Festivals and Events Management (BLR3001)
Field Trip Assignment (Individual Report)
a) I am representing Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore. Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore is one of the top business hotels in Singapore that provides and prides itself on its exceptional service. The hotel has participated in many events, and has successfully earned much media attention. It has held and hosted mainly business related events and conventions. For instance, Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore hosted the team of New York delegates when they were in Singapore for the 117th IOC session.The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company collaborated with Mercedes Benz in 2003 with a 3 year marketing plan. They came up with the idea and package of “Key to Luxury”, where visitors could use the Mercedes Benz while staying in the hotel. However, it is only applicable in certain countries; The Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore does not offer this service. Despite so, luxurious products such as the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class were launched in the hotel in Singapore in 2005.
Furthermore, the prestigious Asia Logistics Awards Ceremony 2003 was also held at Ritz Carlton Milenia Singapore. Despite branding itself as a business hotel, Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore realised the need to capture the leisure market as well. Perhaps one of its most significant events is being designated as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) hotel for the Summer Youth Olympics that Singapore hosted back in 2010. One of the major highlight in the event is the Opening Gala Dinner opened by the IOC President in Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore. The hotel, originally targeting business travellers, received much media exposure through the event. Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore successfully opened up itself to the market of leisure travellers, thus enjoying high occupancy regardless of week-days or week-ends.
Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore also has many upcoming events that are aiming for the higher income market, which are mainly elitist. Being the only hotel that features an art gallery, Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore was listed as the hotel for the PANORAMA: “Recent Art from Contemporary Asia Curator Tour” event hosted by Singapore Arts Museum. Furthermore, they hold a lot of high teas session, which are aiming more at the higher income level of people as well as businessmen. Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore will also work with renowned chef, Chef Fok Kai Yee to showcase the hotel’s food and beverage skills. Clearly, all the events are aimed at the higher level income market, as Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore prides itself as a 5 star business hotel.
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| Night View of Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore |
Korea Festival is an event that is held annually in Singapore. The Korea Festival 2012 is held in Singapore for the fifth time. Its first run was held in 2008. It is organized by The Embassy of the Republic of Korea and supported by Korea Tourism Organization together with other partners such as Korean Association Singapore and Parallel Media Korea. The objective of this event is to bring Korean culture closer to Singapore. As stated by Oh Joon, the Ambassador of Republic of Korea, the event is designed “from Korea’s cultural and sporting genres that have wide appeal in Singapore”.
Therefore through the event, he hopes that Singaporeans will be able to learn more about the Korean Culture, and foster an even amiable relationship between Korea and Singapore. Furthermore, the Korea Festival hopes to showcase the vibrancy of the Korean culture from fine arts to dining to films towards Singapore. Riding on the K-Hallyu (popularity) wave, the festival hopes to inculcate true Korean culture in their roots to Singaporeans. Their intended target markets are the Koreans living in Singapore, as well as Singaporeans interested in the culture of Korea.
I have participated in the Korea Festival 2012 and one of their events held in I12 Katong. I12 Katong is a small scale shopping mall that does not boast of a convenient location. Despite so, the venue is made easily accessed through shuttle buses. Before going to the festival, I read through the brochure and the offerings of the festival. Initially I did not felt that the festival was very attractive as the events held in the festival are not particularly interesting. The brochure available for download on the internet was more of a corporate brochure than a commercial one.
However, I was pleasantly surprised by the “Singapore Style” event held in I12 Katong. It was indeed small scale; however, it was very all-rounded with food and beverages aspect, shopping aspect, gaming aspect and even the aspect of audience participation. I would rate the event a very successful one as all the audiences present thoroughly enjoyed themselves with the mini-games and authentic Korean food and merchandises. While I was walking around the exhibits, I overheard a Singaporean talking to a Korean wearing a hanbok (traditional Korean costume) that it was literally a: “Mini Korea”. At that moment I felt that the organisers have really done a great job, since this is the very type of response they are hoping to get from Singaporeans. When I was at the venue, I could really feel the warmth of the Koreans and what they are trying to get across to Singapore, which is that the Korean culture can also be very attractive.
Another event of the Korea Festival is the Korean Film Festival held at the Shaw Theatre Lido. The event was very well managed with the safety barricades and tight security. The appearance of Korean actress Han Ga In attracted all the media’s eyes. The aim of the Korea Film Festival is to bring about awareness of Korean films. Showcasing the well-rounded genres of Korea films, the Korean Film Festival was a huge success.
