Introduction
This
assignment is done to better understand how a festival or an event can elevate
the hotel’s image and vice versa. In this report, it will cover a selected
event which is the 3rd Singapore International Photography Festival
and a chosen hotel which happens to be the official hotel for the selected
event, Albert Court Village Hotel. The report will also cover the 8 Ps of the
marketing mix and evaluate the effectiveness of each component and how they attribute
to the success of the festival. It will also have a suggestion on a proposed
festival or event to collaborate with the hotel.
Fullerton Hotel & Formula One Night Race 2012
Fullerton
Hotel has a pretty good event marketing strategy. For example, the recent Formula
One Grand Prix which was held around the area, Fullerton Hotel markets the
event by transforming a couple of their hotel suites that has spectacular race
views into rooms for business meetings. The hotel capitalised on this event to
change their rooms which were actually meant for accommodation into a business
meeting area.
Having a
geographical location advantage as compared to other hotels even within the
vicinity, Fullerton Hotel’s success was not due to this factor alone. The event
marketing strategy for the Formula One Grand Prix had attracted Singapore Formula
One’s huge stakeholders such as banks like OCBC Bank, Bank of Singapore and
Swiss UBS Bank and oil company like Shell. These banks combined had 100 guests
each night in 2 corporate suites which means that Fullerton Hotel earned a huge
sum of revenue from not just the suites but also from the Food & Beverages
department.
Description & Review of event
The
event that selected for this Festival & Events Management individual field
trip assignment is the 3rd Singapore International Photography
Festival which was from 5th October to 17th November 2012.
This festival aims to and quote from sipf.sg “inspire and encourage interaction
among photographers and audiences with a compelling mix of exhibitions,
workshops, portfolio reviews, film screenings and public forums.”
The
event was rather organised which had good places for the festival. However,
this report would be focusing mainly on the “Outside In” Magnum Photos showcase
which was at The ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands, a good place to hold a
showcase both geographically and for the atmosphere which gave a rather “rich”
feeling to the experience as the showcase was huge and well-spread out and held
in one of Singapore’s landmark. The lighting in the showcase was great as it
gives a certain type of feeling which makes the audience feel the way the photographers
want them to feel. The structure of the showcase was rather unique as it was
designed just like a maze. Furthermore, it separates the different photo
collections from different artists. Quotes from
acclaimed photographers such as Stuart Franklin made people more inspired about
art especially photography which means their objective of inspiring and
encouraging interaction among photographers and audiences was indeed
successful.
Marketing
Mix – 8Ps
Product
Festivals
& Events are intangible products which can only be experienced if the
audiences attend the festivals or events. This festival has a mix of
exhibitions (at places such as ArtScience Museum, National Library, Selegie
Arts Centre, Singapore Management University Gallery, Societe Generale Gallery,
The Substation Gallery and The Arts House), workshops by established
photographers from countries like Italy, France and Germany, portfolio reviews,
film screenings and public forums which are all products of this Singapore
International Photography Festival. As stated in the review, the lightings were
appropriate and effective in creating a special ambience and effect on how the
audiences being able to feel the photographers’ thoughts when capturing those
pictures. Background information of the artworks and the photographer and
quotes of from some photographers such as acclaimed photographer Stuart
Franklin made the experience more enriching, inspiring and priceless. However,
the background information and brochures were all in English. This would be a
challenging task for foreigners or locals who have difficulty in the language.
Place
The
geographical location of the “Outside In” Magnum photos showcase which located
at the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands was easily accessible by public
transport like the bus and the new circle line for the Mass-Rapid Transport
(MRT) which is the stop at Bayfront and a 3-minute walk from the exit from the
MRT station. “Place” in the marketing mix can also refer to the area where
people purchase the tickets. For this particular festival, the only place to
purchase the tickets for admission is at the ArtScience Museum itself. This is
perhaps the most common and a rather effective way of purchasing for an entry
on the spot but, having an online platform or more booths to purchase the
tickets such as at SISTIC would market the event even more both locally and
globally.
Price
The
admission tickets for the “Outside In” Magnum Photos showcase is $6 for adults
and $3 for children. However, for Singapore residents, adults only pay $5 and
children only pay $2 for admission fee which is cheaper by a dollar. This is a
rather effective pricing strategy adopted which will increase visitors arrival
by a little or may be a lot because it encourages Singapore residents to visit
by lowering the price and make it more attractive even though it was already
priced at an affordable rate. To make prices look more attractive, there should
be a bundle package such as including guided tours, photography-related
activities, mini workshops and many other related items such as free Polaroid
films and little souvenirs.
