Singapore Arts Festival!
I have chosen the Singapore Arts Festival (affectionately referred to as Arts Fest by many) to base this project on, mainly due to its easy accessibility. With its large lineup of events in various locations around Singapore, it definitely wasn't hard to fit in a performance or two.
If you are unfamiliar with the festival, it is the largest singular arts event in Singapore, and therefore a Hallmark event, held on an annual basis. The Arts Fest goes on for four weeks, and artists from over 20 countries attend &/or perform. Since its conception, it has grown from a local event into one with a very international scope.
For this year, it was held from 15 May to 14 June to a very appreciative audience. Entry to the various events are either through tickets or free. Tickets are offered at a range of prices- based on the event itself and then seats. Concessions for students and senior citizens are offered, which I feel is beneficial to both the organizers and the concession holders- these groups are those who will patronize/have patronized the arts scene and therefore matter for sustainability of the festival.
B) Compare the selected festival with a similar festival that has been successful in another city in terms of its marketing strategy
The Christchurch Arts Festival in New Zealand, held from 23 July to 9 August, is a similar festival. I have chosen to compare the Singapore Arts Festival with the one in Christchurch due to its relative proximity (in comparison to far-flung places like New York). Why not a nearer festival like the Bali Arts Festival? Simple. Because its program lineup focuses on Balinese culture, such as Balinese dances. Christchurch Arts Festival makes a lot more sense to compare with due to its similar lineup and by default, its marketing strategy.
I went with a few friends to watch one of the outreach performances of the Arts Fest: Esplanade presents flipside.
The marketing strategy involves the 8 P's, which can be grouped into two different categories, specifically the experiential and faciliating components. For the experiential, we have:
1. Product
Essentially, this is the product that was offered to me. However, for the SG Arts Fest as a whole, the product offered was a variety of arts, such as dance, theatre, music, visual arts, and various outreach programs. Christchurch Arts Fest offers the exact same product, but to much greater effect. Its lineup, particularly for theatre, features more widely-known performances than SG Arts Fest does, like Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In comparison, Arts Fest's theatre performances features not particularly well-known acts like RUHE and Full Frontal. Even if these more obscure acts do merit a similar amount of admiration from the audience, the fact remains that having better-known acts will more likely than not attract a larger audience.
Thus, I feel that the Christchurch Arts Festival offers a better product than the Singapore Arts Festival does.
2. Place
Outside the Esplanade
Both festivals hold their events at various locations. I would say that Singapore Arts Fest is more accessible simply based on the size of our country- smaller distances to cover everywhere. Furthermore, performances are held in places like the Esplanade, National Library and Victoria Concert Hall. They all boast excellent acoustics; the same cannot be said of Christchurch's various museums and cathedrals, where events are held at. Because, well, why would museums need good acoustics? In terms of public transport... Christchurch boasts an excellent public transport network as well. A book ("Red Bus Diary") has even been written based on it!
3. Programming
Both events have got excellent programming, as evidenced by the concise summaries in their events calendars. The performance, time, duration, locations and such are all stated clearly. I prefer Christchurch's to Singapore's, due to it having an entire tab to itself on the website. It clears a lot of unnecessary navigation around the site, plus you have to download the festival guide from the Singapore Arts Fest site! A hassle for sure.
Furthermore, Singapore Arts Fest has only a measly 29 programs as compared to Christchurch's 64.
4. People
The Christchurch Arts Fest attendees are probably younger than those attending the Singapore Arts Fest. Looking at the lineup, there is nothing in the SG Arts Fest that particularly stands out to me. In comparison, Christchurch's "The Great Gatsby", "A Midsummer's Night Dream", and "Once and for all we're gonna tell you who we are so shut up and listen" appeal to youths- if for nothing else than for our ability to recognize them.
As mentioned, Christchurch Arts Fest has 64 different programs and Singapore Arts Fest 29. As such, it is safe to say that the audience attending Christchurch's is more diverse and diversity is always welcome, particularly in the arts scene. Therefore, I would say that if someone is looking to attend an arts festival based solely on the mix of people he would encounter, he would choose Christchurch's over Singapore's.
Diversity in Action ;)
& for the facilitating components, we have:
1. Partnerships
Christchurch Arts Fest's partners
Singapore Arts Fest's partners
From the screenshots, I think I wouldn't be mistaken to say that Christchurch has a significantly higher number of partners as compared to Singapore. As such, the exposure Christchurch gets will definitely be more and they will be able to reach out to a larger portion of their target audience.
2. Promotion
Both festivals offer the same type of promotions- specifically, concessions for students and senior citizens, school/group bookings, and membership discounts. However, Christchurch trumps over Singapore because it offers Family Tickets for some shows. Regardless that not all shows offer these tickets, Christchurch beats Singapore simply because it expresses its family-orientation in a tangible way, whereas Singapore is more of all talk, no action.