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| Han Ga In at the opening of Korean Film Festival 2012 |
Product
COREThe event that I attended in the Korea Festival 2012 was the “Singapore Style” event held at Katong I12. However, even though I have only attended 1 of the event among so many other events in the Korea Festival 2012, i have looked through the Korea Festial 2012’s brochure in its entirety.
The festival’s core product is to spread the Korea wave in Singapore, to allow Singaporeans to have a more in-depth understanding of the true Korean culture as well as to foster a better relationship between Singapore and Korea. Singapore and Korea are 2 different countries that own and possess two entirely different people and culture. Thus, the festival is an exchange platform for the two countries. Singapore, through this event has allowed more Singaporeans to be exposed to the true Korean culture.
FACILITATING
The facilitating product in the Korea Festival can be said to be all of the events that are held in the Korea Festival 2012. All these events will be able to showcase the vibrancy of Korea’s unique culture. Events such as Korean-pop concert, “Singapore Style” street fair, and even the Korean Film Festival 2012. These programs have elements of Korean culture in them. For example, in conjunction with the Korea Festival, the popular South Korean non-verbal act that infuses taekwondo, B-boy dancing and even Korean traditional dance will be hitting Singapore’s shores on the 19th of November 2012. Programs like this showcases the Korea culture and having it as one of the program in the Korea festival 2012 will be able add to the entirety of the festival.
The product is mostly a service and something tanglible and the quality is very essential. In a festival, it must not only contain one single form of activity. This is the idea of hybrid consumption, where there must be more than one facilitating activity or service in the festival so as for people to linger and stay around for a longer period of time.
In Korea festival 2012, there have been many aspects of hybrid consumption. Take for instance the “Singapore Style” Street fair; besides learning more about the Korean’s rich culture, people can also buy Korean merchandises, Korean street foods such as ddeokbokki (Korean rice cakes) and even purchase fresh organic apples that can only be found in a certain region of Korea. Furthermore, a festival is only complete with the elements of food and beverages. Furthermore, with the festival circling on the Korean’s culture, it is very interesting for Singaporeans like us to actually purchase Korean street food from Koreans themselves.
I think the product that the Korean Festival 2012 wants to bring to Singapore is very defined and clear-cut. Therefore, I feel that the festival have been very successful in conveying the product, which is the Korean culture, to us Singaporeans and Singapore.
People
Through the Korean Festival 2012, I have met and experience the hospitality of Koreans themselves. The marketing Mix of “People” can be divided into 2 sections; the people attending the event, and the people that are helping out in the event, which are the staff and employees. Firstly, the people attending the event. At “Singapore Style” Street fair, I have realized that most of the people attending the event are actually mainly made up of:
1) Young teenagers that likes the Korean language, Korean culture and Korean music
2) Koreans that are actually residing in Singapore.
3) And lastly, people who are just shopping around the Katong area and decided to come and have a look
And of course, this is just 1 single program of the entire festival. Talking about the entire festival as a whole, the people that visit the events and program in the festival are actually people who appreciate the Korean culture in general and the rich and affluent who uses the one of the program in the festival to build up reputation. That particular program is actually the Swing for Good 2012!. It is an annual charity golf event and has always been participated by Korean and Singapore’s businessmen.
Thus, I feel that the other programs except for the “Singapore Style” street fair held at Katong, all have a certain target market. The profiles of the people going to the event are mostly more affluent people and have the time to spare. Some events are also even by invitation only. However, it is different for the “Singapore style” street fair. It actually attracts people not only specifically going for the event, but also people that are coincidentally there. This actually serves as a better platform to target the Korean culture at a broader range.
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| The traditional Hanbok costume! |
In addition, the staff and employees on site are also mostly Koreans, thus making the atmosphere even more authentic. The owner of YeongJu Apples was also present to give away apples as souvenirs.
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| The Korean Owner of Yeong Ju Apples |
Place
As in the Korean Festival 2012 has many different programs and events, different locations are also utilized. I would like to talk about the “Singapore Style” street fair and the “Swing for Good 2012!” event. Firstly, the “Singapore Style” street fair was held in the Katong I12 mini shopping centre. I12 is a newly refurbished mall in Singapore. It was refurbished to re-position itself as a premier shopping and wholesome destination. And therefore, the target market of the mall is mostly high and middle income and people seeking for more luxurious goods. The “Singapore Style” street fair was held at its atrium.
