Singapore Arts Festival is an annual event in Singapore which is organised by the National Arts Council to celebrate the local arts activities and it has become one of the major events in the regional arts scene. The festival integrates visual arts, dance, music as well as theatre arts, bringing a whole new sensation to the audience. Being the largest singular event in the Singapore’s scene, the festival spans across 4 weeks during the mid year, artist coming from more than 20 countries across the globe, and a total of more than 500 activities were arranged.
The holding of such big event in Singapore adds to our cultural landscape, and also boosting our image as an Arts Hub.
The Singapore Arts Festival plays a significant role in positioning Singapore as the cultural capital, further boosting Singapore’s image as a Regional Arts Hub, bringing significant cultural, social and economic benefits to the residents in Singapore
Honestly, whenever the arts festival starts in Singapore, I could feel art vibe hanging around every corner of Singapore and it makes me feel artistic all of the sudden by attending the art performances.
Melbourne International Arts Festival is Australia's leading celebration of international performing and visual arts and Melbourne's flagship cultural event. Since first being staged in 1986 as the third Spoleto Festival (with Spoleto, Italy, and Charleston, USA), Melbourne Festival quickly forged a distinctive identity and remains the only festival in Australia to be born from international heritage. Held over 17 days each October, Melbourne Festival is the pre-eminent destination festival in the nation, exclusively debuting and premiering some of the finest national and international artists and companies. Each Festival brings an unparalleled feast of dance, theatre, music, visual arts, multimedia and outdoor events from renowned and upcoming Australian and International companies and artists to Melbourne. Through excellence, diversity and accessibility, Melbourne Festival presents the best possible artistic experience to as many people as possible. It proudly offers a wide variety of venues and ticket prices, plus many free events.
http://www.melbournefestival.com.au/about_us
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Product
If you were to ask me the product, I would say the product that the both festival offers would be none other than the performances that is staged. People participate the festival because they want to watch these performances and experience the unique atmosphere that is hovering in the air, the kind of excitement, and anticipation. When I attended the Opening Ceremony for the Singapore Arts Festival at Marina Barrage, I could experience the vibrancy of this cosmopolitan city through the breathtaking performances that was put up by the artists and I have to say that it was really a great one!
I believe being one of the major events in Australia, just like Singapore Arts Festival is one of the significant events in South East Asia, the Melbourne Arts Festival also offers the similar experience.
However, something different is that the Singapore Arts Festival further provides elements in the product mix by offering discounts to F&B outlets, Shopping centres, Hotels for Arts Fest ticket holders. For example the Barossa Espanade, ticket holders get a 10% discount off a la carte food and if they produce their ticket stub on the performance day, they get to purchase beers and wines for only 6++. That is a good add on service provided by the Arts Fest organizers and I believe many of the ticket holders would feel privileged as not only do they get to watch the performance, they also get discounted price for dining and shopping, this would further encourage these ticket holders to spend, creating spin-offs for the economy.
Place
Throw away the mindset that festivals only happen in town! Singapore Arts Festival is spread all across our island! You can catch them at most of the places now! No matter whether you are shopping in town, or rushing home after work, dining in food centres the performances are there!
The Marina Barrage is definitely a good location for the Opening Ceremony to be held in. Though accessibility is a problem, but I guess the organizers must have foreseen that and that is why they provided shuttle buses from Marina Bay Mrt Station to the Barrage. As not many of us have been to the Marina Barrage, going there is a whole new experience to us and attending the Arts Festival is a good excuse for us to explore the place. This whole new experience I mentioned earlier complements the atmosphere of Opening Ceremony, bringing the sensational experience to greater heights.
Similar to Singapore Arts Fest, the performances during the Melbourne Arts Festival period is located in various venues in Melbourne, Australia. For instances, the Federation Square, Arts Centre which includes the famous Spiegeltent, Cub Malthouse are some of the venues for the performances. Both free and ticketed performances are available for these two festivals.
http://melbourne.citysearch.com.au/arts/displayRoundUpDetail/1119945820089/1137541083231
Partnership
Partnerships with sponsors and organizations are vital as their marketing presence can be very essential when it comes to designing promotional activities. In the case of the Singapore Arts Festival, sponsors ranges from private organizations such as Mediacorp, Coca Cola F&N Company, Shaw Foundation, Wingtai Asia, Vivo City and etc, to public government bodies, for instances, Singapore Tourism Board, Public Utilities Board, as well as Urban Development Authority.
Likewise for the Melbourne Arts Festival, they have a wide range of sponsors too. Following are some of their major sponsors:
By looking at the number of sponsorships, it seems like the Melbourne Arts Festival is much more capable in attracting these sponsors.
