My Festival and Events Management Project

1.1 Introduction

The objective of the report is to evaluate an event using the marketing mix as well as measure how effective their use of the marketing mix has been. The other objective is to analyze how the marketing mix has contributed to the event being successful as well as to discuss and analyze the role and the value of this event in Singapore’s Economy and tourism industry.

1.2 Methodology of Research

http://www.esplanade.com/downloads/press_releases/Oct%2008/pesta08pr.pdf

http://www.timeoutsingapore.com/music/gigs/pesta-raya-2008-kua-etnika?DCMP=OTC-RSS-music

The methodology of research is done by checking brochures (see picture below), using the internet links (above), as well as being an actual participant for one of the performances.

1.3 Event Profile and Background.

The chosen event for this report is Pesta Raya- Malay Festival of arts. This year 2008 it is the seventh time Pesta Raya is being held it is a 10 day beginning 24th October – 2nd November. The festival will cater to a diverse audience while showcasing artists and talents from the region. This is in the hopes of attracting younger audience and everyone else in Singapore including tourist to enjoy Malay arts and culture as they celebrate their festive season. There are payable concerts as well as free programmes. The Malay festival of arts will present to you:

Music from Ungu, Indonesia’s hottest Indies pop rock band. Singapore’s local band, Fatskunks plays a mix of sounds within the genres of R&B and Ska. Kua Entik from Indonesia will present a musical performance showcasing everyday to produce music of Balinese, Javanese, Kalimantan Jazz influence, as well as Reggae, Rock and Pop.

Theatre showcases an all children’s production for children in 100% Cilik it is performed by artists of six to twelve years old from Sriwana which is Singapore’s oldest Malay Cultural Group. It is a mini musical about the importance of trust, courtesy, responsibility and friendship portrayed using hip hop dancing and modern dance choreography. Presetned by TEATER Ekamatra a play comprising of Malay and Contemporary theatre about the human spirit in its quest for the truth. The topic is about Malay woman in modern society and their fights for equality and political rights, the production in the form of a poetry recitation with Song and Dance done by Djamal Tukimin.

Dance which will show traditional and contemporary, classical Javanese dance traditions with western classical music and a few others. These are the events that will be held indoors of the Esplanade which requires payment for viewing.

There are also free programmes held just outside the esplanade to promote the malay festival of art, called Exploring Sumatra which will showcase the different cultures from the nine provinces of Sumatra with influences from tribal culture, Indian, Chinese and Arab culture and foreign religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Examples of the cultural mix are evident in the Indonesian wayang a form of traditional Indonesian puppet theatre. Other evidences include Pencak Silat a Martial arts form combining music sports and dance. The programme I attended focused mostly on the Batak culture. There were two dances showcased from the Batak culture, the Tari Tor-Tor (Tor-Tor Dance) and the Manortor. The Tor-Tor dance is performed during the Batak’s thanksgiving festival, to ward off evil. The Manator is an audience interactive dance. Audience will dance along to the music played by Batak blowing instruments as well as percussion instruments.

2 Evaluation of the Effective use of Marketing Mix

This part of my report will go through the marketing mix and my evaluations of the marketing mix used in Pesta Raya.

2.1 Product Experience

http://www.esplanade.com.sg/whats_on/esplanade_presents/festivals/pesta_raya/index.jsp

First up in the marketing mix, we have Product Experience. It consists of two areas, the first area is the core service and benefits that the customer experiences. The second area is the augmented product is the additional features that make the event different from the competitors.

The product here is Pesta Raya the Malay Festival of Arts. The core of the Malay Festival of arts is the performances where we get to see the different segments of Malay art and culture ranging from music to theatre to dance. The props the costumes, the language, all give a distinctive feel towards the culture. The benefits that people can get out of Pesta Raya are a brand of cultural experience as well as entertainment. Singaporeans and tourist alike get to see the uniqueness of Malay arts and culture also showing Singapore as a Multi Racial society and our efforts to maintain and promote each races culture. The event that I attended is the Manortor it is a free programme held outdoors of the Esplanade at the courtyard, an interactive performance that encourages audience participation making it a memorable cultural experience for the participant and entertaining for the rest of the audience. The augmented product here is the audience participation for the free programme as well as the show times. The free programmes range from 6:30p.m. to 10:45 p.m. with an exception of Malam Bangsawan which ends at 2:00a.m. which might cause inconvenience to guests not having any tranport to go home Audiences are also free to take pictures with the performers, as well as video the free performance. Performances that require tickets for viewing get to see celebrities from perform their unique brand of music Ungu with their pop rock, local band Fatskunks with R&B and Ska etc will give a regional view of Malay celebration of dance music and theatre. An additional feature is that there is a programme made entirely by children, 100% Cilik, this helps to extend the audience age group ranging from children to senior citizens.

