Singapore Arts Festival has successfully attracted the young and matured adults through suitable advertising tools such as social networking platforms and public transportation. However, there is another market that the event might wish to tap on as well, the silver age group.
Why them?
This year's slogan for the event is, "stories, legends and myths come alive at the Singapore Arts Festival 2012". The silver age group is the perfect market for these. They are the ones with all the myths and legends, and they are also the ones whom we ought to care more about.
The organizers of the event can look into radio and television advertisements aired during the golden hours 2pm to 4pm. Radio stations such as FM95.8 and FM97.2 are very popular among this age group, particularly the Chinese. It would even be better if the radio station could broadcast the advertisement in dialect so that those who might not understand mandarin have an alternative.
Majority of the folks in this age group read the newspapers daily. Therefore, putting advertisements in the newspapers can also be one of the ways to attract them to the event. Other than that, teachers at the community centre who are teaching people of this age group should be informed of the event so that they can pass on the message to their students.
Did I mention that word of mouth is a free and effective marketing tool? Well, folks of this age group spread words like fire! In no time, more people in the silver age group will know about Singapore Arts Festival and will be eager to participate in it!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Event Marketing Mix adopted in Singapore Arts Festival 2012
For an event to be successful, marketing plays a pivotal role in "creating value for customers and other stakeholders". (Temasek Polytechnic, 2001, Festivals and Events Marketing Lecture 4 Part 1) There are eight components to focus on when marketing an event and this includes:
Product
Place
Partnerships
Promotion
Price
Packaging and Distribution
Programming
People
So, how has Singapore Arts Festival 2012 adopted the various components of the event marketing mix that contribute to its success? Let us take a look.
Promotion
Promotion is whereby the organisation communicates and update its consumers everything about them. For promotion, the Singapore Arts Festival 2012 has cleverly engaged SMRT Outdoor Media as one of their promotional tool.
Eye catching posters were put up in concept trains where they were easily seen and read! With over millions of passengers travelling by trains daily, the information that the event wants to bring across will be able to reach out to the young and mature adults. Not forgetting the iVIEWSMRT (which I spotted at Boon Lay MRT Station) whereby the LCD screen shows a sixty seconds digital poster of Singapore Arts Festival at intervals along with other advertisements.
Banners hanging on lamp posts were also spotted in Orchard Road to inform the locals and tourists of the event. There was a banner at almost all the lamp posts down Orchard Road, so it was really hard not to miss the advertisement.
Other than above the line publicity, non paid advertisement was also used to promote the event. Social media networking has become an integral part of our lives. Using social media such as Facebook and Twitter, the Singapore Arts Festival reaches out to masses!
Not only that, more than 120,000 copies of the Festival Guide were also distributed and placed at the information counter of shopping malls and even museums. A soft copy of the Festival Guide can also be downloaded from its website. Its official website also has a whopping number of 115,824 unique visitors recorded from March to June 2010. Also on the website, there are webisodes where Singapore Arts Festival has engaged Don Richmond to host interviews and showcase various activities at the event.
Here is the first webisode!
Word of mouth plays an important part as well! When asked about how he knew about Singapore Arts Festival 2012, Glenn, a fresh graduate from Temasek Polytechnic answered, "My friends told me about this event. It is my first time here!"
The significant number of people that the Singapore Arts Festival has reached out to, have helped to contribute to its success.The awareness of this event was high and many people knew about the Singapore Arts Festival 2012. Figures from: Singapore Arts Festival 2012
Partnerships
For partnerships, it is where there is a joint marketing with major stakeholders in producing the event. (Temasek Polytechnic, 2001, Festivals and events Marketing Lecture 4 Part 1) Partnerships allow the organisation to tap on its sponsors' database and reach out to specific target markets.
For instance, discounts were given to card members with the following cards:
Kinokuniya Privilege Card
NTUC U Card
NTUC Plus! Visa Card
OCBC Credit and Debit Card
PAssion Card
SAFRA Card
Working with these sponsors and partners, Singapore Arts Festival provides a platform for them to participate in and at the same time, to meet their organisational goals.
One such significant example would be the Centaur (Manolo Bez and his horse) spotted at a few locations in Singapore. If without supporting partners, the Centaur might not even be able to make its appearances in public!
Price
This year, the Singapore Arts Festival offers more than thirty ticketed and non ticketed programs, ranging from workshops, master classes, dance, music, theatre, experiential and other types of programs such as film screenings. I am sure there is at least a program that will be of interest to you!
Pre-sales started in mid-March where a discount of 30% was given exclusively to ArtsFest Club members when they purchase tickets to two or more performances! With over 10,000 ArtsFest Club members to date, Singapore Arts Festival engages directly and creates awareness for its members about the event.
Those who are not members also get to benefit during the early bird sales where they were given 20% discount off their tickets to two or more performances. At this juncture, the Friends and Family Package was introduced, offering a similar 20% discount for a minimum purchase of four tickets per show.
Discounts were also given for full time students, National Servicemen, senior citizens and school bookings. The prices for ticketed programs ranges from $12 to $100, and with further discounts, Singapore Arts Festival is here with affordable prices!
Free programs on the other hand, even though they come with no price tag, they are only available at specific timings. Nevertheless, the free programs were as engaging and interesting as well! I really enjoyed myself at the Festival Village and I am sure many others did too.
People
What will affect our experience at the Singapore Arts Festival? Is it the weather or the programs? Well, they may play a part in making it a wonderful or bad experience but most importantly, the people whom interact with us at the event play a bigger role.
