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.

2.2 Programming

There are at least four key elements in programming success. One of it is the need for a distinguishing core concept in the program. Singapore Biennale 2008 inviteed both regional and international artists to exhibit their works together with those of Singapore artists. Thus, this event provides a platform for collaborations with the global arts community, making the event more meaningful. The second element is the need to marry the event program with its physical environment or site. One of the many exhibitions was held at Marina Bay. The display was actually a projection of the words ‘Beware of the God’ into the sky. In order to complement the display, the projection was done at Marina Bay where the night scenery was commendable, the area being surrounded by buildings such as the Esplanade and Fullerton Hotel. The entire effect was amazing in that surroundings. The third element is the role and operational approach of the artistic director/producer. In this case, one of the purposes of the event was for Singaporeans and Singapore artists to engage with the international art world. In my opinion, they managed to achieve the objective as this exhibition is said to have presented the best of both Asian and international art practices, with 66 artists and art collectives from more than 35 countries and regions and this credit goes to the artistic director/producer, Fumio Nanjo, since he is the one who picked out the art pieces to be exhibited. The third element is the established criteria for program content which I think is referring to the theme for the event this year which is ‘Wonder’. Thus, every art pieces shown in the event has to be related to the theme ‘Wonder’. The program content should also have a standard ratio of the number of local art pieces and those done by international or regional artists. The event managed to make use of this component of the marketing mix effectively. It was able to fulfil the whole purpose of this event and to make sure that the surroundings complemented the exhibits to portray the best effect of the exhibits to the visitors.

2.1 Product Experiences

Product experiences contain a total of three elements. The first element is the core service and benefits that the customer experiences. In this case, it would be the various art exhibitions and special displays that are the main focuses of the entire event by the visitors.

The second element is the tangible ‘expected’ product which includes the venue in which the event was held in the town area of Singapore that is often frequented by Singaporeans since it's near office buildings and shopping malls. It is also easily accessible. They also did provide essential services which include guided and scheduled tours in all dialects for group bookings and school tours in the exhibition areas, giving detailed descriptions on the various exhibits. Just like any other events, they provided brochures and a guidebook, giving visitors a clearer idea.

The third element would be the augmented product also known as additional features that differentiate an event from its competitors. Normally, the target market for art exhibitions are usually people from the arts world or people involved in the art businesses. However, this time, they have expanded their target market to the general public. Secondly, the ticket prices for this event are considered very affordable compared to other biennales. The event has used this marketing mix quite effectively as it creates satisfaction among the visitors. One example is that since they knew that their target market included the general public, they provided the guide book that gave a detailed description of each display making it easily understandable. In addition to improve the product experience, the organizers may consider providing transportation around the different venues of the exhibition to make it more convenient for the visitors.

2. Evaluation of the Effective Use of Marketing Mix

1. Introduction

Objective
The objective of this report is to identify how the various components of the event marketing mix had been adopted in the event ‘Singapore Biennale 2008’ which I have visited and to evaluate how effective these components had been used to contribute towards the success of this particular event. The second purpose is to consider the role of this event to Singapore and its value to the tourism economy. This was carried out by having a visit to the event and taking note of the various aspects of the marketing mix that were being used by the event for evaluation.

Profile/Background
Singapore Biennale 2008 is Singapore’s largest international contemporary visual arts exhibition. It was held during the period of 11th September to 16th November 2008. This is also the second edition of the Biennale since the previous edition which was also held locally in 2006.

Organized by the National Arts Council, the main purpose of the event was to position Singapore on the international stage in the area of visual arts. It was also meant to provide a chance for Singapore to interact with the international art world since the artists participating in the event are either based regionally or internationally. It also serves as an opportunity for local virtual artists and arts businesses to explore contemporary arts. In addition, it also encourages engagement between the general public with the arts. Therefore, enhances Singapore’s international image as a vibrant city to live, work and play.