Friday, June 12, 2009

Singapore Arts Festival first started in 1977 as a national arts festival celebrating the local arts activities of Singapore's diverse communities. Today, Singapore Arts Festival is presenting new works by Singapore, Asian and international artists. This festival still remains as the largest outstanding event on Singapore’s arts calendar and it provides free outdoor performances from May 15 to June 14 island-wide which will allow more Singaporeans to be exposed to the arts.

On the other hand, Three Rivers Arts Festival is another successful festival held every summer throughout the downtown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a large outdoor festival of the visual and performing arts. Held annually, in June, since 1959, Three Rivers Arts Festival is now celebrating its 50 years of art, music, performance and community from June 5-14, 2009. Being the largest arts event in the city, the festival is a key driver of economic activity in downtown Pittsburgh although most of their programmes are free of admission.

However, Singapore Arts Festival is a more successful event as compared to Three Rivers Arts Festival. Even though Singapore arts festival only has a history of 32 years, it has grown a lot and is now one of the most important events in the local arts scene.

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Comparison of Singapore Arts Festival with Three Rivers Arts Festival in terms of marketing strategy

1. Product

A product is mostly a service which customers need, want and will pay for. It is also anything that can be offered to a market for attention and acquisition. Quality is vital and customers will come back again if the service is high and satisfactory. The product for both the festival is definitely the arts.

Singapore Arts Festival is also an event that last one month while Three Rivers Arts Festival last only 10 days, hence, Singapore is able to showcase more arts performances to visitors allowing them to experience more variety of events in the whole festival.

I believe that Singapore arts festival is more successful; attracting approximately 700,000 customers to its event as compared to 500,000 in Three Rivers Arts Festival. It can be seen that Singapore Arts festivals managed to retain its customers to come back for its event annually. This might be due to its high quality in both product and service provided by the events and that it satisfied customers’ need and want through the service delivery system.

2. Place

A place is a physical place and how it is created through design and programming. Singapore Arts Festival is held island-wide indoor and outdoor in Singapore. Singapore is at an advantage with a physical area of 699km2 whereas Three Rivers Arts Festival is held throughout the downtown of Pittsburgh with an area size of 144 km2only. As the events in Singapore are held at different places, it could thus accommodate more people as compared to Pittsburgh.

The events in Singapore are held in places such as Marina barrage, Marina square and Esplanade. Hence, it is convenient for visitors to enjoy the event at the same time visit the attraction, as the event is located at an attraction itself. With this, it will increase visitor’s benefit when participating in the events. On the other hand, Three rivers arts festival may not be as successful as the venue is held only in the cultural districts and have only galleries, theatres and plazas.

The facilitating component of “place” is the delivery of event products to customer and it could be seen that Singapore Arts Festival succeeded in this. The tickets are available to the visitors in various means and prices thus boosting customer’s enjoyment.


3. Programme

Singapore Arts Festival provides a wide range of festival Outreach events for the public, such as Dance, Music, Theatre, Visual arts, Asian Showcase, Arts On The Move and Family Funfest. It also builds FEST CONNECT initiative to build a stronger link with the public and schools to allow them to have closer interaction with arts.

Three Rivers Arts Festival also have various events such as the artist market, music, visual arts, performance and films, fun for kids, special events such as Salsa dance and also exhibition by renowned artists. Both the festivals provide sufficient activities to benefit both the young and old, allowing them to enjoy.

However, Singapore offers more activities than three rivers arts festival; 400 plus to 100 plus during the whole event. Quality of product provided by Singapore is higher as well with experienced artists from more than 20 countries, offering top-notch performances.


4. People

Interaction between customers, settings and the staff contribute a large part of the event experience. When the service delivery meets or exceeds of the expectation of the customers, it is more likely for them to return to the events the upcoming years.

During the Singapore Arts Festival visit, the service quality is high, with ushers guiding us to the venue, volunteers giving out brochure to us. Once we reached, we are welcome by the friendly and enthusiastic staff; who brought us to the main arena. All the customers who were there for the event have similar interests and thus there will not be any conflicting conflict among them and would allow an enjoyable experience for all. The experience during the visit is great as the service quality is high regardless of the host, guests or audience.