The staff and volunteers who are helping out at the event are the ones who come in contact with the visitors. "The interaction between customers, the setting and the staff constitute a large part of the event experience". (Temasek Polytechnic, 2001, Festivals and Events Management Lecture 4 Part 1)
Lynette, a fresh graduate from Singapore Polytechnic was a volunteer as an Artist Liaison I met at Tangle in Festival Village. She shared with me interesting facts about Tangle and even informed me that at about 8.30pm that night, there was going to be a performance by Flux and told me to standby at the river to "get a good seat".
Another instance was when I was lingering outside the Festival Cafe, looking at the performance that had started inside. One of the staff gestured to me to go in and join them. Immediately, I felt very happy!
Yes, people are very important. They are vital to the success of an event.
Changes
In the previous year, there
had been a stage in the village where one of the productions staged its play.
As compared to the one this year, the stage in 2011 looked more grand as it was
elevated. There was even a pathway built to lead to the outdoor theatre. There were more free programs this year, which also means that more people get to enjoy art!
The poster this year also took to a minimalist look without any photographs. It looks better this way!
Monday, May 21, 2012
Singapore Arts Festival 2012
“The Singapore Arts Festival 2012 not only offers audiences performances that touch the heart and stimulate the senses, it also provides a platform to engage with different communities in Singapore by providing them with unique opportunities to take part in the process of art-creation. We want the festival to continue to push the boundaries of how stories could be told and challenge our audience’s perceptions of the arts. All productions this year are shaped by that approach, together with elements of myths and legends, completing a three-year journey to address our collective memories and historical past.” - -- Low Kee Hong, General Manager of the Singapore Arts Festival Source: Huney'z World
During my trip to the Asian Civilization Museum, I grabbed the Singapore Arts Festival 2012 guide, and this year's theme is Our Last Poems, the last part of the trilogy that started in 2010. Being a local and community event, the Singapore Arts Festival is already into its 35th year of bringing audiences on a journey of self re-discovery!
Expectations
To tell you the truth, the cover of the guide did not entice me at all, but the contents of it were very appealing! From the eye-pleasing fonts and well organised paragraphs, to the content of the articles which were accompanied with delightful pictures. The individual events have their own icons to depict the event, which I find rather refreshing!
Not just that, I even managed to read every single article as they were short and to the point and it was a joy to read, unlike certain guides which are overloaded with text. I liked the part where they summarised each event in just a few words and if I am not interested, I could just skip reading about the event.
Out of the 22 programs at the Singapore Arts Festival 2012, a few of the really interesting ones caught my attention. For instance, there is the The Book of Living and Dying.
The Book of Living and Dying is about "karma, reincarnation and past lives" as quoted from the Festival Guide. That few words alone already made me very excited to attend the event at the Singapore Arts Festival, to know more about it!
So, let's go check it out!
This Public Garden Flea located under the Esplanade Bridge amazed me so much because they were selling really unique items at reasonable prices! You can even get a mohawk haircut here!
With so many interesting programs set to evoke people's feelings and thoughts, I was sure that only people who are strongly interested in arts would attend the events, be it ticketed or free.
I was wrong! People of all ages, young and old were there. There was something for everyone!
You get the best view here!
The crowd consisted of families, couples, old folks, all whom had gone there for the same reason: to enjoy themselves.
I was there at about 6.30pm and a spontaneous group of people had already gathered in front of the stage area to watch dance performances put up by various institutions. At the festival, one can really feel that the word "art" is all encompassing. There were Indian dances, Malay dances and even fusion dance where one of the performance group combined Indian dance with contemporary dance!
The crowd poured in later in the evening and the place got so much livelier!
Parents and kids having fun at Tangle!
A crowd gathering in front of the XII - In search of 13 stage, waiting for the "wrestling match" to start!
Look at the crowd inside the Festival Cafe!
With most of the activities happening from 4pm onward, the atmosphere was really delightful later in the day!
Thoughts on the outcome of the event
When I stepped into the Festival Village, I was immediately approached by one of the volunteer from the National Arts Council (NAC), who stopped me to help her complete a survey. One of the questions she asked was whether I enjoyed the activities even when I told her I have not even participated in any yet! It seemed like she was only trying to get her job done as quickly as possible so that she can go home I was wondering whether all the volunteers under NAC possess this kind of attitude while conducting survey in the Festival Village. To me, that lady had already left a really bad impression for me.
Later in the evening while I was waiting by the river for the Flux show to start, a Singapore Arts Festival volunteer in pink approached and handed me a booklet which explains about the production of Flux.
He was really nice and even came back to hand me another program booklet seeing that I have not gotten one for myself. Such volunteers deserve a pat on the back for going out of their way to service the public who have come for the festival! It is these kind of service that adds value to the event that you are attending and Singapore Arts Festival has succeeded in achieving that component by providing trainings for the volunteers. I could see dedication and passion in the staff involved in the festival and I guess that is really what makes the event a successful one, other than a well planned calendar of unique programs for everyone to enjoy.
As quoted from a blogger Rachel , "It's great that more and more Singaporeans are participating in arts and cultural activities, and participating in the Singapore Arts Festival in whatever capacity you can is a great way of immersing yourself in living, breathing art. Having been to the Singapore Arts Festival 2010 and 2011, both as a part of the organising team and as a member of the public, I can attest to the quality and enjoyability of the performances, and I encourage all Singaporeans to take the chance to participate in the Singapore Arts Festival 2012."
Overall, the Singapore Arts Festival 2012 has definitely inspired. In my humble opinion, the event was a great success.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
I am back from a trip to the Festival Village at the Singapore Arts Festival 2012! And to start things off, here is an interesting webisode about one of the event that is happening during the Singapore Arts Festival! I would really love to attend this event if there was no deadline for this blog reflection.
