participating in the events. The host and guest of both festivals are from many different countries, where they are being invited or have participated in the festival. However, the countries participating in the Edinburgh and the countries participating in the Singapore art festival is different.
The difference in the audience of Edinburgh art festival is that they have more tourists watching the shows than Singapore art festival. It is because they are more reputable and more tourists are aware and keen to watch the shows and galleries.
3.7.Packaging & distribution
The Singapore art festival sell it ticket through Sistic. Sistic is a well known company and it is easy to buy ticket through the system in Sistic. People can buy the ticket from overseas, without having the fear of not being able to watch the show that they want. People also can buy the ticket through online or through hot line. Student packages and promotion are also done to increase attract people to the festival.
The Edinburgh also has their own ways of doing things. They allow their art festival club members to purchase at a 10% discount for single ticket purchase. The distribution method is similar to Singapore art festival in a way, as the visitor are able to book the ticket easily through online. The only difference in the way of booking is just that the system and the company is difference.
3.8.Price
The similarity in term of their pricing is that, both festivals have free shows and galleries for the spectators. Despite being free, there is other cost such as opportunity cost that the spectators have to pay. Thus, this actually explains to us that "nothing is free in this world."
For Singapore art festival 2009 they are also a lot of performances that is free. For certain shows which is being broadcast in the Esplanade theater, Esplanade concert hall, Victoria concert hall and certain places, it charge a price of $20-$100 depending on the seat and the venue. This is because they have to pay for various costs of the shows. E.g, the crew, the maintenance of the location, rental of the venue and many others. Thus it can be considered very cheap as they are only charging from $20-$100.
For Edinburgh art festival, most of it galleries are free, by appointment and ranging from $10-$25. There is a clear difference between the price of the Singapore art festival ticket and Edinburgh art festival. It may be because of the difference in the type of shows and the difference in the performers.
c)Inform your reader about these best practices.
4.Best practices
Next, i will be touching on the best practices of the Singapore art festival 2009.
4.1.8'P's
One of the best practices is that Singapore has touch on many marketing channel instead of only one marketing channel. In this way, most Singaporean are able to know of this festival and be able to participate in the festival. From what i have mentioned earlier on, the 8'P's the Singapore have done a good job on it. It is not a very easy task to fufill the requirement of the 8'P's of the marketing strategies.
4.2.Web page of Singapore art festival
The second best practices is the main website of the Singapore art festival. Most of the information of Singapore art festival can be found in the website. E.g the timing of the performances, performances, performers, organizer and contacts. In addition to it containing most of the information, the web page itself is also easy to navigate. The webpage is a very important marketing tools and a place where reader find information on the festival. Due to limited marketing budget, I believe most of the marketing of the art festival is targeting the locals, web page serve as additional purpose of providing accurate and trustworthy information to people from overseas who are interested in the festival. Thus, i personally feel that it is important to have a good web page. I believe the Singapore art festival have done a good job and is one of the best practices.
4.3Overseas booking
We often overlook the importance of overseas booking as we are not standing in the shoe of the tourist to think for them. Just imagine, if we were to book an overseas festival ticket and you have difficulty booking it, it will spoil the experience of the trip even before going to the festival. Having a good and easy to use system, like what the Singapore art festival is doing certainly make me feel secure and happy. This ensures that I will be able to enjoy the particular festival performance. Thus, I think Singapore art festival have done a pretty good job in this area.
4.4. Timing of the art festival
I have noticed that the performance being shown in the art festival usually start at 8pm. I have to praise them for setting the time of the performance so well. You must be wondering why I am praising them. 8 pm is the time, where people just had their dinner, so they would not mind staying back awhile to watch the performances. It is also the timing where the shopping center and certain area are packed with people. Thus, they make up the perfect audience for the shows. For office staff, their job would probably end at around 5pm-6pm, thus they can also make it for the performances. For most tertiary students like me, the latest their class end would most likely be 6pm. Thus, I can conclude that at 8pm, most of the people would be free; it is just whether they are interested and willing to fork out their time to watch the show. Thus, I believe that the timing of the art festival performances is very important and it is one of the best practices of the festival.
d) Identify the stakeholders in these festivals
4.The Stakeholders
Basically, they are 6 obvious stakeholders in the festival. They are the one who is directly and indirectly involved in the festival. They are the sponsor, participants and spectators, host organization, host community, co-workers and media. You will find some stakeholders overlapping in more than one category, as some people have different roles.
