Purpose
The purpose of the report is to compare the marketing strategy of the selected festival with a similar one in another city and identify the stakeholders. The report also allows better understanding of the main purpose of the festival and the benefits that will be received by the host country.


Method of Investigation
I have chosen to attend one of the theatre performances from the Singapore Arts Festival, Sin Sangre, for the Festival and Event Management field trip. The performance took place on 26 May 2009, 8pm at the Singapore Drama Centre.


Background Information
The Singapore Arts Festival first made its debut in 1977 with its primary aim is to celebrate the local arts activities in Singapore. Throughout the years, it gradually became a significant role in the development of the artistic and cultural life of Singapore and had generated a higher demand for arts.

Today, the Singapore Arts Festival, being one of Asia’s leading arts festival, commissioned new works by Singapore, Asian and international artists. Besides that, regional and international artistic exchanges are also highly encouraged.


Introduction of the film
The film is about a young girl who witnessed the murder of her father and brother by three men. However, her own life had been spared by one of them. When she grew up, she seeked revenge for her family except for the one who spared her life. A conversation between them had made her dropped the idea of revenge and at the same time, tied the two lost souls together.

The production directed by Juan Carlos Zagal had intermingled between the real and the celluloid, past and present, time and space. The film had brought out the beauty within the complexity of arts and set the audience, including myself, into reflection of the emotions by the various roles.

In this report, the Singapore Arts Festival will be compared with the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

Product
The product customers get from the Singapore Arts Festival will be similar to what they will get from the Hong Kong Arts Festival. The products can be tangible and/or intangible.

In this case, the core product, which is what the customer is really looking out for, will be the knowledge of arts and enjoyment people derive from attending the performances in the festivals. The core product is intangible. Facilitating (tangible) products will be the brochures, postcards and guidebooks that are given out at the events.


Place
The accessibility and location of the venue plays an important role in attracting visitors to the performances.

In the Singapore Arts Festival, the performances are being held at different locations all over Singapore. They differ from the central part of Singapore, the Esplanade, Singapore Drama Centre, to HDB areas like Tampines and Yishun. This will appeal to the locals who want to watch the performances but do not wish to travel too far from home. The advantage of having these venues in HDB areas is that Singaporeans will feel a closer connection to arts.

However in the Hong Kong Arts Festival, most performances are held in the Grand Studio, Theatre Studio, HK Cultural centre etc. Unlike Singapore, the performance venues are not near the housing estates which might deter potential local visitors.


Partnerships
The event organizer of the Singapore Arts Festival is National Arts Council. Some of the partners include Singapore Tourism Board, Singapore Totalisator Board, Public Utilities Board and more. Venue partners include Housing & Development Board, National Parks Board, One Fullerton, etc.

However as being compared to the Singapore Arts Festival, the Hong Kong Arts Festival has lesser partners. They include Hong Kong Jockey Club, Leisure and Cultural Service Department, Hong Kong Tourism Board, etc.

From this, it is shown that the Singapore Arts Festival is able to attract more organizations to invest and thus, they have more funds for their marketing strategies.


Promotion
Promotion, a communication mix, includes advertising, public relations and sales promotions. These actions have been made to create awareness about the arts festivals for the public.
Advertisements could be found on buses, taxis, television, radio etc. Posters can also be seen around Singapore. Besides that, on the official website of the Singapore Arts Festival, other popular online tools such as Facebook and Twitter are used to attract visitors. These show that the Singapore Arts Festival has gone the extra mile to try to attract more youngsters as they are the ones who frequent websites like Facebook and Twitter.

However, for the Hong Kong Arts Festival, besides its official website, not much effort can be seen in promoting the festival online.

There are also sales promotions including discounts for accommodations at certain hotels and also food and retail outlets in Singapore. For the Hong Kong Arts Festival, they provide discounts for books, jewellery, music and salon outlets. Comparing both sales promotions, I personally think that the promotion offered by the Singapore Arts Festival is more attractive. For example, if a tourist visits a country for the art festival, a promotion for accommodation will be more important and relevant than a promotion for jewellery.

Hence, I felt Singapore Arts Festival have better promotion strategy compared to the Hong Kong’s.


Programming
Programming is a very important aspect in marketing strategy as it is the programs that attract the visitors to the festival.

In the Singapore and Hong Kong Arts Festival, there is a wide range of similar programs available including dance and music performances, theatre firms, etc.

However the Singapore Arts Festival includes showcase of visual arts, school programmes, festival workshops and forums which the Hong Kong Arts Festival does not have. On the other hand, Hong Kong Arts Festival has programs like guided tours, talks etc.

Both festivals have their own unique programs that will appeal to different visitors with different needs and wants.

People
The service staff working in the different performance venues are important as they are the ones to come in direct contact with the customers. The hospitality received by the customers from the staff will shape their experience in the festival. These people includes those working at the ticketing counter, ushers, staff working in the food and beverage outlet in the performing venues.

