Singapore Arts Festival 2012

Background of Singapore Arts Festival



The Singapore Arts Festival is a happening event that was started in 1977. In 1999, the existing Festival of Asian Performing Arts and the Festival of Arts were merged as an annual event. It is to celebrate local arts in Singapore and to increase the awareness for the arts, culture and events in Singapore. It is also an event that aims to connect people and arts together. It has played a significant role in developing Singapore into an artistic and cultural city.

Singapore Arts Festival 2012

Singapore Arts Festival (SAF) was organised by National Arts Council and it was the 35 anniversary of Singapore Arts Festival from its beginning in 1977 in promoting arts and culture of Singapore. Mr Low Kee Hong, General Manager of SAF mentioned that the original purpose of organizing SAF is to celebrate multi-ethnic culture of Singapore. With the success of SAF for the past few decades, SAF has become a festival that captures the heart of Singapore and its people. In 2010, SAF has started with a theme “Between you and me”, and “I want to remember” in 2011 and “our lost poem” for this year. This theme was built around the idea of myth, legend tales which involve thoughts, reflections, lost riddles, puppetry and hidden story that has to be told and retold. It involves the content about the issue and reflection of everyday life and get a slice of Singapore and the story from the region of the part of the world. It is a 16 days event that involves diverse range of performances and Art related activities. This year Arts Festival held on 18 May to 2 June at Esplanade Park.

Marketing Mix

1.       Product 

Festival Guide consists of various information

Product is important to note what the potential customers' need, want and what they pay for. The core product of Singapore Arts Festival is to provide learning opportunities, connection of arts between people and appreciation of culture and lifestyle. The tangible product includes tickets, festival guide, venue map and souvenirs, performances, activities at the festival village. Various types of activities are organized for the visitors. For example, performances at the main stage, art and crafts at the Kids Arts Village and many more. The augmented products are the accessibility of the place as it is located near to Esplanade MRT Station so that it provides convenience to the visitors. Other than that, the atmosphere of the festival is also another highlight of the event; the lighting, the decorations of the venue, the music played at the venue and the activities played by the visitors creates a very distinct atmosphere for the festival. It affects the experience of the visitors. The unique selling point for this festival is the quality of the performances. For example, Flux from France, Bridge Café Project where a group of staff of Oyajis (Japanese for uncles) and youths from the community provide entertainment experience by dancing and serving food and beverages to the visitor in the Festival Café, an umbrella for 2 and the music clinic. These are the activities that increase satisfaction of the visitors and make sure that the visitors are exchanging their valuable time to a valuable experience than just a product. It must be worth value! Overall, I find that Singapore Arts Festival this year is a success where it manages to engage a lot of audiences mainly the arts lovers, family and kids and the elderly who involve in distributing flyers, performances like the Bridge Cafe Project. The product of SAF has actually fulfilled the needs and expectation of the visitors.

2.       Place

Ticketing and Information Booth

SISTIC- purchase tickets

Festival Village map

Singapore Arts Festival is held at Festival Village located at Esplanade Park near Esplanade MRT Station. Other MRT lines such as Dhoby Ghaut, Bras Basah and City Hall. It provides convenience for most of the visitors. It also located near bus stop where people are able to have various mode of transportation to go to the place. It has increased the accessibility for the visitors. Personally, I find that the place is well-decorated and well-chosen. Esplanade Park is a central area where it is surrounded by various heritage buildings such as the Fullerton Hotel, Asian Civilization Museum and Anderson Bridge. These places are Singapore’s places of interest for tourists. Furthermore, it is linked to the Esplanade- Theatres By the Bay which is a popular venue for performance arts. All in all, it enhanced the event experience for the consumers as they learnt more Singapore culture and various cultures from other part of the world while enjoying the performances and activities there.