4.1.Sponsor
This image is taken from http://www.singaporeartsfest.com/sponsor/.
As you can see from the image above, it is known that they are several sponsor to this art festival. The sponsors can also be categorized to Official Sponsor, Premier Partners, Major Sponsors, Sponsors, Supporters, venue partners. Basically, the official sponsor is also the main sponsor of the event. They are usually sponsors from large and reputable company. While the Premier partners are people who have helped the forming of the festivals. It can be helping to market the festival or something else. The major sponsors and sponsors are similiar. It is just that the scale of thing that they have been providing to the event. Supporters are the people who support festivals and may be helping by providing them money. Lastly, Venue partners are the one providing the venue for the festival.
4.2.Participants and spectators
Participants can be considered the performers performing the performance. They are also the people for 30 over countries coming to the Singapore, which i have mentioned during the background. While the spectator can be anyone watching the performances by the participant. They can be the one watching the performance through the internet, television or the live show. They can also be the sponsor, host community, host organization and co-worker. They are no limit or restriction to who is actually a spectator. In general, it basically mean, people who are watching the show.
4.3.Host organization
Host organization is the people responsible for hosting the festival. For the Singapore art festival, the host community is the National art council. They are the one responsible for the hiring of staff, choosing of partners, finding the sponsors and many other things. But the most important thing of the organizer is to ensure that the festival turn out to be successful. For such a big event, it is important to find a organizer that has a good reputation or have ties with the government. In this way, it is more credible and reliable for people to trust and support the event.
4.4.Host Community
The host community is basically the residents of Singapore. They are the one hosting the event.
4.5.Co-workers
They are the one working in the event, which is also the crews,supervisor, site managers and others. They are the one who work in the backstage and front stage of the festival. Their behavior will be directly and indirectly reflect on the festival. Thus, it is important to select co-worker properly and training should be provided to them. As shown in the picture below, those three wearing costumes can be considering co-workers. His job is to create a fun and exciting atmosphere by doing magic trick before the main event of the festival start.
4.6.Media
Media is important as it help to advertise the event and broadcast the event to the people who has never attend the festival. It also give accurate and up to date information to those that who been wondering what actually is this festival about. It is also a place where the public trust and believe the information. Media is basically the mean of communication between the public and the art festival. Examples of the media of the art festival can be the channel 5, Okto, which is also the official Tv station and supporting Tv station. As shown from the picture below, my classmates haven been interviewed by the media and will be broadcast on the channel 5 television. They are sharing their experiences of the opening ceremony of the art festival to the media.
5.Purpose for the festival
For the objectives/purpose of the festival, i think it can be categories into primary objective and secondary objective. Primary objective is also referring to the main objective of this event, while the secondary objective is referring to the additional goals that might be succeed through the festival. As the art festival is not being solely organize by National Art council, it is inevitably that they will be more than 1 objective in the event. They have partners like the channel 5 TV, the coca cola and any others partners.
Reflect on the main purpose of this event or festival
5.1.Primary Purpose
To know and understand the objective of Singapore art festival, we have to trace it root back to 33 years ago, where it is first being organized. At that point of time, the purpose for the festival is simply a celebration of dance, music, arts, theatre and visual arts. It is to turn this festival into a happy event for the locals to participate in and increased their knowledge on arts. It can also be a place for people from other country to do art and cultural exchange and improve the skills on the dance, music and theatre, visual arts and other areas. It is also a place for them showcase their expertise and be recognized by people from other countries.