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| The Atrium. Small set up. |
It’s scale is a small size one and despite its size, the fair has attract surprised me with its wholesome experience with the location complementing it. Indeed, the fair was small; however, it gave off a feel of cozy-ness and warmth, which the Koreans actually value a lot. Despite the event being held at a shopping mall, the mall did not have the advantage of convenience. Fortunately, shuttle bus was offered to shuttle guest from a convenient MRT station to the mall.
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| Shuttle Bus to I12 Katong Mall. |
I really liked the fair, and how the booths are positioned. They are placed beside each other at close proximity, and it might be narrow for some. However, this reminds me very much of how night markets in Korea are like. This really shows the effort by the organisers to truly replicate another Korea despite the difference between the weather and the price.
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| Narrow lanes and crowded booths |
The venue serves to enhance the importance of this event and the Korean Festival as a whole. Singapore Island Country Club owns an impressive golf course with amazing scenery of the Singapore landscape. The atmosphere and setting is very surreal and calming and with the status of the country club, this is the perfect venue. The event ends with a gala dinner over at St. Regis Hotel. St Regis’s target market is mainly business men and due to its convenient location and its reputation, it is the right destination for the gala. St. Regis provides a friendly and yet luxurious service and also the scale of the Ballroom is also very suitable for a Gala event.
Programming
The Korean Festival 2012 equipped itself with more programs this year. With a variety of events from Arts to music to sports to even street fair, the festival has outdone themselves this year. I would agree that the programming of the entire event was very well done.This year’s event and program list is very impressive. From all aspects of the Korean culture to some integration with the Singapore culture, the events were painfully thought of but successfully planned and executed. Even with certain hiccups here and there.The festival was launched on the 3rd of October 2012 at Shangri-La Hotel. The Festival was kicked start by KPOP girl group SKarf, who consists of 2 Singaporean members and 2 Korean members. The festival had a total of 12 events on its list. However, due to illnesses, one of the events, which was the meet the author session had to be cancelled. I have compiled this year’s program list and it is as follow.
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| Compiled Program List of Korea Festival 2012 |
With the Korean wave dominating the whole of Asia, having acts such as Korean pop groups, Korean actresses and selling their merchandises would actually create hype in Singapore for the festival. Programming is a marketing decision as they create targeted benefits, which are the extra publicity and media attention created. Such programming decisions can help an event/festival be more successful with the amount of turn outs.
I would like to share my experience at the “Singapore Style” street fair. The following picture is the program list for the event.
The program list is also very all rounded, with contests, mini games, audience participation. And audiences who were there at the mall could also help to vote for the best photo in the Korean Photography contest. The programs such as the speech contest, the cooking demonstration, the KPOP music contest were all held between intervals. I feel that this is very well planned as it allows people to actually go around the booths set up.
I went on a Sunday as I knew that there were more activities going on on this day. This is probably due to Sunday being a family day. And indeed, there were many people present, mostly teenagers, young adults and families. The programs were very exciting as it was the final day of the street fair and winners of the photography and speech contests were going to be revealed. It brought about a lot of suspense as there were 12 contestants, but only 1 could walk away with a return economy flight ticket to Korea.
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| The crowd at the Atrium! |
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| Winner of the Speech contest! |
When I first reached, the cooking demonstration was going on. And every single person at the scene got a free sampling of the Korean JapChae (Korean stir fry glass noodles). I feel that they really want to reach out to as many people as they can and the japchae was really delicious. I even saw people returning for a second bowl.
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| Cooking Demonstration of JapChae (glass noodles) |
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| Delicious JapChae! |
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| Posing with the JapChae! |
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| Voting for the best photograph! |
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| Paying for Ddeokbokki! |
I would like to also share a video performed by a Korean school. It was a performance to kick start the speech contest.
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| YeongJu Organic Apples! |
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| Traditional Korea Game |
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| On the stage for games! |
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| Participating in games! |
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| Trying to throw the 'arrow' in! |
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| "Saranghae" is imprinted on it, which means "I Love You" |
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| Posing with our apple! |
Packaging, Distribution and Promotion
Firstly, I will talk about the Packaging and Distribution mix. It involves the packaging of the event with other with other attractions or services, or the event can simply stand alone and offer their own services and attractions. In this case, the distribution network while selling tickets is important and thus there must be good relationship with the intermediaries and partners. With regards to the Korea Festival 2012, it seems to stand alone and offer their own services and attractions such as Food and Beverage and entertainment aspects. Korea Festival 2012 has worked with many intermediaries such as Sistic and Gatecrash to make sure that their distribution network for tickets flows smoothly. These intermediaries are some of the largest and most trustworthy organisations for tickets distribution. Furthermore, companies such as SISTIC are located islandwide and provide an impressive distribution network and system for people to buy and collect their tickets. Next, I will touch on the Promotion aspect of the mix. It actually refers to the full range of “communication mix” including advertising, public relations and sales promotion. With reference to the Korea Festival 2012, there was not much promotion and advertising effort.
