Thursday, 22 November 2012

A) Conrad Centennial Singapore Hotel; Happening Events

Over the past few years, Conrad Centennial Singapore Hotel has been actively playing the role of an official Hotel Partner for some events such as the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, 2011 World DanceSport Championships Latin, World Gourmet Summit in 2011 and OCBC Cycle.

One of the events they have been supporting for the past 12 years was Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO), not in terms of funds, but hosting of SSO’s international artists and musicians. This partnership has benefited Conrad Centennial as Spokesperson says,

"Every year, the SSO will dedicate a concert to the hotel, as well as include our advertisements in their programme books’. (NG, 2010)

The hotel also decided to sponsor the orchestra because it fits in with its corporate image thus raising its profile as an award winning luxury business hotel. Through this lengthy partnership, Conrad is able to strengthen itself in terms of branding and increase consumer awareness to attract visitors who are interested in SSO to stay in Conrad Centennial Singapore. Read more here on Sponsorships

In 2011, Conrad Centennial provided two-night free accommodation to the dancers of the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) World Championship Latin. At that time, Singapore was the first Asian country to host this major event and only the top two champions of the country was allowed to take part. Spectators from around the world specially flew to Singapore just to catch this competition. A local host broadcaster produced a 52-minute highlight and was distributed worldwide as a through WDSF television partner IEC in Sports. There was also nearly a live broadcast of the individual dances on YouTube which hit new benchmarks in just few days. Thus, this world wide event has helped raise international awareness of Conrad Centennial Singapore Hotel among the international dancers and spectators. Click here to watch videos from WDSF.

Another local event Conrad hosted was the launch of OCBC Cycle Singapore 2011 press conference for the OCBC Cycle held the next day with Managing Director of Spectrum Worldwide, Chris Robb, joined by other top international cyclists such as Ben Kersten. (OCBC , 2011)

BenKersten on the right, with other top cyclists.

Photo courtesy of Andrew JK Tan

This event targets all demographic profiles from women only to kids, adults and professional cyclists. (OCBC , 2011) A “Pledge to be a Safe Cyclist” Campaign was held in December and Conrad Centennial Singapore Meal Vouchers as well as $350 worth of Weekend Stay were given out during the lucky draw. This event will therefore help increase publicity of Conrad Hotel to local families and participants.

Photo courtesy of Andrew JK Tan

Lastly, Conrad also acted as a hospitality partner and held two of the sub-events, Edward Kwon and Rachel Allen’s Celebrity Dinner respectively during the World Gourmet Summit in 2011. Participants of these events include Foodies, Wine Enthusiasts, Business Travellers, Corporate Executives, Social Elites and Hospitality Professionals from around the region. Through this event, Conrad can further position itself as a luxury hotel to these niche target markets that are influential and may return because of the good experience. (World Gourmet Summit, 2011) See More Pictures Here.

Photo Courtesy C 2011- World Gourmet Summit

Wednesday, 21 November 2012

B) Singapore Writers Festival 2012

Hello! Today, my blog post will be about....

*********************************************

Me @ Singapore Writers Festival!

A little background on SWF....

Singapore Writers Festival has been held every two years since 1986 until 2011 when it became an annual event. This year, the $1.5-million festival was held from Nov 2 to 11, featuring over 185 writers involved in 200 programmes including panel discussions, lectures, workshops, meet-the-author sessions and literary meals. (Adeline Chia Arts Correspondent , 2012 Read More on SWF 2012.)
SWF aims to promote new and emerging Singapore and Asian Writers to Singaporeans as well as international audience and also to showcase world’s major literary talents to Singaporeans.

With the heart of the Festival situated at Singapore Management University’s Campus Green, the programmes will take place at nearby landmarks such as The Arts House, the National Museum of Singapore, Singapore Art Museum, The Peranakan Museum and many more.

Interior of Pavillion shelter in SMU featuring my best friend, Tan SuYi

The make shift tents at SMU is made up of rows or books just like in the picture that outlines the shape of the tent, it also has an information counter and a mini stage and seats where readers can browse through these books at.

Programmes during these 10 days can start as early as 9 in the morning and end as late as 10.30pm over a few locations. The theme this year is Origin which evokes beginnings, heritage and originality. (Jeyaretnam, 2012) Thus, SWF focuses on story-telling, biographies, and historical fiction in keeping with this theme.

After visiting SMU, my friends and I headed over to Switch (beside Singapore Arts Museum) to attend one of SWF events, Poetry of Song! It has a great atmosphere and luckily we went early and managed to find seats as most of the seats were already reserved by audiences who wanted to catch this event.