This year festival has ticketed programmes and free programmes. Consumers can purchase the tickets through online bookings via www.singaporeartsfest.com and www.sistic.com.sg , phone bookings. For the past few years, Singapore Arts Festival's tickets are available from SISTIC Counter from 37 places which include various shopping malls, Esplanade, Ticket Cube-Singapore Tourism Board, IMM Building. It is to ease consumer’s purchase process. SISTIC is the largest ticketing service and solution provider in Singapore as it sells variety of tickets ranging from performing arts which include musicals, concerts, theatre to sports. Customers can now purchase tickets through the SISTIC Mobile and iNETS mobile apps. It has thus increased more accessibility for people to purchase tickets at anytime and anywhere. This marketing mix is an important tool that used to gather feedbacks from visitors, enable consumers to evaluate queries for the events and speed of access to services such as car park and toilet. This is to improve the services to enhance customers ‘satisfaction. The use of online booking has advantages such as increase speed and consumer ease too.

3. Partnership

Partnership with SAF

 

This year Singapore Arts Festival’s principal partner is Singapore Tourism Board. They had long lasting partnership since the year 2009. Major Sponsor for Singapore Arts Festival are Lee Foundation, Suntec Singapore and Old School. Official F&B Partner is Kitchen Language. Technical Productions Partner is Unusual Productions Private Limited. Official Outdoor Partner is SMRT, Media. Programme partners involve Cold Stone Creamery, ibis Hotel, NPE Print Communications Pte Ltd, Aria Carpets Pte Ltd and National Library Board. Other sponsors include Hong Leong Foundation, Japanese Chamber of Commerce & Industry Singapore. Supporters include British Council, Esplanade, Embassy of Israel, Institut Francais Singapour, Raffles City Shopping Centre, and Singapore Airlines. Venue Partner is National Parks Board. Their objective is to enhance their brand image and to attract more visitors.

Stakeholders include the volunteers, staff and wider residential community, providers of public services to the events such as security guard at the venue.

 

4. Promotion

Brochures from SAF

APPs

Singapore Arts Festival (SAF) has used various promotion methods in order to target to the audience. SAF has also used above the line method such as advertisement, media coverage and article on newspaper to promote this festival. Other than that, below the line methods such as providing brochure, flyers to the public and banners to increase their awareness for Singapore Arts Festival.

Due to the partnership with SMRT, they have advertised this festival through LCD screen at the MRT platform and posters at the MRT barriers. Furthermore, SAF has also used other promotion method to reach out to the locals. For example, the use of social networking sites such as Facebook, twitter, blog to update the event to the followers and supplement information to the public. One innovative way that SAF has done through the use of advancement of technology by creating a free iPhone App for show trailers, show times, programme information. This provides convenience to most of the people out there as they know people are using iPhone everywhere.

Overall, I find that the use of such promotion is very effective. My suggestion is that they can adopt word of mouth strategy in order to promote this festival. This can be done by approaching the local talents, volunteers and community members that are playing apart in contributing to the SAF to spread the message and encourage more people to visit SAF. People who have visited SAF last year or this year can also share their positive experience with the products and services available at the festival. The advantage of using word-of-mouth is save cost, faster, encourage better products and services and lastly it will strengthen the brand image of Singapore Arts Festival.

5. Packaging and Distribution

The packaging and distribution method has played an important role in contributing success to the Singapore Arts Festival. SISTIC and SAF collaborated to sell tickets. For local, they can purchase ticket from SISTIC counter from various shopping mall, phone booking and online booking. Tourists can purchase tickets from SISTIC agents from overseas. There are various packages to be sell to the public and SAF Club member. For example, there are pre-sales, early bird sales, General sales, concessions, Group bookings, School bookings and Tote Board Arts Grant. These consist of various discounts to various groups of people. One specific example such as 15 percent discount off tickets when you purchase minimum of 4 tickets per show (Friends and Family Package), 10 percent discount off tickets for Kinokuniya Privilege Card members, SAFRA Card members, NTUC ,OCBC Credit and Debit card member, Passion Card members and tourists.

Other than that, there is collaboration with other F&B outlets, entertainment, transportation and other attraction nearby the region. For example, SAF partnership with Cold Stone Creamery, Tully’s Coffee and Quiznos Sub at Festival Café and Bar. Thus, the visitors can also enjoy foods and beverages at Festival Café and Bar while they are enjoying the arts at the village. Hence, I think it is very effective.