2.2 Programming

http://www.esplanade.com.sg/whats_on/programme_info/pestaraya_free/index.jsp

A successful event is not the easiest thing to accomplish and knowing the life cycle of the event could greatly help an event manager plan for the event. Pesta Raya being in it’s 7^th year has proved itself to be successful so far it’s event life cycle phase would seem to be in the growing stages as more and more performances are being added into the program. Hence I would say that it is in the growing stages of its life cycle. Furthermore it has had no competitors as of yet, ensuring its survival for a few more years.

One area of success for programming is to have a clear concept of the program. Pesta Raya is about showcasing Malay arts and culture. Its meaning to the audience is a cultural experience showing the diversity of the culture from Sumatra. As a person who just thought this would be interesting and sat down to watch the free program that showed the Batak culture. Flyers or brochueres were given out to explain in detail the performance. Cause without it, anybody would be lost trying to figure out what the artists were performing. Thus this helped to give a clear understanding of the program.

Next an event program needs to match with its performance site. A free programme displayed in the outdoors at night with dim lighting, a sound system and no flamboyant props apart from the costume helped give a mysterious feel to the traditional dance, the Tari Tor Tor and Manotor. While the other paid performances would be held indoors of the esplanades in concert halls with better equipment, so as to properly match the mood of the concert. This will allow paying customers get the full experience of the performance.

Knowing the criteria for the program includes the quality and compatibility of the performers to Pesta Raya’s target market. As this is the 7^th year the festival is being held, quality of the performance should be up to standard. The experience of the performers as well as their skills should be well suited for the program. To show a certain ratio of innovation and tradition, Pesta Raya has put up an all children’s production.100% Cilik a production for kids by kids the performers age six to twelve years old. They are from Sriwana, Singapore’s oldest Malay cultural group. I feel with the by kids for kids “theme” we get to see the performers compatibility to the festival’s market.

2.3 Packaging

It is to bind several aspects of entertainment together and sell it as one product/ service. This can include entertainment, food and beverage, and merchandise. You can further package with accommodation transport and places of interest. The ability to package an event is solely dependent on the interest it creates among consumers. For Pesta Raya what you see is what you get, there wasn’t any packaging involved.

A suggestion to what can be done to improve it, is to maybe introduce a few Malay snacks to go along with the performances or sell the performances as a package deal where you buy a ticket that allows you to watch a music performance as well as a theatre performance or a theatre performance with a dance performance. A package along those lines or with a few combinations like a three for one ticket where you get to watch three shows while purchasing one higher priced ticket.

2.4 Place

This is the venue of the event or festival and where consumers can and will purchase the tickets to see their shows. The setting for the event as well as its design structure and the processes used to bring people the event experience.

Pesta Raya was held at the Esplanade. The Esplanade is frequented by both tourist and locals alike making it an ideal location to hold the celebration of the arts and culture. Esplanade also has concert halls or rooms ideal for having performances. This will ensure that consumers will be able to enjoy what they are paying for inside the concert hall without much disturbance, in fact some performance are much better watched indoors in the studio or concert all then outdoors. Very much unlike the free performances held at the courtyard. However, holding free performances at the courtyard is in fact, ideal as the open air stage allows who wish to hear and see the performance. Not to mention the magnificent skyline of Singapore can be seen around dusk, just before the first outdoor, free performance begins. It also blends well into the physical environment as the esplanade is an arts place so naturally Arts and Culture marry well into the setting provided in the esplanade. The free performance, its other advantage is that it requires no ticketing.