One of the poets!

Overall, this event can be considered a success due to this being a repeat event (since 1986). The number of people engaged in this event is also more than previous year with 16,200 people attending ticketed and free events from 2 to 5 November. The number of passes sold this year also increased by fifteen per cent compared with last year. (Nanda, 2012, Read More on SWF turnout 2012) This could be attributed to the participation of forums and workshop sessions by internationally known writers. It may also be due to the efforts of attracting non-English readers to the event. Based on the turn out of the programme Poetry of Song 2012, it also showed how welcomed and popular SWF was.

All in all, although I'm not a Arts person and honestly this was my first time attending an Arts Festival, I feel that I have learnt many things. It was also interesting to find out more information about the meaning behind this event, why it was held for and the types of programmes they organise to attract the crowd. A pity I could not make time out to visit other events, but I'll be sure to participate in more programmes at the next SWF!

Signing off~

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

C) Evaluation of Marketing Mix, Success and Changes

**Beware of a super wordy post!**

Product

The core product for SWF 2012 is the experience for the consumers. It is for consumers to celebrate literary works, inspire new talents and to enjoy the works by local authors. Facilitating products are books written by local and emerging authors and world literary talents themselves. This is in view with their mission, to showcase Singapore writers and promote world talents. Supporting products are events such as Poetry of Song which is held at Switch that does not focus on traditional books yet transforms into something different. Lastly, the augmented product of SWF includes accessibility to the venues which is convenient as they can all be reached by foot from SMU or other means of transport in no time. It also includes the atmosphere of a laidback setting where reading can be carefree and easy. This year, SWF also engaged 185 writers, which are 59 more as compared to 2011. The increase in number of writers and programmes has also attracted a wider market especially the non-English readers to attend the programmes leading to the success of SWF. Read More Here.

Price

The pricing of events has not been changed since last year to retain the price conscious crowd and attract new audience. Market-oriented strategy is used for SWF where different pricing is set for different event packages. The Festival Pass which is priced at $15 covers entry to more than 100 events such as panel discussions and meet-the-author sessions whereas, other ticketed events such as SWF lectures, Literary Meals and Cocktails, Workshops and Master Classes are priced from $10 per event. Consumers will also be likely to purchase these tickets as they think about the perceived benefits such as free entry to selected events, chance of socialising and meeting renowned authors upfront. Free events such as Little Lit! and Off the Page are aimed to attract and reach out to new consumers who have yet to experience SWF. Concessions and discounts are also applicable to students, senior citizens and NSFS. Through this pricing strategy, SWF is considered a success as it attracted and catered to many groups of targets from Arts Lovers who would pay to attend the events to consumers who may just be interested to browse through the books and learn more about the event.

Place
As SWF focuses on showcasing the authors to Singaporeans and international audiences, a series of programmes and activities were held at different location such as Singapore Management University, Singapore Art Museum, National Museum of Singapore, School Of The Arts, The Arts House with the addition of with 4 new venues; National Library, Rendezvous Grand Hotel, The Peranakan Museum and Switch this year. Holding the festival in the museum district is an advantage as the venues are not only known landmarks but also situated near each other for visitors to have easy access to any locations in the event if they feel like joining other programmes. The make shift pavilion at SMU was also created from scratch just for this festival. A great combination of Switch hosting Poetry of Song was also greatly received by the audience and participants where they can enjoy this event with the great poems turned into music while dining. Last minute tickets can also be bought readily over the SISTIC counters as well as SWF ticketing counter at SMU Green itself if consumers are interested in any event. Online SISTIC website and over the phone purchase are also available. SISTIC’s online ticketing system provides speed and convenience for consumer without having to leave house. Consumers can also take their time to select the programme that suits their pocket and time constrains. Advantages of using online ticketing system are that it also allows event organiser to monitor the ticket sales and act readily if presence of target market is weakening. This distribution channel proves to be a success as the number of people attending ticketed events and sale of ticket pass surpasses last years’. Events are also all on a first-come first serve basis.