6.Programming

Target Market

The target market for Singapore Arts Festival is basically everyone from all ages. The niche market will be arts lovers, family with kids. There are various events and activities available for this year Singapore Arts Festival. This festival is also provides a great platform for people that may not have encountered the arts.

There are various programmes available for different group of people.




They Only Come at Night: Pandemic



Ticketed programmes available are:

· The Flight of the Jade Bird

· 男男自语

· Ciudades Paralelas (Parallel Cities)

· 兰芳记 Lan Fang Chronicles 2012

· Very Wagnerian Night

· dance/film

· They Only Come at Night: Pandemic

· End of the Road

· The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

· Advanced Studies in...(Ten Lessons for Life)

· The Best Sex I've Ever Had

· LEAR DREAMING

· Vertical Road

· Rite(s) of Spring

These are ticketed programme where visitors can purchase the tickets online from SISTIC. It starts from the date of 18 May to 2 June. Different programme have different date of showing. The starting time of the programme is around 7.30 pm or 8.00 pm. I think It is good that they have took into the consideration that most of people will be working during weekdays. Thus, by having the show at the evening time will benefit the working adults as they can watch it after their work and to relax themselves. Other than that, there were brochures, festival guides distributed before the actual date of SAF. It is to allow the visitors to view the description of the programme, together with the date, time and price. These varieties of programme were shown at different places. Some were at Esplanade theatre, concert hall, Ying Foh Kuan (Shuang Long Shan), Cinema Europa, Golden Village VivoCity, SOTA Drama Theatre and Old School@ 11 Mount Sophia. The prices range from $12 to $100. Thus, it is also affordable for students to enjoy arts and film such as DANCE/FILM that costs $12, Parallel Cities and many more.

There were also free programmes such as:

· World of Stories

· Platform Campus-Cicle Lines

· 共作室OPEN-STUDIO 2012 Featuring SONGBIRD

· Flux

· Bridge Cafe Project

· DREAM COUNTRY- a lost monologue

· The Book of Living and Dying

· XII- In Search of 13



The Oyajis



Personally, I enjoyed the Bridge Cafe Project where a group of Oyajis (middle-aged men) and youth will dance and interact with the customers. This project was originated from Japan. Customers at the cafe can enjoy watching performances and being entertained by cute and attractive Oyajis as they dressed themselves very modernly. They came from diverse background and across generation. Furthermore, they aim to be the bridge between customers and society.



FLUX



Other than that, the Flux is a popular performance from France. It held from 18 to 23 May at the Festival village. The programme supporter is INSTITUT FRANCAIS SINGAPORE. The Flux is about the existence of centaurs in the midst of the festival. It starts at 8.00 pm and last for 1 hour. This programme is free.



The Giant Book at Library



The last programme that is very unique is the World of Stories. There were 12 Giant books located at 12 libraries. It is to bring the arts to the common man on the street. This giant book is part of world of stories, celebration of 12 different stories; six from Singapore, six from Asia. This project is collaborated with National Library Board and with 12 different schools. During weekends, there were different activities volunteered by different volunteers. They used song to interact with audience in order to bring story to live. There were sing along session, storytelling using puppet with different characters and many more.

At the festival village, there was main stage for various performances from local and overseas by Vanessa Fernandez, Claressa Monteiro, Choral Association, Budak Pantai, Don Richmond, T'ang quarter and many more. There were also vantage for BAR where it was for private parties and corporate events, CAFE, OPEN LAWN which belongs to a programme called DREAM COUNTRY where it was a dance performance, BLACK BOX where workshops and master classes where held there, KIDS ART VILLAGE and TICKETING&INFORMATION BOOTH/ FIRST AID.

One of the programme at the main stage was T'ang quarter as they sang music from olden days and the songs that people grew up with. I have seen one of the SAF video and they mentioned that it was worth preserving as it would bring back the nostalgic moment when people hear about those heritage song.

