1) Introduction
The Singapore Arts Festivals is a Hallmark festival as it is one of the most significant events in the regional arts scene is in Singapore. In 1977, the National Arts Council, intended to celebrate the local arts activities of Singapore’s varied communities. Over the 30 years in Singapore. Singapore today with the helped from National Arts Council has turned into is one of Asia's major cultural capitals.
The Singapore Arts Festival stays on as the biggest remarkable event on Singapore's arts calendar. The festival offers over 400 activities, inviting artists from over 20 countries and attracting up to 500,000 audiences.
In this report, I will compare Singapore’s Arts Festival with HK Arts Festival as they share many similar traits and they are of the same genre, which is Arts.
2) Comparison of Singapore Arts Festivals and Hong Kong Arts Festivals in terms of its marketing strategy
There are 8 ‘P’s’ in the marketing strategy. There are four experiential and facilitating components respectively. The experiential components include product, place, programming and people. The facilitating components include packaging & distribution, price, partnerships and promotions.
Firstly, the product offered by the two festivals are both measured by quality, as they are usually judged by the standard of their performances and depends on the receptiveness of the audiences. In both Singapore and Hong Kong, the quality of the festival is determined by the organizers, as they select and invites performers to their country to perform. Thus, they have to be critical in their selection so as to ensure a high quality event. In this component, they share similar marketing strategies.
Secondly, place refers to the location, setting, atmosphere and destination features. In Singapore, the festival is held all over the island, at many random outdoor places, some examples are Esplanade and Vivo City outdoor areas, and also a field outside NorthPoint. Using this method, the Arts festival is able to reach out to more audiences as they are widely held and able to gain attraction to passerby. So, the organizers are probably looking at attracting as many audiences as possible and gain popularity. Whereas in Hong Kong, it is more formal and the performances are mostly held in theatres. For the Hong Kong organizers, the performances are held formally in theatres. Some examples are Grand Theatre (HK Cultural Centre), Drama Theatre (HK Academy for Performing Arts) and Cultural Activities Hall (Tuen Mun Town Hall). There, they are probably looking at attracting audience who appreciates art and are willing to pay for admission, in other words, quality and serious audience. For this component, they are different in their target audiences, and thus, the location and places of their marketing strategy are also different.
The third component is programming, which refers to the marketing decision and creating targeted benefits. As mentioned earlier, Singapore Arts Festival is targeting at numbers, they want to reach out to as many people as possible. As such, their programs are catered to everyone, at everywhere. Also, most of their programs are held after working hours or during weekends when people have free time. In Hong Kong, their performances are held at random hours, such as 3pm on a Friday afternoon when most people are still working. From here, we can see that the organizers do not program their events to the convenience of the audience, and their targeted benefit is mainly aimed at serious audience, who would take time off for these performances.
The fourth component is people, which mainly refer to the hospitality received by visitors, as it directly shapes the experience. As both festivals are non-profit events and supported by sponsors, the hosts are usually volunteers, who might not be well-trained in their field of work. As such, this might affect the hospitality received by audience or visitors with average service and limited knowledge of a particular performance. Personally, I noticed a host at Vivo City who looked like a student and felt unprofessional. Hence, they might not be able to optimize the level of enjoyment to the audience.
Next, we move on to the facilitating components, starting with packaging and distribution. In Singapore, the organizer uses mainly Sistic and their authorized agents, including overseas agents to sell and distribute tickets for the performances, although many of the performances do not require any tickets for admission. Singapore Arts Festival also has their own form of membership (i.e. ArtsFest Club) that offers heavily discounted ticket prices and best seats during priority booking period. In Hong Kong, the organizer makes use of URBTIX outlets and HK Ticketing outlets to distribute, that are similar to Sistic. Another common strategy that is used by both sides is greater discounts offered during advance booking period. This is to ensure a minimum number of audiences that can facilitate the atmosphere for the performance. Other than using ticketing outlets, they also allow internet booking which creates greater convenience for interested people and I feel that this is very important because information and communication technology is part of parcel of our lives, and many people are dependent on it for many uses.
Another facilitating component will be price as every event comes with a price tag including those that are free. Here, the organizers set many different prices for the different performances as they vary in quality and popularity. This is similar in both countries’ Arts Festivals. In Singapore, some of the performances are even free. I feel that pricing is important is major events like these and I like to attend the free performances as I do not have a strong interest in Arts. However, these free performances can allow me to gain an insight to different kinds of Arts and possibly arouse interest. Therefore, I feel that having free performances at many places is an advantage to the Arts scene in Singapore.