5. Partnership

Singapore arts festival has partnership with various parties such as Goethe Institut Singapore, Dôme Marina Square and Esplanade- Theatres on the Bay. Partnership with Rendezvous Hotel Singapore and Marina Mandarin Singapore allows arts festival club members and holders to enjoy the discount at their F&B outlets and other promotion. It is also partner with Singapore Tourism Board (STB) whereby STB will help to promote this event to both the local and the tourists. Partnership would allow both parties to benefit in their ways.

Three Rivers arts festival also has various partnerships with many different organisations. As most of their programmes are free of charge, thus, most of it are sponsored by supporters. For example, they have partnership with Citypaper and 91.3Fm. They have many supports from corporate, foundation and public.


6. Promotion

Singapore Arts Festival has various promotional offers for the purchasing of tickets. For example, arts festival Club Members will get a 10% discount upon purchasing of tickets. There is also a general sales discount from 13 April to 14 June 2009, whereby there will be 15% discount for 4 or more shows and 10% discount for 2 to 3 shows. Concession is available for full-time students, NSFs and senior citizens who are 60 years old and above, with a 20% discount.

15% discount for purchase of 15 tickets or more to any one production will be offered for group bookings. School bookings can enjoy heavily discounted student tickets, arts appreciation workshops and talks. There are early bird discounts from 9 March to 12 April 2009 whereby there are 25% discount for 4 or more shows and so on. Exclusive arts festival 2009 ez-link cards will also be given out to only 1000 people and is one card giveaway per SISTIC receipt.

Furthermore, there are advertisements through banners hung up along the road in Singapore, mass communication and internet. There is also public relation with the press to advertise the event. However, as three rivers arts festival does not charge any admission for majority of the events, thus, there are no promotional offers needed to promote the event.



7. Packaging & Distribution

The events are promoted through mass communication such as television and radio whereby it could easily reached majority of the Singaporeans. Tickets could be bought through internet, telephone, at sistic authorised agent (Singapore), at overseas sistic agent and also at the door. The distribution network is good whereby people can purchase through various means with which will be most convenient for them. The event was held at different places whereby some of which are an attraction itself. Singapore could also have events package together with the attraction to let visitors enjoy even more.

Three rivers arts festival also have online website, blog and could be contacted through email or call. It allows people to get more information regarding the festival and could have more in depth details about each event.

It could be seen that Singapore Arts Festival are more successful in its packaging and distribution as it is more widely advertised through different ways and also have packages with attraction.


8. Price

For Singapore Arts Festival, some of the events are free for admission while some are priced. There are various prices for each admission and people could choose the price that they want to buy. It is flexible thus making it reasonably priced for everyone and all could have the opportunity to enjoy the show. There are also packages for the purchasing of tickets such as group and school bookings, hence allowing people to enjoy a further discount. Therefore, it could be seen that admission for the event is make affordable to people through such promotions and packages. Alternatively, Three Rivers Arts Festival is free for almost all events and thus allowing the community to get together to enjoy the events.

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Best Practices

Singapore Arts Festival is a successful event due to their best practices. It can be seen as Singapore produces high quality service and product for the visitors which resulted in repeated visits after years. Singapore is also easily accessible with all the transportation available such as SMRT, SBS, Taxi, and shuttle bus. It thus allow visitor to reach the destination easily and will not be deferred due to transportation reason.

The festival lasts for one month and thus provides many different type of program to cater for both young and old thus allowing them to enjoy the arts together. The programs are of wide variety and there are up to more than 400 activities available for visitors to choose from. The festival is also held island-wide in Singapore, in some places which are an attraction by itself. This will allow more people to be engage in the different programs and they do not have to cramp together in one area only. As visitors could travel around Singapore easily, it is thus convenient for them to get to the destination.

The one-month event also offers up to 400 activities by both local and international artists and there are varieties such as Dance, Music, Theatre, Visual arts, Asian Showcase, Arts On The Move and Family Funfest. It is all preformed by renowned artist and allow customer to choose which one they want.