The second primary purpose is to promote arts in Singapore. They want Singapore to be a world recognize platform for various art performances to be held in Singapore. In this way, Singapore can definitely increase the tourism arrival rates of Singapore.Tourism revenue will also increase through the process.People will also think that Singapore being the place for cultural and art exchange which is recognized by the world will also improve the reputation of Singapore as a whole.
5.2.Secondary purpose
The secondary objective can be to earn revenue in the event. By saying revenue, I do not mean just the admission fee of the festivals. Just simply think about it and you can find out other supporting service earning revenue because of the festival. People travel using public transport such as SBS or SMRT to get to the location of the festival. In this case, the transport sector are indirectly being affected and earning extra revenue. As the revenue of this business increase, it indirectly increase the revenue of the government too, as the corporate tax will increase. In short, the secondary purpose can also be some of the tourism benefit which i will be mentioning later on.
e)Comment on the amount of tourism benefits received by the host city of the chosen event.
6.Tourism benefit
They are various tourism benefit gain from this art festival. The tourism benefit gain from the art festival can be categorized into political, economically, social and cultural, physical and environment.
6.1.Political Benefits
Raise the profile of Singapore
By having the Singapore art festival; it will attract a small amount of tourist to Singapore to watch the art festival. When these tourist return back to their country, through word-of-mouth, they will share their experience in Singapore and more people will get to know of the country. Although Singapore, is a small country, more people get to know of the country through events and festivals. By raising the profile of Singapore, it can benefit us in a certain ways. For example, they will be more tourist being interested to visit Singapore
Social cohesion
By showcasing various countries arts, they can understand more about different countries culture and build are a better relationship. In this way, people will be friendly to one another and it can actually prevent war or conflicts. Thus social cohesion is essential and important to the survival of a country, especially Singapore. If war were to happen, Singapore would most likely fall as it depends highly on the trade and tourism industry. It is certain that they will be a reduction in these two industries if war were to arise.
6.2.Economic Benefits
Tourism revenue
When the tourists come to Singapore, they will certainly spend a certain amount of money in Singapore. Supporting sector such as accommodation, food and beverages, transport revenues will definitely increase. Although art festival can only be considered as an hallmark event, whereby they is very little tourist who come particular for this event. There will still be some revenue being earned in the industry that I mentioned.
Extending length of stay
I believe that they is some tourist who happens to increased their length of stay just to experience the Singapore art festival. It is a great event where many countries have been participating in it. I wouldn't be surprise that people stay longer to experience this unique festival. By staying longer, it also means that they will spend more, thus further increasing the tourism revenue which i have mentioned.
Business opportunities
To hold a successful festival is not easy as we think it is. We need to allocate and managed resources properly and balance the cost with revenue. If the, festival were to be held successfully, other countries might want to approach us in future in term of hosting an art festival. This in turn serves as a business opportunity for Singapore. More corporate would also be willing to invest or to sponsor in the festival if this year festival turn out to be successful. Thus, it is important to ensure that the festival is being host successfully.
6.3.Social and Cultural Benefits
Broadening People cultural horizon
By having the Singapore art festival, where there is countries from all over the world participating in it, it became a place where people share their culture and their perception on arts with one another. During the performances, both the participant and audience are able to broaden their cultural view on arts as they are expose to more type of arts instead of only the local arts. I believe through the festival every year, the level of art being performed will be bought to a higher level.
6.4.Physical and Environmental Benefits
Infrastructure
Large festival and events can stimulate the growth of the infrastructure of a certain area. Infrastructure can be things such as the Singapore stadium, technology hub, roads and recently the railway to connect the circle. I am not saying that Singapore art festival will have such a big impacts on the infrastructure. However, i do believe that it constitute a small part of it to the infrastructure. When the government is building the infrastructure, he must have been taken into consideration of the small details such as the different type of festival and how the tourists are going to travel around the country. So it do actually play a part in stimulating the building of infrastructure.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)