The venue to get the tickets for the Pesta Raya performances in the Esplanade is from SISTIC. A rather well known ticketing agency in Singapore, they have several outlets. You can purchase the tickets from the outlet itself, or call and book the tickets go down and make a payment and then collect the tickets OR you can use the internet to purchase the tickets and the tickets will be sent directly to you. The internet is one of the most popular intermediaries in which to purchase tickets as it is fast and convenient as consumers need not leave home to get the tickets, there is no need to stand in the queue to purchase the ticket and best of all you need not call up the operators and listen to those irritating ring tones while waiting to get to speak to the operator. You can check which performances are going to be shown on which date and the timing and how much available space there is left. You can just select the performance timing that is most convenient to you. There is no payment hassle as the credit card promotes ease of collection and facilitates security in that there are customer details from the credit card so if the buyer does not pay up, he can be tracked down.

2.5 Partnerships

http://www.esplanade.com.sg/whats_on/programme_info/pestaraya_free/index.jsp

Sometimes one company cannot host an event all by itself. That is why partnership exists. Relationship marketing and management is based on “relationship and goodwill” between a committed group of people. Hence one can see that successful events will have strong bonds and ties with supporters who are dedicated and loyal. For many festivals a common goal is shared between event organizer and partner and that will create a sense of belonging among the organisers and the partners, leading to long lasting partnerships. This may be harder to achieve when the event is of a larger scale. Despite this, there are strategies to build relationships with sponsors, visitors and volunteers as partnerships are an effective way of attracting the resources to produce an event. Good community consultation and relationship building will also make it easier for a festival or event to enter the desired market and get a more favourable response from the community..

Pesta Raya has several partnerships. To contribute to grabbing audience attention visually, the official TV station that promotes Pesta Raya are Suria and Mediacorp 12.

The audio partnerships Ria 89.7 FM and Warna 94.2 FM. The official partner as a magazine is Sensasi. These brands are known by many Malay households. Hence they are closely linked to the Malay community enabling Pesta Raya to spread through the community easily through partnership.

2.6 Price

Pricing can be a tool. It can affect the festival’s demand, it can affect the type of target consumers it affects the projected quality of the performance for example, an expenisive ticket would cause you to expect a good show or performance but a cheaply priced ticket does nothing to your expectations. The Ungu goes to Esplanade is the most expensive performance under the Pesta Raya’s selection of shows. This will create the perception that the Ungu goes to Esplanade is the highlight and the best of all the Pesta Raya performances. The greater the difference between perceived benefits and perceived costs, the greater the value to the consumer. Perceived benefits can be anything from food, to drinks to entertainment, chances to meet new people who share the same passion and enjoy the same kind performances and the novelty of the performance. Perceived cost would include time, money, the effort to getting to the reach the where the performance is staged, psychic costs and sensory costs. The Batak culture performance is free hence if you are a passerby who happens to walk by and decides to watch the performance there is no perceived cost. However if it was I who went to the esplanade just to watch the performance for my the festival and events management project the perceived cost would be having to travel to watch the performance but the perceived benefit is that I would be able to do my project and experience malay culture at no monetary cost. To attract senior citizens and NSF as well as students to watch the performance the have discounted the price for senior citizens and NSF to $22

2.7 Promotion (integrated marketing communication)

http://www.esplanade.com.sg/whats_on/programme_info/pestaraya_free/index.jsp

The word promotion also known as integrated marketing communication for events in the marketing mix can be anything from brochures to internet to television to radio. Brochures can be collected from esplanade itself. (see below) in the above partnership, we see that Pesta Raya is already promoted by Mediacorp TV 12 and Suria which are Malay based television channels. In the form of communication through audio means, they the radio stations Ria 89.7FM as well as WARNA 94.2FM promoting the Pesta Raya.event. Print wise they have Sensasi magazine to help reach out to the masses.

One thing about this promotion mix is that it is very Malay based. The channels play malay shows, the radio station are local malay radio stations. But Singapore is a multi-racial society. They can increase the target market by making some appearances on channel 5 and channel 8 which are English and Chinese language based channels respectively. This way Pesta Raya will increase the awareness of their arts and culture in the region for not only those who are malay but non-malay as well. Staff were dressed up in Pesta Raya shirts and walking about distributing brochures. This is a useful way of gaining publicity within the vicinity of the esplanade where the free Pesta Raya performances are being held. A method of promotion that Pesta Raya used I found effective is the use of the SMS service “SMS to download this programme’s show details onto your mobile phone.” I feel that this is a good and convenient way for interested parties to get the information that they need.