Promotion
‘The promotion mix, a company’s total marketing communications program, includes advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and personal selling.’ (Kotler et al. (1998), 489)
Before the Singapore Arts Festival actually starts, there is a series of promotional activities going on such as constant frequencies of commercial during our drama breaks flashing various sights of the vibrant festival being held the previous years. Advertisements in the newspaper can also be seen before and during the Festival season. Besides that,there are also banners hanging around the busy streets in Orchard Road to gather attention from both residents living in Singapore as well as the tourists as Orchard is known as Singapore high street shopping district. Banners were also seen in Vivocity, around the pillars near the escalators to capture attention of those who were travelling up and down the escalators. Besides that, some of the cabs are also decorated with the advertisement of the Arts Festival. In additional, as part of promotional efforts to encourage participation, the Singapore Arts Festival also conduct prize winning sessions, such as the Etiquette Lucky Draw that is in collaboration with DOME café.
On the other hand, banners can also be seen around Melbourne, just like the one below
Similar promotional efforts have been done to create awareness such as commercials, newspaper advertisements and etc. which can be proved by the sponsors list, such as JCdecaux, media partner The Age, Channel 9, as well as ABC radio. However, on a fun side, the Melbourne International Arts Festival has been issuing specially designed Metcard as part of the promotional campaign since 2004. I think that was a creative advertising tool to promote the festival.
Packaging and Distribution
Purchasing a ticket to the performance during the Singapore Arts Festival now is so much convenient with so many options open for people like us to select from. There are various channels to purchase a ticket to a performance such as the internet which is the fastest and the most convenient way – just a click away, by telephone – a call away, as well as Sistic authorised agents located in many heartland places in Singapore – a step away from your house. Not a Singapore resident? No credit cards? No worries! There are overseas sistic agents available in countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia!
However, all these channels are operated under one distribution agent – the big giant SISTIC! Tickets will also be available one hour before commencement of the performance except for sold out production.
Across to the Melbourne International Arts Festival, public can purchase the ticket in person at their ticketing booth, by telephone, via their website online, by fax, and by mail! So many options available! However it is noted that there is only one and only ticketing booth located in Melbourne, Federation Square.
For this section, the Melbourne International Arts Festival stands an advantage by offering so many different means of purchasing the tickets to the performance. After all, the more options available for the public to purchase the tickets mean more ticketing sales, right?
Programming
Performances during the Singapore Arts Festival cater to people coming from different paths of life. For families with kids, there is a Family Funfest which consists of interactive performances and games for both kids and the adults such as The Big Game, Sienta La Cabeza, and etc. For people with hectic and busy schedules, we have the Arts on the Move, whereby performances are staged in places where you often pass by without notice such as the Mrt Station and food centres. Of course for those who appreciate operas and dramas, the Singapore Arts Festival also have performances in local theatre halls such as the Esplanade.
Both festivals offer similar programs that cater to different people as both of them have a wide array of performances that attracts different audiences. On an advantage side, Arts on the Move adopted a more interactive approach to engage audience to the performance which shows a little more consideration taken to programme such outdoor performances.
People
The meaning of people and participation is the contact between local people and festival goers. The hospitality of local people or their rejection can influence the festival experience on one hand and the locals’ attitude towards the event on the other. (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/festivals/8marke.html)
During the opening ceremony I attended with my friends, while awaiting for the performance to draw its curtains, we walked around and saw many of the staff there were smiling to the people and greeting them with their excitement and passion for arts. But honestly, I thought they were crazy with all that hype. The other time was when I went for the street festival held at the top level in Vivo city, they were holding the hip hop competition and it was so crowded that both my friend and I have to stand beside the stage to catch the performance. This time, I could totally feel the hype for it. A staff then approaches me and I had a little chat with her as she gave me some information regarding the competition, she was really nice and polite when I talked to her.
Though I have not been to the Melbourne Arts Festival, I believe that those staff would also provide similar services to the art lovers and audiences.
Price
Since the Singapore Arts Festival is a series of performance that stretches across the one-month period, many arts lovers would tend to purchase tickets to various performances. To further encourage these arts lovers, there is actually a discount for those who purchase tickets for two or more shows. Wouldn’t that be great! There are also discounts for students, NSFs, Senior citizens, group bookings, as well as school bookings! Apart from the free performances, the cost of the ticket to a performance may range somewhere from $20 to above $150.
On a bad note, although there are discounts given, I feel that the prices or the tickets are a little expensive despite being the lowest ticket prices ever. Organisers should come up with a discounted family package so as to encourage families to take part in the Arts Festival and lowering the price further of the ticket to the performances to allow more opportunities for the arts to be appreciated by the middle-income group families.
Moving on to the Melbourne International Arts Festival, there are also similar discount packages for those who purchase tickets to 2 or more shows during the Arts Festival. Besides that, there is also a double up discount package as well as a matinee discount package. However, they do not have any discounts for students or senior citizens.
