Event: June 2008

Introduction

There are many events in the Singapore arts festival. The one that I attended is the closing event of the Singapore arts festival. It is called Hydro Sapiens, The Lunatics (The Netherlands) Part of the Water Wonder Series. It was held between 20 and 22 June, 8pm at bedok reservoir. The admission is free. The performance is talking about the power of the water, how weak can it make us, should we fear it, love it or hate it. A human being is made up 80 percent out of water, so why do we need more? Why do tears taste salty? And why doesn’t sweat taste sweet? Is Jaws still alive? And in how many ways a man can drown? For all these questions, The Lunatics will try to find the answers - through a very intensive, hilarious, spectacular and even brutal search for the right value of water.

Background of the organiser

The organiser of the Singapore arts festival is the National Arts Council ( NAC ). It was set up as a Statutory Board in September 1991 to spearhead the development of the arts in Singapore. Its mission is to nurture the arts and make it an integral part of people’s lives in Singapore. Anchored on the twin strategies of excellence and engagement in the arts, the Council aims to build a vibrant arts sector by creating a conducive environment where the arts is accessible to all and artistic talents have the necessary resources and capabilities to excel and achieve sustainability in the long term.

Role of events to the organizer

There are two roles that the events play to the organizer. The first role is place marketing. The performance showed at the events created positive images for the viewers and left a good impression of the Singapore arts festival on them. In this way, more people will be interested in turning up for such events in the future and that plays an important part in the success of the Singapore arts festival. In addition, the people’s quality of life was improved as they were exposed to such events. Events like this do not occur everyday and by participating in it definitely add some spice to the life of the people. Furthermore, the event was held at bedok reservoir which is near residential area and thus attracted many residents living nearby. The second role is tourist attraction. Besides attracting the locals, the event also attracted quality tourists. Tourists who were on holidays in Singapore may extend their length of stay as they are interested in arts and would like to attend the event. As a result, the visitor spending will increase and the tourist demand is spread.

Identify the stakeholders in the event

The stakeholders in the event are the audience, performers, volunteers, sponsors and event partners.

Identify the target market

The target market is the people who are interested in arts, regardless of their age group and those who are curious to find out more about arts. The NAC hopes that through the Singapore arts festival, more people will be exposed to arts and become interested in it. They will then introduce the arts to their friends and relatives and encourage them to join them in appreciating the arts. Not only does the market target those that are interested in arts, it is also a rare opportunity for those who wish to find out more about arts to have a first hand experience in appreciating the arts by turning up for the events. As such events do not happen all year round; they must grab the opportunity and make use of it. I believe in this way, more and more people will be attracted to arts and the Singapore arts festival will be a very successful event from time to come.

Critically discuss the marketing strategies employed by the organiser

The marketing strategies employed by the organiser are price, people, place and promotions. Regarding the price, the admission is free. There are advantages and disadvantages to it. The advantages are that there will be a lot of people turning up since they do not need to pay any money to watch the event and more people will be appreciating the arts which is what the NAC hopes to achieve. The disadvantages are that the place will be overcrowded and some of the people may not get the full view of the performance and those who were really there to appreciate the art will have wasted their trip. Regarding the people, besides the performers and audience, a guest of honor will be invited to the event. By inviting a guest of honor, the number of people turning up for the event may increase as some of them may turn up to see the guest of honor instead of the event. Not only that, some people might think that an event that a guest of honor will want to attend must be interesting. As a result, they will want to see it for themselves too.

Regarding the place, the location of the event is at bedok reservoir. It is a very convenient place as people can get there by bus or mrt. The place is near residential area too and therefore it will attract many people to go for the event. The setting for the event is perfect as the performance requires water and bedok reservoir is the most suitable place for the performance to take place. The atmosphere is cooling and fresh and people will enjoy their time spend during the event. The destination is in a park and it will definitely be a different experience to watch a performance in a park as compared to a theatre. Regarding the promotions, the event is being advertised on websites, newspapers, television and posters. All this advertising will definitely attract the attention of many people and get them to turn up for the event.

How would you rate the organisation of the event? Why?

I feel that the organization of the event is not very good. When I arrived at bedok reservoir, I did not reach the location of the event immediately. I saw two ushers and they told me the way to the place where the event was held. On my way there, there were no other ushers to guide me. I arrived at the destination after 15-20 mins. The place was very crowded and I could not see the performance at all. There were no seats available anymore and everyone was standing up, blocking the view of the performance. I had to continue to walk until there was lesser people standing up and I could catch a glimpse of what the performance is about. It was at the end of the crowd and I did not have a very good view of the performance. The performance was already halfway through and I could not understand what it was about. Luckily, I did my research and read online what the event is about; if not I will have made a wasted trip.

Discuss the potential of the event by the organiser to meet tourist demand.

The event is a hallmark event and it is high in demand and high value. The event has a good growth potential as arts is something u can never have enough. More people will be exposed to arts after the event and more people will be learning about arts. As a result, the event will be a successful one since it has influenced so many people and tourists will also get to know about these arts too when the event become famous. It has a large market share as well as the arts is being exposed to all age groups be it art-lovers or non art-lovers instead of just some groups. Art is suitable for all ages and has no boundaries.

As more locals are attracted to the event and becoming more supportive of the event, there will be more community support and that is very important. With the community support, people will promote the event to their friends and relatives and more people will know about the event.

Suggest how the value of the event could be raised to be align with the tourism mission of Singaproe?

The tourism mission of Singapore is to develop and champion tourism, so as to build the sector into a key driver of economic growth for Singapore. The value of the event could be raised by improving the organization of the event. The changes that could be made are specifying the exact location of the event instead of the area, putting more ushers to guide people along the way, introducing admission fees so that the place will not be so crowded and reducing the number of people standing up. For improving the marketing and promotions of the event, the blog can be used. Information about the events can be placed on the blog so that it is easier for people to get to know about the events. They do not need to search the website for information. All they have to do is to access the blog and they can obtain all the information that they need. As many youngsters are into blog nowadays, it is a brilliant method to make use of the blog to provide information about the events to them. The blog can also be linked from websites of the Singapore Tourism Board and NAC as many adults do access to these websites. Despite all these advantages of using the blog, there are limitations as well. Some elderly people do not use the computer and they will not be able to know about the event if they did not access the blog. Not only that, I feel that using the blog as the only marketing tool is definitely not enough. The event can be advertised through television, newspaper and posters. I am sure that the elderly people do either watch television or read the newspaper and in that way, they can get to know about the event. More people besides the elderly will also get to know about the event through the different ways for advertising.

These are the references.

http://www.singaporeartsfest.com/calendar.asp

http://www.pub.gov.sg/Search/Results.aspx?k=hydro%20sapiens

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/352450/1/.html

http://www.lunatics.nl/

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/cgi-bin/search/search_7days.pl?status=&search=hydro%20sapiens&id=355834

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/cgi-bin/search/search_7days.pl?status=&search=hydro%20sapiens&id=355392

http://www.siww.com.sg/_download/hydrosapiens_brochure.pdf

http://www.youth.sg/content/view/5457/51/

http://www.sandraventure.blogspot.com/

http://www.nac.gov.sg/new/new02a.asp?id=349