At Kids Arts Village, It offers:

· Tangle

· The Young Ones! Performance Showcase

· Spooky Stories by Children

· Splash Art and Crafts

Recycled materials made into a bag

Picture with the story tellers



Tangle



 I have actually volunteered to be the festival guide at the Kids Arts Village, the Spooky Stories by Children. The story tellers were from various Secondary schools such as Maris Stella, St. Antony's Canossian Secondary School, NLB Junior reading ambassadors, Raffles Institution and Kids Advisory Panel. It was a very interactive activity as it involves family as the audiences.

Other than that, there were also UV Monster Cave as there was dark room where kids can paint monsters based on their imagination and there was a GO GREEN activities where they will use recycle materials to make bags.

All in all, I think the programme was very entertaining and fun. However, I find that this festival did not involve enough elderly to be the participants as the programme do not really cater to most of the elderly. Thus, this marketing mix is not very effective yet.

7.   People

Picture with Eleanor (The organiser)

The interaction between the visitors and the staff or volunteers will affect the experience of the audiences. Moment of truth it is when everyone interacts with one another creates a great impression to the visitors. This also determines the success of the event as well.

For example, during the spooky story session, the interaction between the kids who are telling the story and the visitors will create a great impression for them during the festival.

Singapore Arts Festival has also involved different groups of people in organizing the events and activities. For example, arts volunteers, artists, performancers and students. Other than that, the artists, the festival guides, the event director, the dancer, security guides and even the cleaner play a great part in contributing to the success of the event. This includes the visitors from local and overseas as well. Overall, I think that this marketing mix is very effective.

 

8.   Price

PRE-SALES (15-18 MAR)

30% discount off tickets to 2 or more performances and 10% discount off single show purchases.

EARLY BIRD SALES (19 MAR-15 APR)

20 % discount off tickets to 2 or more performances and when consumers purchase a minimum of 4 tickets per show (Friends and Family Package)

10% discount off single show purchases.

GENERAL SALES (16 APR ONWARDS)

15% discount off tickets when you purchase a minimum of 4 tickets per show.

10% discount off tickets for Kinokuniya Privilege Card members, NTUC, VISA Card members, OCBC Credit & Debit Card members, Passion Card members and SAFRA Card members and tourists.

CONCESSIONS

20% oof tickets for full time students, NSFs and senior citizens.

SCHOOL BOOKINGS

20% discount off tickets and one complimentary ticket for school groups of 20.

There was also group booking price and Tote board arts grant.

Overall, this is a very effective marketing mix as SAF has used different pricing strategies to market them. SAF is an event that provides services as experiences to the customers. Thus, the tickets are perishable as the seats cannot be selling if it is not fully sold on the day itself. Therefore, one of the marketing strategies is Early Bird Sales as it encouraged more people to purchase tickets earlier. There was also various range of pricing which cater to different groups of people such as students, family and member for different groups. Hence, I think it is very effective.

COMPARISON BETWEEN LAST YEAR AND THIS YEAR

The theme last year was " I want to remember" which the objective of bringing back memories to the people as it focus more on activities from olden days in order to bring back memories, histories and places from the past. I have seen a video about last years' Singapore arts festival, there were actually decorated just like the olden days where people were going for Wayang show. The target market is more on the older generation. In contrast, this year's theme is “Our Lost Poem" where it focuses on myths, legends, tales, lost riddles and hidden stories. The target market is more on the youngsters, family with kids.



Furthermore, last year's programme was more complicated and obscure in meaning and lack of advertising. Therefore, it resulted in poor ticket sales in SAF 2011. Based on research, there were only half of the tickets that were sold out. It did not solve the perishability of the product. This has shown that there was lack of advertising and the visitors were minimal. In 2012 SAF, there was a change in marketing mix such as programme and target market. The programme has become more appealing to the interest of the target market and more variety of it. Therefore, this year tickets sales were much better.