Best Practices
What I considered as a best practice is the design of the Metcard by the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Besides being a tool for advertising and an item to be kept as a souvenir, I think there is meaning behind such action. By combining both elements, the Metcard which is somewhat similar to our EZ-link card which we often use in our daily life, and the festival, it is trying to show its attempt to make the festival as an integral part of our life.
Another best practice is the pricing strategy that both festivals utilise. By segmenting the market and price them accordingly (in terms of discount), it allows a greater number of people from these segments to be attracted to attend the festival.
Opening Ceremony
Street festival @ Vivocity
Main Purpose
The main purpose of the Arts Festival is to provide a platform for local, regional, as well as international artists to showcase their forte and allow cultural exchange between the artists coming from all over the world. Of course, besides that purpose, another purpose of the Arts Festival is to promote the appreciation of arts to every Singaporean.
In the past, many of us would have a typical mindset that only the rich has the time and money to watch such performances and know how to appreciate them, and the poor would have zero appreciation for these art performances. However, it doesn’t seem to be so right now. Through the many events held, it is not difficult to see that the National Arts Council is trying to reach out to people of every age, regardless whether they are poor or rich through these free performances staged by the Arts Festival, giving them an opportunity to appreciate them and discover their interest in the Arts. Henceforth, inspiring people and to encourage the different perspectives of life. Also, by staging performances in the Mrt stations, the Arts Festival attempts to spread the artistic atmosphere to a greater perimeter, as we all know that Mrt is one of the major transportation in Singapore, it offers an opportunity to many busy working life people to catch a breath from usual routine life and immerse themselves into the artistic atmosphere.
Stakeholders
For such a big event to be successful, many parties are involved to ensure everything goes smoothly. These parties are in terms called stakeholders. The complete set of stakeholders includes Participants and Spectators, Host Organisation, Host Community, Sponsor, Media, as well as Co- workers.
The participants of this event are without any doubt, the artists that is involved in the performances that spanned across the 4 weeks. Without them, there would be no performances. The spectators which are the audience that attend the performances regardless of whether it is a free show or a paid show, they are considered as a stakeholder as well. Why? Spectators like me, are the reason why they perform. We give them encouragement, our utmost support for their performance to show our appreciation.
The host organisation of the Arts Festival is none other than National Arts Council which is established since 1991. Oh well, all thanks to them that we are able to experience such a bombarding sensation of arts, becoming a more artistic person than we are before. The National Arts Council helps to develop the arts in Singapore and to make it an essential part of people’s lives in Singapore. The activities organised by the National Arts Council has created an impact on the work of many artists and in turn stimulated the public demand for arts, creating new platforms, events which paints the lively arts scene in Singapore. For that, I think the National Arts Council has reached their goal, as they really make arts as part of my life!
Sponsor is also another stakeholder as well. After all, we have to return to the fact that all of these events and performance comes down to one consideration – money. Where are we supposed to get all these money from?? Tadah! Our sponsors! The sponsors provide us with things that we need and we give them their benefits as well. The following picture is the sponsors of the Arts Festival.
The media is also a stakeholder in the event which cannot be forgotten. Without the support of the media, the event would not be able to reach the maximum amount of audience and hence, the event would not be successful. The media partners of the Arts Festival are our local English broadcasting channel, Channel 5, as well as the Arts Channel, Okto. Without their constant flashing of commercials during the break, we probably would not be so interested in the festival.
Last but not least, that is the co – workers that make this annual major event possible. Consisting of co-workers from Logistics & operations, Staging, Programming, and etc, these people must work together to solve many obstacles such as space limitation, restricted budget as well as many others. I do think that these people deserve a well round of applause as they are working double hard behind the scene as compared to the performers on stage, but they often go unnoticed by the audience.
Tourism Benefits
By inviting artists from all over the world to perform will not only benefit Singapore in terms of its art experience but also in economical terms. Not only do the artists come to Singapore as a performer, they too are considered as part of tourist’s arrival. When such large group of performers arrive in Singapore, they would certainly create spill-over such as boosting the sales of the hotel accommodation, food & beverage revenue, transportation revenue, as well as retail’s revenue with the complement of the recent Great Singapore Sales.
As mentioned earlier, when such big event is being organised, it will boost the number tourist’s arrivals, not because of the performers themselves, but tourists that come to Singapore entirely for leisure purposes as Singapore Tourism Board can use the opportunity to promote Singapore as an ever-bustling city will full programmes available. The increase of tourist’s arrival will in turn increase the demand for local currency, boosting the economy to a certain extent.
In conclusion, through this field trip to the Arts Festival I have enjoyed a great deal of fun, especially during the youth street festival, and have learned a lot of events marketing strategies during the production of this report.