Some of the events such as the ADT CAP Golf tournament, Swing for Good 2012 and the launch of the festival were all private events that were either by invitation only, or are not known to the public but only the people involved. There were also not much media write-ups and attention on the festival as a whole, but however, certain events such as the Korean Film Festival and SMTown Singapore did attract some media attention. Even the Singapore Style street fair did not have any advertising done to get more people to the venue. Despite everything, the festival still tried to get some publicity with the use of internet and social networking sites. The Korea Embassy Singapore’s official website with near two thousand likes actively promoted the event, resulting in quite a number of shares. This actually reaches and target more teenagers who use social networking sites and might be interested in the Korean culture.
Furthermore, SMTown in Singapore, which is Singapore’s largest scale KPOP concert in some time, uses advertisement to get their name out there in hope to attract more people to join the concert. I have seen SMTown concert’s poster outside of ‘Gongcha’ a popular milk tea chain which many teenagers frequent. Also, online banner ads are also used by Running Into The Sun (RITS) to promote and advertise. In addition, I also saw the SMTown’s promotional trailer playing on the large LED screen at Bugis street. All these promotional efforts show that they are targeting the younger generation of kpop fans.
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| Outside of Gongcha |
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| SMTown Bus going around in Singapore! |
Also, Korea Festival 2012 did not have any promotions in conjunction with other outlets, retails or attractions. This is also one of the aspects that the festival has neglected. However, SMTown concert in Singapore does have some promotions going on. For instance, there is a priority sale for Samsung Mobile & OCBC Credit/Debit Card, early bird promotion for OCBC Titanium/Elite Card members and also 20% discount for OCBC Credit & Debit Card Holder.
Such promotion relies on the relationship with the partners and also holds the potential to increase sales. Furthermore, the Korean Film Festival held by Shaw Theatres also holds promotion for Singapore Film Society Members ($1 off) in an effort to encourage more members of the Singapore film society members to watch Korean films.
At the Singapore Style street fair, brochures regarding Korea and the festival were given out for guests to reference. This is also a form of promotion, but however, the market that it can reach is very limited.
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| Sales promotion poster at the fair itself. |
Price
For consumers with a variety of events to choose from, the aspect of Pricing can influence their decisions.For the festival, among 12 events only 3 events are considered free for all. The rest of the events are either ticketed or by invitation only. Also, I feel that the main intention for this festival is not for profit as the product is to showcase the vibrancy of the Korean vulture to Singapore. Therefore, despite some events being ticketed, many will still go because of interest. For instance, people who are interested in KPOP will go for the SMTown, people who are interested in comedy theatre will go for the show FLYing. Therefore, I feel that despite the ticketed pricing which are mostly tiered and high, it will not deter people with common interest to go and enjoy the show. Furthermore, there is the sponsorship fee. For acts like SKarf and the appearance of Han Ga In, the sponsorship fee must be relatively high. However, some form of revenue is also generated by the sale of Korean Merchandises.
Partnership
There are many partners and sponsors in this Festival. Just to name a few, Korean Tourism Organisation, Parallel Media Korea, K.Arts, these are some of the partners. Some of the sponsors are LOTTE, YeongJu Apples, I12, Korean Air, Samsung and Korean Air. Partners actually help to organize the events and help publicize it while sponsors will sponsor the items and merchandises to be sold. For instance, in the Singapore Style street fair, during the mini games where free YeongJu apples were given out as prizes, they were actually sponsored by YeongJu Apples. Then, what YeongJu apples get back in return is the increased publicity for their apples. Take for instance, now I know that Korea YeongJu apple are the most organic, crunchiest, sweetest apples ever. Other sponsors are Korean Air and Samsung, which sponsored the first and second prize for the speech contest respectively. In return, their logo gets displayed and their company name gets repeated in front of many audiences, which is some very good publicity.
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| Sponsors for the Korea Festival 2012 |
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| Sponsors for Korean Speech Competition 2012 |
Changes between 2011 and 2012
Last year’s Korea Festival 2012 was focusing mainly on Food, Contests, Arts and Concerts and Films. However, this year’s focus saw a shift to focusing mainly on similar aspects as last year, however with the addition of the Sports category. There was the ADT CAP Golf tournament as well as the Swing for Good 2012, and also the Taekwondo based show in Singapore. Furthermore, there was also a change of venue in the street fair. Last year’s street fair was named “Korean Flavour Fiesta” and is located in Square 2, Novena. The venue last year was bigger and was also more easily accessible as the mall was attached with a MRT station.
