Event Marketing at Adelaide Fringe Event - Case Study Example

REFLECTIVE REPORT: ADELAIDE FRINGE Name Professor (Tutor) University Course Word count City and State Date REFLECTIVE REPORT: ADELAIDE FRINGE Executive summary This report is a reflective review of the Adelaide Fringe Event which is an annual event held for thirty-one days between late February and mid-March every year and it always features more than five thousand artists from Australia and all around the world. The aim of this paper is to provide a reflection on the event using the modules learned in class theory and it is, therefore, critical in the application of this knowledge to real life situations. One critical aspect that is widely discussed is event marketing including the market segmentation and the main demographic factor of age for this case. A reflective view of the event is then provided with emphasis on the worst and best experiences with recommendations on how to improve the experiences. Finally, a SWOT analysis for the event is done. Contents Introduction 4 Event description 4 Event Marketing 5 Event Experience 10 Best experience 10 Worst experience 11 SWOT Analysis for Adelaide Fringe 12 Recommendations 14 Strengthening the best experience 14 Improvement of the worst experience 14 Conclusion 14 References 15 Appendices 17 Appendix A 17 Appendix B 18 Introduction This report is a reflective review of the Adelaide Fringe Event which is an annual event held for thirty-one days between late February and mid-March every year and it always features more than five thousand artists from Australia and all around the world. The aim of this paper is to provide a reflection on the event using the modules learned in class theory and it is, therefore, critical in the application of this knowledge to real life situations. One critical aspect that is widely discussed is event marketing including the market segmentation and the main demographic factor of age for this case. A reflective view of the event is then provided with emphasis on the worst and best experiences with recommendations on how to improve the experiences. Finally, a SWOT analysis for the event is done. Event description The Adelaide Fringe has held annually in Adelaide the capital of South West Australia and has been ranked as the second largest arts festival in the world. The festival is held for thirty-one days between late February and mid-March every year and it always features more than five thousand artists from Australia and all around the world. There is no one main venue for the festival as the events are staged in established hotels, warehouses, theaters, art galleries, cafes, pubs, laneways, and parks in Adelaide. Some of the main events included in the festival include physical and circus theater, music, visual art, comedy, film, dance, puppetry, magic, design, and digital and interactive. An established Adelaide Fringe Board governs the festival. It is an open event where anyone is free to perform. Adelaide Fringe attracts an average of 1.6 Million people with approximately 6% of this number being tourists and visitors from outside Australia (Adelaide Fringe Inc., 2011). The Adelaide Fringe was first held in 1960 along the Adelaide Festival though they are separate events. Before 2007, Adelaide Fringe was held after every two years but it was then changed to an annual event. The goals and visions of the event include annually growing its audience and be recognized globally as one of the best arts events. Besides, the event also aims to be the best marketplace for Australian and global presenters. The event’s mission statement is, “To be an internationally acclaimed open access arts festival for artists and audiences” (Adelaide Fringe Inc., 2011). The number of artists performing at Adelaide Fringe has been growing yearly. The Adelaide Fringe registered over 1300 acts this year and this represents a rise from the previous years. Besides, Adelaide Fringe also aims at bringing large-scale art experience to the citizens residing in Adelaide at affordable rates (Arcodia & Whitford, 2007). This is because some of the events are offered for free including street performances, Garden of Unearthly Delights, and the opening night parade. Event Marketing Marketing is an important tool for any event whether it is a profit or nonprofit event. Marketing is the process of management that aims at identifying, projecting, and satisfying all the customer needs and demands concerning profitability (Davidson & Rogers, 2006). Event marketing is the process through which event marketers satisfy all customer needs and demands through proper pricing and excellent event experience (Allen et al., 2011). Considering the Adelaide population and the tourists that visit Adelaide during the period the Adelaide Fringe is held, the market size can be classified as big. However, the target market considering the demographic feature of age is the old people since the city is made up of an aging population. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2010), many youths are migrating out of Adelaide to other Australian cities and overseas. At the age of about 20 years, there is a rapid increase of migration between states (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008). Ryan (2011) also found out that many of those between the ages of 20 to 29 migrate from South Australia to other Australian cities. Nevertheless, the market segmentation also includes these youth since they are the most outgoing and will even attend the events that are held at night (Roberts, 2007). Adelaide Fringe 2017 was marketed through several ways. One of the important marketing technique was online marketing through social media and the event website www.adelaidefringe.com.au. The social media platforms used in promoting and marketing Adelaide Fringe 2017 were Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Videos and pictures of the event including the dates and venues for each event were put on these social media platforms and the event website. The world today is run by technology and therefore online marketing has become one of the main marketing techniques to reach a large number of consumers. The sales promotional marketing technique that was employed by the event organizers is the acquisition of cheap Fringe tickets through several ways. One way was through signing up for Fringe Membership. Some benefits for those that had Fringe Membership included VIP access, express lines in ticket locations, discounts, and selected access to members lounge. With such promotional techniques, the event was able to attract more people. Trawling Halftix is another way that ensured that the people acquired half-price ticket deals by signing up to Halftix through