4. Conclusion

On the overall, the marketing mix has been effective to a large extent in contributing to the success of the whole event. In terms of product experience, the event has done well in catering not only to arts world but also to the general public by having guide services to facilitate understanding. The second component which was programming was done effectively in terms of the venues that the art pieces were exhibited in order to create the best ‘feel’ to the event. I thought that it was a great idea to have Art Compass 2008 to allow art lovers to be able to explore various art exhibitions in the region simultaneously and to encourage more participation. As for people and partnership, the event managed to make use of partners and sponsors from both the government and the public sector to bring up the image of the entire event. They have also done especially well in the area of pricing affordably in order to capture the mass market successfully. As for place, I thought there are still room for improvements in terms of the purchase of event tickets where I suggest that they make purchase of event tickets available online in order to better position the event and also for the convenience of potential visitors. The event was not successful in making the event known to the public, thus I will encourage more publicity to be done for the biennales in the future.

However, the entire event has been very successful as a whole.

References & Research materials
http://www.artcompass2008.com/site/?page_id=4
http://www.singaporebiennale.org/
http://www.singaporebiennale.org/downloads/SB2008_pressroom-20080909.pdf

3. Tourism Roles and Economic Value of the festival/event

Place Marketing
Singapore Biennale 2008 is an international contemporary visual arts exhibition held locally which can help create a positive image of Singapore as an exciting city to live, work and stay in and position Singapore on the international platform in terms of contemporary arts. This will allow Singapore to gain more recognition and at the same time allow artists in Singapore to explore the works of other regional artists. Thus, this event would attract both residents and potential investors who may consider investing in the arts sector in Singapore. In addition, it will also provide a great opportunity to promote Singapore as a centre for the arts which is what the government is currently trying to do and also to enable the general public and not only people in the area of arts, to interact with the arts.

Tourist Attraction
The main category of tourists expected to this event would be international artists, art lovers and businessmen involved in the area of arts. After visiting Singapore, the tourists may spread the word about their experiences in Singapore and thus encourage more potential tourists to choose Singapore as their travel destination. This might also encourage a return visit by the visitors after their first experience. The event will also help to increase visitors’ length of stay since they have to spend a few days to view the exhibition and most people will likely choose to stay on for another few more days, making use of the opportunity to explore the city. During this extended period, visitors’ spending will also increase which will then lead to an increase in the economic revenue for the tourism sector.

Catalyst
The venues selected for this event provides an opportunity to support other attractions such as the Singapore Flyer, City Hall, South Beach Development and the Esplanade which are either leisure attractions in Singapore or attractions in the Arts & Heritage category.

2.7 Promotions

The event had several ticket promotions such as discounts for students and senior citizens as mentioned in pricing. In the case of the Singapore Biennale 2008, one of the promotions that the organizers did was to include a Singapore Flyer SB Promo where all ticket holders only have to top up $21 on top of the Biennale entry ticket to the Singapore Flyer where there are also artworks being displayed. Visitors who have purchased the Singapore Flyer flight tickets are also allowed entry to certain exhibition venues.

Ticket holders were also eligible to enjoy discounts at various attractions, F&B outlets and retail outlets. However, there wasn’t much advertising done to make known to the public about this event. For my case, I only got to know about this event when I searched online, went to the Singapore Tourism Board website and came across this event. The promotions done for this component was not sufficient enough to attract the attention of the public. I suggest that for the following Biennales to come, they will consider having advertisements being broadcast on television and local newspapers since these are the two most popular medias that the public have most the most access to.

2.6 Place

The venues selected for this event were all within walking distances to make it more convenient for visitors to travel around to view the exhibits. The various locations where the exhibitions are held are all iconic to Singapore; places include City Hall, South Beach Development, Collyer Quay, Singapore Flyer etc. Thus engaging visitors in a more meaningful way, since places such as City Hall and South Beach Development can be seen as places of interest because of their rich heritage. One of the other advantages of the venues would be that they are able to add to the event’s sense of ‘occasion’ whereby in this case, it would be arts.

As for physical setting, ticket distribution for this event was done at City Hall where there was a ticketing booth at the entrance. There wasn’t any online service for the purchase of the event ticket available. I think that the event could have made use of various other means to utilise this marketing mix more efficiently. Since there wasn’t any online service for purchasing of event tickets available, it might defer potential visitors from attending the event due to factors such as speed. With online purchasing, consumers are able to do without the queues and the inconvenience of going down to the location to purchase tickets. It also provides consumer ease as they can purchase tickets in their own time, not facing any time constraints. Online ticket purchase will also effectively establish an event brand.

2.5 Pricing

Pricing strategies, often based on the objectives of the event, include revenue-oriented strategy, operations-oriented strategy and market-oriented strategy. The strategy that the event had adopted would be the market-oriented strategy. The regular ticket price was set at $10 each which is considered very affordable to Singaporeans in general. On top of that, the event had different pricing for different visitor segments such that there were special discounts for PASSION card holders, senior citizens and students.Thus, it can be seen that it is a mass-market event since the event was also meant to cultivate deeper public engagement with the arts. The event has successfully incorporated pricing to its advantage to gain the attention of the mass-market.

2.4 People & Partnerships

Many festivals and events are known to start on the basis of ‘relationships & goodwill’ between a dedicated group of people. I have also read that successful events have solid partnerships and strong links with loyal supporters. In the case of the Singapore Biennale 2008, there were several partners involved in the event which included venue partners such as Raffles City Shopping Centre and the Singapore flyer, exhibition partner such as PICO, freight partner and community partner. They also have a number of sponsors and supporters from both companies sector and the government. Thus, the event was successful in making use partners to attract resources for the event and also make use of the various supporters to place the position of the event on a higher level.

Relationship building is also critical to the wider residential community since this was also their target market and the event carried this relationship building by having community partner such as PASSION and Education and Outreach Partners such as National Library Board and Republic Polytechnic. They also included an Art and Education Outreach Programme for young children such as having a Kids’ Biennale and also having a volunteer programme whereby volunteers will help out in the daily operations and the frontline of the event. In order to further reach out to the community, they also had scheduled tours to cater to the different dialect groups in Singapore. Thus, they have done well in relationship marketing and management.

2.3 Packaging

Packaging is the opportunities to package the different types of entertainment, transport, accommodation etc. The main purpose is to better position the festival and also to attract international tourists into participating in the event. Art Compass 2008 is the collaboration between Asia-Pacific’s five leading contemporary art events that provide a travel package where art lovers were able to travel within the Asia-Pacific region to view the different exhibitions available including Singapore Biennale 2008. In my opinion, the event did manage to fully utilise this component of the marketing mix to its advantage as this type of packaging will attract more international visitors to the event and increase the number of visitors' arrival to Singapore.