There is also great partnership with the various parties who had made the festival a success, letting this event to become one of the leading art events in Asia. They also offer a wide range of promotion and tickets of different prices for the benefit of the visitors to enjoy more events. As the tickets are distributed through various mediums, it allows visitors to purchase the ticket easily. They could also obtain information easily from the online official website, or from the customer service where they can call to. Prices of each program are also reasonably priced with different prices and customer could choose the price that they want. This allows more people to afford the tickets and as some of the programs are free for admission, it thus permits more people to be involved in the festival.

All these good practices allow Singapore to excel in the arts region and also promote arts for many people. This will allow Singaporean to experience arts and be engaged in the many activities laid out by the festival.

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Stakeholders in the festival

Stakeholders are those entities within or outside an organization. They sponsor the event and may have a positive or negative influence in the event.

Firstly, stakeholders of the events include the host community which is Singapore Tourism Board; Uniquely Singapore whereby they helps to promote this festival to the public. Secondly, the host organization includes Singapore Arts Festival itself, National Arts Council Singapore, and Association of Asian performing arts festival. Thirdly, there is the sponsor for the event such as The Shaw foundation, Coca-Cola Light, Ez-Link, Starhub Cable Vision Ltd and Marina Mandarin Singapore.

Next, there is the co-worker which includes performers, builders, volunteer and backstage workers. Following on, there is the media which are the mass communication such as Mediacorp Channel 5, OKTO and radio. Lastly, there are also the participants and spectators which comprises both live audiences and audiences in front of television. All these stakeholders are directly or indirectly playing a part in the successful of the festival.

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Main purpose of the festival

The main purpose of Singapore Arts festival is to allow development of the artistic and cultural life of Singapore. It is also to nurture the arts and making it an integral part of people’s lives. The festival will help to highlight the lively cultural scene in present Singapore through producing new cultural platforms, events, and movements.

Holding the arts festival in the various public areas will allow exposure of arts to the residents as well as to provide a good platform for artists to show their works to more people. The annual arts festival allows international and local artists to gather in the country to perform in a wide variety of events which include music, dance and theatre.

It also let Singapore showcases its ability to buy international renowned performing arts products. With this festival, different races will be able to get together and enjoy a unique time together. People will have the opportunity to come together as one and it encourage racial harmony at the same time.

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PEST – Amount of tourism benefits received by host city

The amount of benefits received by the host city is high and these include political, economic, and social and cultural impacts.

For political impacts, it can attracts visitors from different countries and at the same time create economic benefits and job. There will be social cohesion when all races in Singapore and the tourists come together to participate in the events. It will also improve profile of Singapore and raise awareness of the festival to more countries.

For economic impacts, there will be increase in tourism revenue and tax revenue as visitors from other countries come to spend on the festival and also in Singapore. It extends visitors length of stay and also increases visit to other regional tourism destinations and attractions; hence increasing business opportunities. Singapore Arts Festival is also a commercial activity as it allows Singapore to earn revenue and at the same time providing employment for more people.

Social and cultural impacts allows shared entertainment experience when different community groups come together to enjoy the festival, and it also increase community participation. It broaden people’s cultural horizon, exposing them to new and challenging people, customs or ideas. There will also be an increase in education levels when it increases one’s knowledge during the event.

Lastly, physical and environment impacts will provides model for best practices for other countries.

In addition, place marketing helps to create positive images for Singapore and also attract residents and investors. Tourist attraction spread demand for the events and attracts quality tourists. Catalyst stimulate infrastructure such as having shuttle buses to increase accessibility to an event for the visitors. It stimulates business or trade during the events for the community as it involves many events. As some events are held at an attraction itself, it thus supports other attractions and help to increase its revenue.

Animator on the other hand encourage first and repeat visits at facilities and attractions, thus allowing the festival to be successful as it will retain visitors and attracts new visitor in the following years.

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I felt that Singapore Arts Festival is a very successful event that had further exposed the arts and culture to a lot more people. Through the one month event, different program laid up by the festival had allowed people to increase knowledge in arts and thus upgrading oneself. It had also broaden one’s insight through performances by famous international artists.

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Labels: Festival and Events Assignment

candice is writing.. 9:32 AM.