the check box. On Friday 17th February Channel 9 and BankSA teamed up to give the public some free tickets. The number of events on the day was 79 and thus it was a good marketing and promotion strategy for the event. Apart from online marketing, the event was also marketed through posters that were put everywhere around Adelaide from 2016. Marketing for Adelaide Fringe is done very early as the event organizers have already released dates for the 2018 event and have already begun the marketing process. besides, media was used to advertise the event including both Television and Radio. A good example was when Channel 9 and BankSA teamed up to give the public some free tickets. Mass media advertisement and marketing is still key to the success of any event marketing. Overall, using the 5 P’s of marketing we can describe the marketing of Adelaide Fringe 2017. The product which is the experience that the consumer needs to be provided with to satisfy the market needs with the market being the citizens and non-citizens that attend the event (Brown et al., 2011). The ability of event organizers to avail of a wide range of acts and performances means that the market needs were satisfied and therefore the product marketing was excellent. The place includes the event venues and locations, for Adelaide Fringe 2017 several settings were needed for the different events, and marketing was done through the ticketing system. The ticketing system for Adelaide Fringe was through the Box Office system where tickets for the event were purchased by visiting the company website at  www.adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix or by calling the event’s head office on 08 8100 2000. A collection of tickets for the event were at the venue an hour before the action began or if the event was dated over a week the ticket could be posted to the holder at a small fee. The picture below shows an example of how to get a ticket for an event at the site. Below is a picture of people collecting their tickets prior to the event. The people aspect of the event includes all those involved including the customers, volunteers and staff, and the stakeholders. Marketing for this people is different depending on the relationship stage (Brown et al., 2011). As partners and volunteers were involved in the event activities and organizations. While the stakeholders were advertised to through direct emails. For customers, the techniques discussed previously were used. The pricing of events at Adelaide Fringe was market-based and the tickets were cheap and sometimes free as the goal of the event is to bring large-scale art experience to the citizens residing in Adelaide at affordable rates. The pricing approach for the event is market-based as it used different pricing packages for different market segments (Brown et al., 2011). Event promotion is all about integrated market communication and Adelaide 2017 used promotional activities such as direct marketing, sales promotion, advertising, and public relations as already discussed. Event Experience Personally, I attended this year’s Adelaide Fringe and I had some of the best and worst experiences. Best experience My best experience had to be Amanda Palmer’s performances in what was titled ‘An Evening with Amanda Palmer.’ The event was a two and a half hours show that is value for money as she is a talented artist that deeply moves her audience. Amanda has a massive global following and as her fan, I was treated to an evening of good music and art (Bowen & Daniels, 2006). She briefly welcomed us to the event and handed over to Brendan Maclean who is a singer and songwriter based in Sydney. Why he has not become a household name is baffling since he has a spectacular and amazing voice. Before Amanda even hit the floor, we had had already been awed and mesmerized. Amanda sang her first song “In My Mind” in a spectacular scene high in the dress circle and lighted only with a torch from an usher. Further performances of her songs "Vegemite", "The Bed Song", "Map of Tasmania", and "Coin-Operated Boy" were dynamite and a mass sing-along of the audience to her song "Mother's Confession" capped the excellent evening. I believe the two hours was the best experience I had at Adelaide Fringe 2017 because it captured the entire range of human emotions (Bowen & Daniels, 2006). The show was simply a five star. Event organizers inviting such a household name to the Adelaide Fringe were on point. As a promotional method or technique event organizers and planners often consider bringing in an artist with massive followings to attract more customers as proven by An Evening with Amanda Palmer. Such an event has to be strengthened and maximized further as they are the key revenue earners to Adelaide Fringe. I believe that without such events then the whole event will be a failure. Therefore, event organizers ought to ensure that they have such an act every year to bring more people to the event and ensure that it brings overall success to The Adelaide Fringe. Pictures of this experience are found in Appendix A. Worst experience The comedy Damien & Ross in Safari Psychosis was crap and not the experience of art that the event promotes (Crompton & McKay, 2007). The show was meant to combine absurdity and hilarity but it failed. It was presented by the Ham Boys and is about two friends Damien and Ross who are lost in the jungle mysteriously. Their friendship is shaken and threatened by the wild as they try to find their way out of the jungle. The storyline alone cannot be described as one to grab anyone’s attention especially adults. The two friends suffered from safari psychosis. This was a waste of time as at one point the actors invited the audience to dance Macarena after they realized they were losing the audience. The fact that only six people danced indicated that the event was boring. People continued walking out and when we only remained as an audience of six is when I opted to leave. I give the show a rating of a half a star as it was poor from when it started to the end, which I did not even witness, as I had to leave. This was the worst experience for me since it displayed signs of poor organization and market research. I believe that the event management arrangement of this event especially to the adults showed their poor taste and probably a way of cost reduction as actors on such comedy imitation are paid small amounts of money or were even volunteers. I believe the Communitas affected me since this experience lost my identity to comedy and motivation for attending such a show in future Adelaide Fringes. Proper market research should be done to ensure that such acts are scraped out, as they do not even attract enough audience to the show. Besides, the