Partnerships here refer to join marketing partners and stake holders in producing the event. In Singapore, the Arts Festival is organize by National Arts Council and sponsored by some major sponsor such as Lee Foundation, SMRT, WingTai Asia and PUB. In Hong Kong, the Arts Festival is organized by Hong Kong Arts Festival Society Limited and supported by organizations such as The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, Leisure and Cultural Services Department and Hong Kong Tourism Board. In the two countries, most of the supporting organizations and sponsors are usually government agencies. I feel that this kind of event requires a large amount of support from government agencies because it is non-profit but helps to increase cultural interest and help to pump in more activities in the community.
The last ‘P’ which is promotion generally refers to advertising, public relations, sales promotions and event image. In Singapore, the Arts Festival did many tie-ups with companies such as Marina Mandarin Singapore, Harry’s Bar, The Heeren Shop and Rendezvous Hotel Singapore to offer discounts to ticket holders of the Arts Festival. The organizers also give out early bird, package, ArtsFest Club, student, NSFs and senior citizens discounts. In Hong Kong, they also use the same strategy of doing tie-ups with private companies. Another major promotion in Hong Kong Arts Festival is their credit card (i.e. MasterCard) with minimal discounts. I feel that Singapore has a better promotion strategy than Hong Kong because we have more discounts available to many different groups of people whereas Hong Kong only extend the discounts mainly to specific credit card holders.
3) Best Practices
The best practices are displayed through pricing, promotions and partnerships components, and these are the more important factors that allow the Arts Festival to be successfully held every year. In my own opinion, having free entry to some performances, finding government agencies as sponsors and/or partners and giving retail discounts to ticket holders are the best practices and the organizers should keep up with them.
Having free entry can bring about a widespread of interest to the community and achieve the aim of this festival, which is to celebrate the local arts activities of Singapore's diverse communities. Here, we can increase the level of involvement and participation of Singaporeans. Also, finding government agencies as sponsors and/or partners can hugely increase the reputation of the festival as these government agencies can endorse the festival with trustworthiness and reliability. Lastly, giving discounts to ticket holders can encourage consistency in their participation every year as they can enjoy additional attractive perks. This can lead to word-of-mouth advertising and promotion with current customers being well-attended to and satisfied.
4) Stakeholders
Stakeholders are namely the participants and spectators, sponsors, co-workers, media, host organization and host community. In Singapore’s Arts Festival, the stakeholders are identified to be the National Arts Council, TV Station Channel 5 (Singapore Press Holdings), the official Sparkling Beverage Coca-Cola, Singapore Tourism Board, Tote Board, Singapore Turf Club and Shaw Foundation, The University of Western Australia, PSB Academy, SMRT, Lee Foundation, URA, Hong Leong Foundation, Raffles City Shopping Centre, PUB, Suntec Singapore and Vivo City. Other stakeholders include Marina Mandarin Singapore, Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Yahoo! and Starhub Cable Vision.
In Hong Kong, I identified the stakeholders to be Hong Kong Arts Festival Society Limited, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Wwwins Consulting, Hong Kong Tourism Board, CYMA Charity Fund Limited, Hang Seng Bank, HSBC and Zhilan Foundation.
In addition to both festivals, audiences and performers are also part of the stakeholders.
5) Reflection of the main purposes of Arts Festivals
The main purpose of the festivals is to celebrate local arts activities of diverse communities and to raise cultural interests. It is also to present an annual international festival of the highest standard for the enrichment of cultural life. They also aim to generate a growing public demand for the arts and arouse wider public interest. Both are non-profit events that targets at the wellness of the people. These events had been held for many years and have been expanding their scope of exposure. Therefore, I feel that both events have achieved their main purposes in organizing and I strongly encourage for these events to go on every year and create a positive impact on the community.
6) Tourism Benefits
The amount of tourism benefits received by the host cities, Singapore and Hong Kong are substantial as both are international events and very much supported by tourism boards in respective countries. In Singapore, the organizer invited artists from more than 20 countries, and portrayed the city as a cultural hub where elite performers gather to bring about more than 400 activities. It also managed to attract about half a million attendances, which is an enormous response. In Hong Kong, they also managed to sell over 94% of tickets and attract a total audience of over 117,000, which is a fantastic response as well. Therefore, we can be sure to conclude that these two events are very major and able to raise cultural awareness not only locally, but also internationally and attract visitors from around the world to participate. As it is being held for many years, the reputations of these two events are strong enough to be let the host city have a tourist spot, or tourist event and increase the number of visitors yearly.