2.8 People

In an event it takes the whole team of staff, volunteers, performers and audience to pull of a successful event. I participated in the Manortor performance held at the courtyard. This was an audience interactive segment where the performers would ask for audiences to join them to try and perform the dance. I remember a young boy was picked out of the crowd to join the dance. The boy was very enthusiastic about it! Being picked out to try out the dance probably made his experience to the Pesta Ray far more special to him. I feel that this sort of audience interaction will surely make the event more close to the heart for many.

There was this incident with the usher who was blocking the view of the spectators and when asked to move away slightly, a look of displeasure could be seen on her face. I feel this is wrong as part of the usher’s job is to assist people and that kind of look was rather unnecessary and it spoilt my mood for the show. They may feel their roles are very small but ushers still contribute to the overall product experience.

3 Tourism Roles and Economic Value of Pesta Raya

This section of the report will cover the economic and tourism roles of Pesta Raya. The elements which contribute to the Economic and tourism roles are Place Marketing, Tourist attraction, Image maker, Catalyst and Animator.

3.1 Place Marketing

Singapore is a multi-racial and multi-cultural society, and having events like Pesta Raya shows to tourist that Singapore means what it says about being multi-cultural and multi-racial. This portrays Singapore in a very positive image for tourists who are culturally inclined. The event is held during the festival of Hari Raya Puasa celebrating Malay arts. Economically it will bring in revenue from the chargeable performance as well as remind local residents of their own arts and culture while attracting tourist to come and watch the diversity of a country with multiple races and culture.

3.2 Tourist Attraction

With Pesta Raya being added into the already long list of Singapore attractions, with culturally interested tourist coming to visit Singapore and Pesta Raya being spread over 10 days, Tourist who are so into culture will stay longer in Singapore just to properly witness Pesta Raya before their eyes. With longer stays, tourism receipts increase due to more money being spent on food and visiting other cultural areas of Singapore.

3.3 Image Maker

Celebrating Pesta Raya will give tourist ideas and perceptions about Singapore. The holding of this festival in a multi-racial society will take away the negative image that Singapore is a small island with not much to do. When tourists treat Pesta Raya as an attraction to see when in Singapore, it will help to entice tourists to pick Singapore as their desired destination, improving our image as a destination as a whole. If one event like this attracts tourist, other races will start promoting their own culture as well, creating new themes as well as improving old ones.

3.4 Catalyst

When more and more tourist come to Singapore to experience Pesta Raya, they may want to visit the other cultural attractions available in Singapore such as Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam. If so, the government will do their best to maintain and preserve the heritage sites but at the same time destroy old buildings to make way for more hotesls and the like. Pesta Raya is set at the Esplanade. Tourist may have time to spare before and after the performances and may engage in some activities in the Marina Bay area such as shopping or eating. They may also enjoy the night life that the Marina Bay area can present.

3.5 Animator

As an event that was able to last for 7 years running, Pesta Raya certainly has the ability to encourage repeat visits. Being the first time I watch Pesta Raya, I was certainly amazed by the crowd that it could draw, and the attention that it garnered. For a first timer the performance was thoroughly enjoyable apart from the one unpleasant staff and I would definitely want to visit it again. In the underground MRT it had a lot of posters encouraging people to be a spectator for the Pesta Raya performances.

4 Conclusions

As a 7 year running festival, Pesta Raya did not disappoint. In conclusion the marketing mix was used quite effectively product, place, price were all done without hiccups.However areas that can be tapped on are the packaging and partnership and people. Maybe bind with a tour agency to showcase Pesta Raya for packaging, getting more partners like to increase the size and demographic of the target market and to re-evaluate the criteria for hiring the frontline staff.

With proper use of the marketing mix as well as the size of the crowds at the performances I believe that Pesta Raya was a successful event. To strive for a long running period the Marketing Mix must be fine tuned so as to achieve maximum length of success.