Promotion

Public relations is one promotion tool which makes use of media publicity such as use of social media like facebook, twitter and their official blog where many information can be found. Tangibilising of product can be found on SWF website which shows pictures of who the authors are and what they may expect from some events. Banners are also hung up on streets lamppost in the museum district to promote the event. Due to the improvement of the technology and the good turnout last year, the organising team thus decided the use of media publicity again this year. Singapore writers Festival Pass allows sales promotions such as 10% off books and non-promotional F&B items of Merchadise at Festival Pavilion in SMU Campus Green and Switch respectively. 15% discount at The Shop (The Arts House), 15% off with minimal spending of $20 at TCC @SMU as well as non-promotional ala carte F&B items at Courtyard, Rendezvous Grand Hotel Singapore. 10% discount on ala carte items at Singapore Arts Museum and Viet Lang, The Arts House. Flashing your Festival Pass gives you access to A Life of Practice – Kuo Pao Kun exhibition during SWF only.

People

People involved in SWF are not only the visitors, but also the organisers, staff and volunteers. The organisers created and make SWF happen but it would not be a success without the staff and volunteers who helped out, and most importantly the visitors. During my experience at SMU, we met many volunteers stationed and helped out in orienting us and answering our enquiries. We also managed to meet one of the organiser stationed at SMU whose name is Louis Lim (Ms). She has a bubbly character and took the initiative to share with us much information about SWF, from how they started to plan the event to finally realising it. Overall, all the staff and volunteers were very hospitable to us and it definitely made our virgin experience at the SWF a great one. Thus, with this friendly and right volunteers tasked to the right job, this increased the chances of a successful event as other consumers will also enjoy their experience at SWF.

Programming

Basically, the programmes SWF’s organised are Panel Discussions, Meet the Author, In conversation with, Ream to Reel, SWF Fringe, Special festival Pass Events, SWF Lectures, Little Lit!, Literary Meals and Cocktails, Symposiums, Workshops and Master Classes, Off the Books and Brand New Books all held over 10 days. Events under Festival Pass, Lectures, Symposiums and others are charged for the organisation to earn back some revenue to cover the costs for organising this large scale event. The duration of programmes vary such as Panel and Meet the Authors are an hour long to 2 day-long Symposiums led by experts respectively.

A significant new addition to the festival this year is the SWF Fringe held at the Arts House. A series of night-time programmes includes exploring desire and sexuality in books, films, performances and visual arts. The night events, which are open only to those aged 21 years and above, include panel discussions such as one on E.L. James' bestselling erotic books, titled The Fifty Shades Of Grey Phenomenon: What Turns Women On', and another on whether women write better sex scenes than men, titled Pillow Fight. Another spotlight of this year’s SWF is the programmes related to Middle Eastern. As the Middle East is still unfolding, SWF takes the chance to explore the impacts on the rich literary traditions and diverse culture through Literary Meals with Izzeldin Abuelaish who lost his 3 daughters during the Gala War and four Panel Discussions with Middle East Writers who shares on different topics on Middle East. This event may attract international consumers or Singaporeans who are interested in hearing first hand views on literary from them. To keep with the objectives, writers from young to old, with diverse background were also introduced. They include a 22-year-old former juvenile delinquent who wrote a tell-all book about sexual abuse and crime and a university professor, Dr Krishna Udayasankar, who pens historical epics in her free time. Read More Here. Little Lit - a free event is also held at SMU which caters to little ones as well as families.

Therefore, with all these programmes catered to the different groups of people, from young to adults and foreign visitors held at different timings and places, these factors contributed to the success of the event, resulting in attracting many participants at the end of the 10 days.

Packaging & Distribution

The packaging used in SWF is the Festival Pass which includes Panel Discussions, Meet the Author and four other programmes at the price of $15 which is the same in 2011. This area of marketing should be further improved and as it can also be an effective mean of making SWF a success just like the use of other marketing mix.

Partnership

In order for SWF to realise, National Arts Council (NACS) has partnered many organisations such as Singapore Management University, The Arts House, National Museum of Singapore, National Library Board, Peranakan Museum, Singapore Art Museum for their venues and programs. These venue partners attributed to the success by providing space and hosting the event, which is near to the heart of SWF where consumers can easily travel by foot to a stone throw away destination to engage themselves in other programmes. Major sponsors such as Lee Foundation and Suntec Singapore play a huge role in this event as without their funds, NACS would be unable to start preparing their logistics and promotional materials for this event. Peranakan Museum is a new venue and programme partner, with Totebox dropping out of the sponsorship. There are also many new supporters such as Aesop, Passion and Switch supporting SWF 2012.

With so many sponsors and supporters, it has definitely led to the success of SWF 2012 for making everything planned happened with minor hiccups and receiving good feedback from consumers.