Last year’s focus was more on Arts as out of the 9 events, 3 has got to do with the Art scene in Korea. However this year, there was not much focus on Arts, but rather pottery. From all the events last year, I realize that it was more of the foreign Korean culture, but this year, they integrated certain aspects of Singaporean into the festival. For example using Golf as a common sport, utilizing venues such as the Singapore Island Country Club and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, which all reminds us of Singapore. They even integrated the street fair to also include the word ‘Singapore’ so that it becomes not so foreign and is easier to accept and integrate in Singapore.
d) Events Recommendation
I would suggest that the Korea Festival 2012 collaborate with Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore (Ritz) and make Ritz their official hotel for the event. Ritz has always pride itself as one of the top 5 star business hotel and the only hotel in Singapore that has an Art Gallery.
Therefore, tapping onto these 2 markets, the events that they can do is: hold their Arts exhibitions in Ritz and also have a authentic Korean food special in their café. Firstly, as the only hotel with an art gallery, the Korea Festival can work with Ritz to hold their arts exhibits by Koreans in the gallery of Ritz Carlton. This can attract many arts enthusiast that are residing in the hotel to also appreciate Korea’s art scene. Also at the same time, with right marketing efforts, the arts exhibitions may also attract tourists to stay in the Ritz and increase its occupancy rate. This benefits both parties and is therefore, killing 2 birds with 1 stone.
Secondly, as Ritz is a business hotel, it attracts many businessmen from all over the world from different countries. Besides that, “staycation” in Singapore is also very popular and many chooses Rtiz due to its amazing scenery and convenient location. Therefore, by having Korean Cuisine in the café during the festival not only helps to showcase Korean cuisine to tourists, but also locals. Furthermore, as not many may like the acquired taste of the Korean cuisine, Chef of Ritz Chef Fok Kai Yee may also come up with some fusion dishes to help bridge the process into the true and real Korean cuisines.
Therefore, this not only fits and matches the product of the Festival: which is to showcase the vibrancy of the Korean culture together with Singapore, but can also bring about more traffic to Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore. As Korean music is now spreading widely, there has been a wave of K-hallyu (popularity) in Singapore. More and more people are trying to know more about the Korean culture, and therefore, there will be many people that are willing to try authentic, real Korean and fusion food.
As the Korea Festival 2012 does not have an official hotel, I would recommend that the festival work together with Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore. Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore is the best choice for an official hotel as lately, it has also been trying to tap in to the leisure market of Singapore and it has been very successful. With the expansion of the leisure market, Ritz will be able to capture both target markets and allow the Festival to penetrate even more deeply with its objectives into Singapore.
Pictures of the visit!
References
ASHY2906, OCTOBER 2011, Title: Korea Festival 2011, Available from: http://x-clusive.sg/2011/10/06/korea-festival-2011-in-singapore/ ⋅Ehotelier, May 2003, Title: The Ritz-Carlton and Mercedes Sign Three-Year Marketing Agreement, Available from: http://ehotelier.com/hospitality-news/item.php?id=A62_0_11_0_M
Johnny, A. (2010). Festivals and Special Events Management. (William. O, Robert. H, Ian.M).
Korea Embassy Singapore, Available from: http://www.facebook.com/KoreaEmbassySingapore?fref=ts
Singapore Film Society, Title: Korean Film Festival 2012, Available from: http://sfs.org.sg/marketing/kff/2012/index.html#tickets
SISTIC, Title: SMTown Live in Singapore, Available from: http://www.sistic.com.sg/portal/dt?dt.isPortletRequest=true&dt.action=process&dt.provider=PortletWindowProcessChannel&dt.windowProvider.targetPortletChannel=JSPTabContainer/sEventsCalendar/Event&dt.containerName=JSPTabContainer/sEventsCalendar&dt.windowProvider.currentChannelMode=VIEW&dt.window.portletAction=RENDER&contentCode=smtown1112
Shaw Theatre, Title: Korean Film Festival 2012, Available from: http://shawonline.sbmedia.sg/promotions/theatres/kff/2012/promo.htm
The Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Singapore, Title: Korean Film Festival 2012, Available from: http://www.boomkorea.net/kf2012/KF2012.pdf
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