Promotion / Packaging /
Partnership
For
this festival as a whole, the Founding Sponsor is City Developments Limited,
Organiser is 2902 Gallery and the Exhibition Partner is ArtScience Museum at
Marina Bay Sands. The programme partners are National Library Board Singapore,
Asia-Europe Foundation, Culture 360, Italian Cultural Institute Singapore, and
Institut Français. Supports of the festival would be National Arts Council
Singapore, The Philanthropic Museum and Laud Architects Private Limited. Venue
Supports are Singapore Art Museum, National Museum of Singapore, Alliance
Francaise, The Substation, Bras Basah Bugis, The Arts House, Singapore
Management University, City Square Mall, Sculpture and PSS. Official Hotel is Albert
Court Village Hotel. Official Exhibition Printer & Paper are AVS, Awagami
Factory, Sihl Digital Imaging and Roland. Communication and Media Supporters
are Singapore Arts Gallery Guide, Big Red Button and ClubSNAP. Official PR
Agency is 20Twenty.
Promotion
can refer to the platforms used to publicise or promote the event. For this
Singapore International Photography Festival, there were promotion done through
the main website itself sipf.sg, social media platforms such as Facebook, partners’
websites, websites that are about art and/or design (such as themuse.com.sg),
published on local English newspaper like The Straits Times, events websites
(such as events.insing.com) and even on local schools’ website like for Nanyang
Technological University. There was not any huge buzz because there was hardly
much effective promotion done even though there were many platforms used. If
more physically seen promotions had be done for the festival such as putting up
posters in places like Orchard or School Of The Arts, many passer-bys would
look at it even though the chances of them going might not be high.
Promotion
can also refer to the sales promotion which can be done in the form of
packaging or any other methods. There were no sales promotion or packaging done
for this particular segment (Outside In: Magnum Photos Showcase) of the S.I.P.F
unlike the Artist & Curator Talks, Evening Presentation and Film Screenings
which all have sales promotion packages such as having discounted rates for
attending all sessions.
People
There
are many people involved in this festival. All the partnerships formed are the
people or rather organisations and companies involved in supporting this whole
festival. People such as employees who are there to facilitate movement and
have contact with visitors like at the entrance to the showcase and ticketing
counter, are also people involved in this festival. The people involved made
the festival a pretty successful one because of all the efforts and hard work
put into this festival.
Programming
There
were a couple of activities or suggested activities such as the festival’s
special project showcase (Silvermine by Thomas Sauvin), Outside In: A Magnum
Photos Showcase, 3rd Portfolio Review, Talking Point (about The
Limits of Photography in Digital Age, SIPF open call: Perspectives from Asia
and Europe and The Business of Photography), Professional Workshops (about
Contemporary Landscape Photography, Imagine Images and A Photo Book Project),
Artists & Curator Series, Evening Presentation, Film Screenings, Special
student education programmes, Guided Tours and a couple of activities and even
competitions. The structure, timing and schedule listed for the programmes were
very well planned to ensure there were not any clash of activities at in one
period.
How things were
different from the 2nd SIPF to this year’s SIPF
The
previous SIPF had a Canon Portfolio Review where the best portfolio would get
$3,000 exhibition grant for a solo show in Singapore. However for this year’s
Portfolio Review, there were no rewards given. There were probably budget
constraints. For this year’s SIPF, there were evening presentations for artists’
work to the audiences while they do not have this particular segment for the
previous SIPF. Education discourse in the 2010’s SIPF was not continued for
this year’s SIPF likely because of the response rate but there was the Student
Education segment about the black box which is of a similar agenda but
different target market.
Suggestion in
conjunction special event to collaborate with hotel
The
suggested and rather deemed as most suitable special event that is related and
should collaborate with the hotel is the Invisible Photographer Asia (IPA).
This is because IPA does street photography and visual journalism in Asia which
has meaning and is arts that are easy to understand. By collaborating with this
event, SIPF would also be able to achieve its goal or mission which is to
inspire the audience. Having SIPF and IPA to collaborate with Albert Court
Village Hotel would boost the hotel’s reputation because the official hotel for
SIPF which is Albert Court Village Hotel would be promoting a growing hobby or
art which is putting across certain messages to the audience regardless of
target market.
Conclusion
As
a conclusion, overall for the Singapore International Photography Festival, it
was pretty well-managed from time, schedules, places and people. Nevertheless
like everything else, there are always rooms for improvements. If given an
opportunity to collaborate with another event and the hotel, it would
definitely be a great chance to do something meaningful with Invisible
Photographer Asia and market Albert Court Village Hotel which will result in a
win-win situation for all parties.
Works Cited
3rd Singapore
International Photography Festival. (2012, November 23). Retrieved from Yesterday.sg:
http://yesterday.sg/art-discover-more/3rd-singapore-international-photography-festival/
Foo, A. (2012,
September 15). Buzz continue track corporate events. Retrieved from The
Straits Times: http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/singapore-f1/story/buzz-continue-track-corporate-events-20120915
Kim, S. (2012,
September 23). The Straits Times. Retrieved from News of F1 extension
delights all but bay area businesses: http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/singapore-f1/story/news-f1-extension-delights-all-bay-area-businesses-20120923
Singapore
International Photography Festival. (2012, November 17). 3rd Singapore
International Photography Festival. Retrieved from Singapore International
Photography Festival: http://sipf.sg/