3. Packaging and distribution
Both festivals package their product as a large-scale, not to be missed festival. The places the events are held at are all rather nice places- they are not held in clubs or anything like that, it all exudes a very classy air. Both festivals offer tickets through agents- Sistic for Singapore and Ticketet for Christchurch. In this component, they are very similar.
4. Price
The prices differ depending on concessions, seats and such. However, to compare Christchurch's The Great Gatsby to Singapore's Sin Sangre, I would say that Sin Sangre is cheaper.
Breakdown for Christchurch:
| Adult (Web) | $42.50 |
| Friends of the Chch Art Festival | $32.50 |
| School Child (Web) | $15.50 |
| Senior (Web) | $35.50 |
| Supporter (Web) | $33.50 |
| Tertiary Student (Web) | $25.50 |
Whereas for Sin Sangre, the prices offered are $50, $40, $30, $20 for different seats.
Generally, the Singapore Arts Fest offers cheaper tickets, and even has free performances, something the Christchurch Arts Fest lacks, probably due to its arts scene already being vibrant and thus making outreach quite unnecessary. However, I feel that the Christchurch programmes are more interesting, so I suppose it's a matter of paying for variety and/or quality.
C) Inform your reader about these best practices
I very much prefer Singapore's practices as I feel that their marketing strategy has enabled them to reach out a larger audience, particularly through their usage of a blog, Facebook and Twitter. These sites are very popular among the web-savvy generation today and since this is the general target audience, I would say that this has made a lot of people's lives easier- they can check Facebook/Twitter instead of the Arts Fest website and it is definitely safe to say that they visit Facebook more often than they do singaporeartsfest.com.
Christchurch's marketing strategy is not bad, exactly. It's just all very traditional, very mass media. That doesn't make sense in today's society because of the rampant usage of new media (blogs, social networking sites, etc. This very project being done as a blog showcases this trend perfectly.) and how new media reaches out to a wider audience.
Mass media: Billboard
D) Identify the stakeholders in these festivals
1. Host organization
- Singapore: National Arts Council
- Christchurch: Trustee
- Singapore: Singapore
- Christchurch: Christchurch, New Zealand
- Singapore: Channel 5, okto, Starhub cable vision, radio, internet (Facebook, Twitter, blog), brochures, etc.
- Christchurch: The Press, adgraphix, red bus, ADSHEL, phantom, etc.
- Singapore: volunteers, paid workers
- Christchurch: volunteers, paid workers
- Singapore: Lee Foundation, SMRT, Vivo City, Wing Tai, etc.
- Christchurch: The Lion Foundation, Pub Charity, Perry Foundation, etc.
Participants!- Singapore: Bruno Beltrao, Culberg Ballet, Anna Karenina, etc.
- Christchurch: Sydney Dance Company, Dave Dobbyn, David Berkman, etc.
- Singapore: Anyone who attends
- Christchurch: Anyone who attends
Audience + participants
E) Reflect on the main purpose of this event
To bring the arts to every Singaporean. This is evident through the free performances and various performances in the heartland- the organizers are cutting down barriers, be it monetary or travel-related and as such, more Singaporeans can be engaged in the arts scene, thereby making it more vibrant.
Besides that, it also showcases the thriving and ever-growing arts scene in Singapore. Performers with international reputations are performing here- therefore boosting not only Singapore's, but the regional (South-east Asian) arts scene as well.
Artistic and/or cultural exchanges take place as well, and emerging artists may get the connections they need from this event.
F) Comment on the amount of tourism benefits received by the host city of the chosen event
Festivals, particularly ones as big as the Singapore Arts Festival, contribute numerous tourism benefits to the host city, which can be categorized into 3 main components:
Political - with Singapore turning into a regional arts hub, this festival helps to further build up that reputation and thereby attracts more tourists, especially those in the SEA region, to visit and participate in the vibrant arts scene here.
Economic - increased tourist arrivals naturally leads to increased tourism receipts and this will help to increase Singapore's GDP as well. Revenue for retail, F&B, and hospitality will all increase.
Socio-cultural - the influx of foreigners, in the form of both tourists and performers, will allow for more cultural exchanges and seeing as Singapore is a melting pot of cultures, I would say that this is very important in building tolerance and understanding across cultures. This is vital for Singapore's survival as a nation as we are built on racial tolerance- without which, racial riots and such may happen.
Conclusion
I honestly believe that Singapore's arts scene will continue to grow over the next few years, with the government's heavy emphasis on the arts these days. Since its conception, the festival has grown into such a large one and its growth has been nothing short of amazing. That Singapore has the most vibrant arts scene in the South-east Asian region doesn't hurt either.
Furthermore, youths today, particularly our generation, are increasingly being exposed to the arts. 20 years ago, free performances at the Esplanade was probably a pipe dream, but look where we are now: not only is it a reality, it is being taken as a non-perishable reality, somewhat taken for granted. This shows that the arts are now more accessible than ever to anyone and everyone- creating a sustainable market for the arts.
Bibliography
http://www.singaporeartsfest.com/
http://www.artsfestival.co.nz/
Fin.