Suggestion to Earn the Unavailable Market for SAF

The unavailable market is the elderly, disabled and working adults. Although the programme caters to most of the market, there is still unavailable market for SAF. Most of the programme is for family with kids and youngsters. Based on my observation there for three days, I did not see much elderly there as the visitors. Instead, there were more on volunteers in distributing flyers and involved in the Bridge Cafe Project. Most of the visitors were the family and youngsters. Therefore, I think that SAF can actually reach out more to the elderly by adding activities that are beneficial for them. Since the theme is about recalling about the past and stories, they can actually build a "village" that is especially designed for them. For example, a exercise corner, a games corner which include chess, mahjong and story tellers by the elderly as they can sit down and chat with one another. It is not necessary to be in English as most of them may not be able to understand or speak fluently. Therefore, the unique point is to tell stories in dialects such as Hokkien, Teo chew, Cantonese and many more.

More facilities that ease the elderly and disabled should be built. For example, instead of building a two storey cafe outlet, they can build a one storey cafe but it is bigger. So everyone can enjoy the performances by the Bridge Project happily and more convenient for the elderly and disabled as they do not have to climb stairs up when there is no place to be seated at level one. Furthermore, foods that is more suitable for the elderly should be catered instead of just having snacks and ice-cream which are more suitable for the youngsters. In addition, more disabled facilities should be implemented. For example, toilet for physically challenge people, wheel cars and many more.

In term of promotion, they can use word of mouth to promote this festival especially to board cast it in the television. Based on research, watching television is one of the leisure activity that most people will do nowadays especially to the elderly and family. Therefore, it can reach out to more people and increase the number of visitor arrival. For the brochures, flyers, festival guide and signage, I recommend that they can translate it into other languages for older generation that are not bilingual. This will actually provide convenient to them and will make SAF a better and meaningful event for the community.

MY REFLECTION ON VOLUNTEERING AT KIDS ARTS VILLAGE

Training Day on 13 May 2012

On this Sunday Evening, a group of LRM volunteers who were volunteering as festival guides gathered at Esplanade Park, Kids Arts Village. My group was assigned for the spooky story by the river. We met two of the In charge, Eleanor and Kenny for a short briefing, attendance taking and assign of roles and responsibilities. There were people who were assigned as the Group IC where they have to bring the audience around to 3 different locations for storytelling. The other role was to be the location IC of 3 locations, there were the bridge (near Anderson Bridge), Tree and Court Yard (near Asian Civilization Museum). Story Tellers were come from various Secondary School students such as Maris Stella, Raffles Institution, and St. Antony Convent. This concept of having a Spooky story for this year Arts Festival was also the contribution of these young kids.

Afterwards, we proceed to the first station which is the bridge and then the tree and court yard. One of the main IC, Jeffrey explained to us what to do for example, he asked the story teller to decide where to stand so that the audience will not get distracted by the beautiful scenery of Fullerton Hotel that was located in front of the bridge area. I was the floater and time keeper whereby I would stand at the middle of the 3 locations and make sure that the story telling keeps between 10 minutes. I would have to ring the bell to indicate the start of the story and start to time. When it reaches, 9minutes and 30 seconds, I would have to ring both bells to indicate times up and it is time for each group to rotate around. Eleanor would look at various locations IC. When everyone has rotated at the next station, each location IC would raise up their light stick and when 3 areas were ready, Eleanor will put down her light stick to show the start of the story. I would stop ringing and start the time again. This process repeat until they reached the final destination which is at the Bench area where everyone will gather and to end the Spooky Story.

This process was the improved solution after many trials. At the first dry run, I have only one bell and it was too soft whereby the location IC who is at the tree area cannot hear me and I have to run to them and make sure that they heard the bell. However, problems occurred as I ran towards them, the other 2 locations IC cannot hear me too. There was actually confusion as we were not sure how to show the indication of the start of the story or to rotate around. After the first dry run, we came together and feedback about that issue. Finally, we improved the process into what I have mentioned above. It was a successful one as I have 2 bells, a bigger light stick to show them and everyone was very cooperative.

DAY 1 on 1 June 2012

1 June 2012 was the last week of Singapore Arts Festival. We reported at 7.30pm at the Kids Arts Village. Along at the Esplanade Park, there was flea market located at the area.