At the Singapore Drama Centre where I watched the performance, there was a counter with some service staff handing out guidebooks and postcards about the performance. When I request if I could drop off the ticket with them as one of my friends was late, they were very helpful and responded to my needs promptly. The hospitality I received from the staff had created a good impression of the Singapore Arts Festival for me.


Packaging & Distribution
For both festivals, customers can easily get tickets to events through internet or telephone booking. This saves them a lot of hassle and is convenient. Customers can also get their tickets from Sistic authorized agents available in most part of Singapore. These agents are also available in neighboring countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.

Tickets for the Singapore Arts Festival are also available at most performance events one hour before the performance starts except for the sold-out ones. For the Hong Kong Arts Festival, there is re-sale service for tickets to sold-out performances available up to one hour before the performance commerce. Both festivals have similar practices in packaging and distributing of tickets.


Price
There are many different price packages for people who want to watch the performances in the Singapore Arts Festival. They include cheaper ticket pricings for their Artfest Club members, group and school bookings. Full-time students and senior citizens can also buy the tickets at a discounted price.

For the Hong Kong Arts Festival, there are special rates for members, ‘early-birds’ and students too.

Thus the price packages for the both countries are similar.

The advertisement on television, taxis, buses, banners and posters around Singapore create awareness for the festival. At the same time, they are also promoting different attractions in Singapore such as the Esplanade, Vivocity, etc.

Besides that, there is a rising popularity of online tools like Facebook and Twitter, which the Singapore Arts Festival has made use of. This is a very good and innovative way to reach out to more people especially the youngsters.

In additional, the performance locations for the Singapore Arts Festival are very well-chose especially those in HDB areas as it is able to bring art closer to the doorsteps of the local community.

Host Organisation
The host organisation for the Singapore and Hong Kong Arts Festival is the National Arts Council and Hong Kong Arts Festival Society Limited respectively.


Host Community
The host community will be the citizens of Singapore and Hong Kong.


Sponsor
The sponsor for the Singapore Arts Festival will be the Singapore Tourism Board, Public Utilities Board, Suntec City, SMRT, Urban Redevelopment Authority, Starhub Cable Vision, Vivocity, etc.
For the Hong Kong Arts Festival, there are the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Leisure and Cultural Service Department, Hong Kong Tourism Board.


Media
The media includes television stations like Channel 5 and Okto, radio stations, newspaper, and posters and banners around the cities to create awareness about the festivals to the public.


Co-Worker
They comprises of the staff doing ticketing, ushering, concierge and backstage jobs.


Participants and Spectators
These include the artists involved in performance and audience who went for events.

The main purpose of the Singapore Arts Festival is to provide a platform for showcasing of the art works and creating more awareness about arts for the locals. As there are different types of performances available, ranging from music, dance, theatre to visual arts, more visitors with different needs and wants will be attracted to the festival.

Besides that, artists from more than twenty countries are being invited which shows that the festival is encouraging regional and international artistic exchanges and collaborations. Thus it creates more opportunities for interaction between the local community and tourists.

Through the Singapore Arts Festival, the local community will learn to enjoy art and at the same time, have a better understanding about art. This will thus create a higher demand for arts and leisure activities for Singaporeans.

Political benefits
The success of the Singapore Arts Festival shows that Singapore has the ability to host such a successful festival, which will thus improved the profile of the country.

Besides that, more and better infrastructures have been built to enhance the leisure lifestyle of the local community. An example will be the Esplanade; it is the hub for arts in Singapore and has also become a unique icon of Singapore. This in turn has built a positive image of the country as artistic and cultural and has also made it one of the leading arts festivals in the region.

More jobs opportunities are also being created as the festival needs a huge number of staff to help in services like concierge and ushering.


Economic benefits
The festival attracts not only the local community to the performances, but also tourists from all over the world. This will thus help to increase the tourist receipts in Singapore. Besides that, this will also lead to an increase in government revenue due to the increase of tourism revenue and taxes imposed on the tourists.

With the increase of tourism receipts, other service industries, like hotel room accommodation, food and beverage and retail outlets, will also experience a rise in their businesses.

Due to the success the Singapore Arts Festival enjoy, it opens up more business opportunities for the country as potential investors will have more confidence in Singapore and thus invest here.


Social & Cultural benefits
The festival allows the local community to broaden their cultural horizon and knowledge. Through the performances, they can learn more about the arts and culture of other countries.

Besides that, attending these performances also increase community participation, which thus lead to social cohesion between the various community groups in the country. In additional, they have more chances to interact with the tourists coming from different parts of the world.


Physical & Environmental benefits
One benefit received by Singapore will be the improvement of transport and communications within the country. The event venues are made more easily accessible to the public and for places like the Marina Barrage that are not really easily reached, shuttle buses are available.

The Singapore Arts Festival has done a great job in terms of its marketing strategies. However, it can be improved by having more performances in the HDB areas and also provide transportation, like shuttle buses, to these places.

Furthermore, collection of tickets should be made easier like sending the tickets by mail to the buyers instead of having them go down to the Sistic agents to collect personally.

In conclusion, the Singapore Arts Festival has done a good job in achieving their objectives, making Singapore one of the leading arts festivals in the region.