Sunday, 18 November 2012

D) New Event Concepts

This is going to be my last blog post for this event! :( Now my task is to think of new events and proposing it to SWR!! Hope they will use my event! :)

Singapore Writers Festival is not very well received by students from 13 to 19 year olds thus Conrad Centennial Hotel can take this chance to sponsor a small scale pre-event of SWF. This is done to raise awareness of the SWF among students. The concept of this event is something like an amazing race. The criteria for this event is to have a family (blood-related) with only 4-5members with at least 1 adult in each group; to find out where are the locations SWF held their programmes at in 2012 and to proceed to each location to gather some facts from that station and to collate them. The group to come back first gets a fully sponsored stay at Conrad Centennial Hotel for a night or two. Through this way, students can know more about SWF and Conrad hotel and the parents would also know more about Conrad Hotel. This thus creates opportunity for Conrad to target at families who may consider a staycation at its hotel over the weekend to increase its revenue.

As SWF is also slowly expanding the circle of introducing regional authors in, they can start by targeting at them and inviting them in to Singapore. Conrad Centennial Hotel can offer accommodation to these writers and providing private function rooms for organisers of SWF to hold their event there. Meals can also be hosted at one of the selected restaurants in Conrad Centennial which suits their liking. The aim of this event is to raise awareness of this Singapore Writers Festival and if possible to get these authors to participate in our SWF in following years to come.

Wednesday, 14 November 2012

References

References

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Jeyaretnam, P. (2012). About Singapore Writers Festival. Singapore: SWF .

Llim, D. C. (2012). Something for everyone . The Straits Time Singapore.

Nanda, A. (2012 ). More book lovers attend this year's Singapore Writers Festival. Straits Time Lifestyle .

Nanda, A. (2012 ). More book lovers attend this year's Singapore Writers Festival . Straits Times; Lifetsyle.

Ng, M. (2010). Life! - Life Arts. Win-win Sponsorship.

NG, M. (2010). Win-win Sponsorship. Life! - Arts, Straits Time .

OCBC . (2011, March 4). OCBC CYCLE SINGAPORE 2011 IS READY FOR FLAG OFF. Retrieved November 20, 2012, from OCBC Cycle Singapore : www.ocbc.com.sg

OCBC . (2011, March 4). OCBC CYCLE SINGAPORE 2011 IS READY FOR FLAG OFF. Retrieved November 20, 2012, from OCBC Cycle Singapore : http://www.ocbc.com.sg/assets/pdf/Media/2011/mar/OCBC%20CS%202011%20Press%20Release.pdf

Orchestra, S. S. (n.d.). Friends of SSO Merchants (Lifestyle). Retrieved November 20, 2012, from Singapore Symphony Orchestra : http://www.sso.org.sg/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=374

Peter Knipp Holdings Pte Ltd. (2011). Edward Kwon Celebrity Dinner. Retrieved November 20, 2012, from World Gourmet Summit : http://www.worldgourmetsummit.com/wgs2011/english/eventdetail.php?id=13

Ruobai, L. (2011, December 17). OCBC Cycle Singapore Safe Cycling Day. Retrieved November 20, 2012, from Xinqiwen: http://www.bicyclingnewsasia.com/en/news/43-general/1554-ocbc-cycle-singapores-safe-cycling-day

Singapore Tourism Board & Peter Knipp Holdings. (2011, March 15). World Gourmet Summit 2011 Event Factsheet. Retrieved November 20, 2012, from World Gourmet Summit: http://www.worldgourmetsummit.com/wgs2011/document/press/170311World%20Gourmet%20Summit%202011%20Factsheet.pdf

Todd, K. (2011). Zoran and Tatsiana are Number 1. DANCEBEAT WORLD, 5 .

tripathi, M. (2012). Singapore books its place. The Nation/Asia News Network .

WDSF Press Release. (2011, September 14). Issue 2011/08: Online Championship Coverage Breaks Records. Retrieved November 20, 2012, from World DanceSport Federation: http://www.worlddancesport.org/Media/Press/Release/Issue_201108_Online_Championship_Coverage_Breaks_Records-756

World Gourmet Summit. (2011, March 11). WORLD GOURMET SUMMIT 2011, Event Fact Sheet. Retrieved November 20, 2012, from World Gourmet Summit 2011: http://www.worldgourmetsummit.com/wgs2011/document/press/170311World%20Gourmet%20Summit%202011%20Factsheet.pdf

Zachariah, N. A. (2011, September 4). Shimmying to a win; Organisers of a Prestigious Dance Competition hope it will put Singapore on the dancesport world map . Lifestyle; hot.

Works Cited