We went through several dry run and prepared for the start of the event. The story tellers changed their costume into Pyjamas and they put on make up to have the spooky look. Some of the festival guides also put on makeup while some of them helped out to do make up for the kids. At around 8.45pm, all of us went to the river area and standby ourselves. When the first group arrived, I rang the bell until all of them were in the position. One of the student from Maris Stella named Alex was helping me in holding on the light stick and he would inform me to stop when everyone was ready. When I stop ringing, I would start the timing at the same time. When it reached 9 minutes and 30 seconds, I would then have to ring the bell again to indicate times up and they would rotate to another location. I would then stop ringing when everyone was ready and started the time for the next story telling again. It was an easy task as everyone was cooperative and it was a successful one.

During the time, I was managed to chat with one of the temporary staff who came from Hong Kong. She was Karen. She came into Singapore a few months ago and has attachment with National Arts Council. She told me that usually the permanent staff there would prepare for this Arts Festival for at least one year. They would then recruit volunteers and temporary staff when time gets nearer for the actual event. She said that her department with Eleanor, Jeffrey and Kenny is in-charge of the Kids Arts Village. It includes Spooky Story by the Park and by the river, UV Arts, Go green activity.

For the last few weeks, there were quite a lot of visitors arrived but not very crowded. The most popular activity was the UV Arts whereby it was a dark room with a little of UV light. The kids were supposed to draw something on a transparent paper using a luminous colour pen and then pasted on the wall. It was a very interesting activity whereby the drawing will glow and looked attractive. On the second week of SAF, they ran out of luminous pen. As it was a very expensive material, they decided to change the activity into UV MASK whereby they made the mask using some papers and allow the children to draw on the mask using colour painting. I realized that even with planning of such activity, we need to make sure that it is workable and would create interest for the kids. Furthermore, they have to be flexible, creative and work within a given budget. I have learnt a lot from that. Every year, there is an activity called tangle but activity like spooky story was a new concept for this year. Other than that, there was a concept of GO GREEN where they used unused shirts to make into a nice bag. The objective was to send the right message to the kids for being environmental-friendly and have fun at the same time.

Picture with Mascot

DAY 2 on 2 June

On the second day, we went to the festival earlier and we get to watch the performances such as the Bridge Cafe project and there was mascot around to entertain the visitors. Everything went on smoothly. At the end of the event, we received feedback from the group leaders that the locations are too far apart. For example, the distance from the bridge, the trees and the court yard was too far apart and it was not convenient for people who were physically challenged. Other than that, the story telling is too long and people get bored easily. I believe that Singapore Arts Festival would be better and more exciting in 2014!

REFERENCES

About Singapore Arts Festival. (n.d). Retrieved June1, 2012, from http://www.singaporeartsfest.com/about-singapore-arts-festival/

Singapore Arts Festival 2012. (n.d). Retrieved June 1, 2012, fromhttp://www.yoursingapore.com/content/traveller/en/browse/apps/eventdetails.singapore-arts-festival-2012.html

At this year’s Singapore Arts Festival, Old Asian ladies share their sex secrets, (8 May 2012). Retrieved June 1,2012 from http://www.cnngo.com/singapore/play/singapore-arts-festival-856018

Festival Village highlight part 1,(23 May 2012), Retrieved June 2, 2012, from http://www.singaporeartsfest.com/episode-9-festival-village-highlights-part-1/

Singapore Arts Festival, National Arts Council, (23 April 2012), Retrieved June 2, 2012 from http://www.nac.gov.sg/events

Singapore Arts Festival 2011. (n.d), retrieved from June 2, 2012 from http://www.singaporevr.com/vrs/ArtsFestival2011/

Allen, J.etal(2011). Festival and Special Event Management (5^th ed). Milton, Queensland: John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd.

Temasek Polytechnic.(2012). Festivals and Events Marketing Lecture 4 Festival and Events Marketing part 1. Singapore: Temasek Polytechnic Leisure and Resort Management.