event organizers can improve such shows by ensuring that they include storylines that conform to comedy and proper advertising is also necessary. A picture for this show is found in Appendix B. SWOT Analysis for Adelaide Fringe SWOT analysis entails the Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for Adelaide Fringe. Strengths Appeal to a wide range of audience. Since the festival is held for four weeks and long hours including day and night, it attracts a wide range of audience including children and visitors from outside the country. Promotes local businesses. The event promotes the local businesses located in Adelaide in terms of generating additional revenues since during this period; there is a large increase in the number of people than the normal times. The event is also a resource to the community and the artists. As a resource, the event provides the artists with a platform to display their talents and further promote their careers. For the community, it provides an opportunity to expose themselves to quality art at cheaper prices (Crompton & McKay, 2007). The event is ranked second largest globally in the arts category and this indicates that it is an established brand name and thus attracts an average of over 1.5 million people annually. Weaknesses The potential loss of revenue. This scenario can mainly occur when the ticket prices are so low and some even offered free since some of the invited artists need to be paid a lot of money. The low number of volunteers especially for the evening events creates a major shortage in terms of staff and participation (Swanson et al., 2007). The inadequate number of sponsors and stakeholder participation creates the need for event organizers to host minimum events. Inadequate locations to host events due to the locality of a festival that is internationally recognized. Opportunities The event creates an opportunity for communication to a larger audience especially international tourists and this could raise the percentage to more than 6%. There is also an opportunity for the expansion of volunteer involvement through a selection of a special coordinator to deal with the volunteer activities. Existing room for expansion through increasing international organizational involvement and political involvement from more local and national politicians. Promotion of the Adelaide Fringe festival beyond Adelaide to other markets including the whole of Australia and overseas. Threats Poor weather conditions could affect the event since some acts are held on open fields such as the opening ceremony. Poor turn out on certain events. An example of an event that recorded a poor turnout was Damien & Ross in Safari Psychosis as previously discussed earlier. A competing event, which is the Fringe Festival, can attract a wide range of the target audience for the event. Inadequate governance for event location venues. This issue can lead to failure in planning and can lead to some events not even taking place. Recommendations Strengthening the best experience Strengthening the best experience is simply more of the same. This can include improving direct marketing where artists that are more popular are invited to continue promoting the event as this are the types of artists that will earn the event more revenue. Moreover, reduction of ticket prices for such events to attract more audience who bring in more revenue to the event can be used. Ticketing is an important way of marketing the place and the people in the 5 Ps of the marketing mix (Getz, 2011). Improvement of the worst experience Better marketing research by the event managers which would include getting customer experience reviews and feedback from the previous year's events. A proper market research would enable the organizers to know their target audience needs and demands and will, therefore, provide an event experience to fulfill these needs and demands. Effective event planning and development strategies should also be put in place to ensure that no act or event held over the two week period presents a bad experience to any of the audience. Planning strategies that could be implemented can include more international advertising and sales promotion that will increase the number of the audience coming to the acts (Getz, 2011). Conclusion In conclusion, Adelaide Fringe is an international festival, it is, therefore, clear that the event is an established brand and thus only continued growth is anticipated. However, continued growth comes with effective strategies, which are mainly marketing strategies that the event organizers should continue implementing to ensure this continued growth. With proper strategies the event will ensure that the audience gets value for money through best experiences such as in 2017, ‘An Evening with Amanda Palmer.' References Allen, J., O'Toole, W., McDonnell, I., & Harris, R., 2011. Festival and Special Event Management, 3rd edition. Milton, Queensland: John Wiley & Sons Australia. Arcodia, C., & Whitford, M., 2007. ‘Festival Attendance and the Development of Social Capital,’ Journal of Convention & Event Tourism, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 1 ‐ 18.   Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008. Migration 2006‐2007. Accessed from: http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/3412.02006‐?OpenDocument. [19 May 2017]. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2010. 1301.0 ‐ Year Book Australia, 2009–10.Accessed from: http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/0/93EB4563583425CCCA25773700169C 91?open document. [19 May 2017]. Bowen, H. E., & Daniels, M. J., 2006. ‘Does the Music Matter? Motivations for Attending a Music Festival,’ Event Management, vol. 9, pp. 155‐164.   Brown, G., Jago, L., Chalip, L., Ali, S., & Mules, T., 2011. ‘Events and Destination Marketing,’ Destination Marketing and Management: Theories and Applications. Wallingford, UK: CABI. Crompton, J. L., & McKay, S. L., 2007. ‘Motives of Visitors Attending Festival Events,’ Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 425‐439.  Davidson, R., & Rogers, T., 2006. Marketing destinations and venues for conferences, conventions and business events. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Getz, D., 2011. Festivals, Special Events, and Tourism. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Roberts, K., 2007. Youth and Leisure. London: George Allen & Unwin Publishers Ryan, D., 2011. ‘30,000 South Australians gone Interstate,’ In Daily.   Swanson, S. R., Davis, J. C., & Zhao, Y., 2007. ‘Art for Art's Sake? An Examination of Motives for Arts Performance Attendance,’ Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 300‐323.   Appendices Appendix A Appendix B Read More