SIPF 2012 Event Marketing Mix (8Ps) Part II

Facilitating Components

Ø  Pricing

SIPF 2012 was considered both a ticketed and non-ticketed festival. Fees were charged for forums, workshops, educational programs, and special showcases. While other exhibitions were free-of-charge and open to the public. To attract more visitors, there were also concession prices for locals and different price range for adults and child. 

From these, I could evaluate that price discrimination strategy was employed. This helped to encourage visitors to take ownership of the passion of photography, by choosing to pay and attend the exhibitions.

Ø  Promotion

For promotion, SIPF had stated details of SIPF 2012 in their official website, facebook and twitter. As SIPF had already established itself during the past 2 years, photography lovers would be aware of the festival period. However, there were very few physical materials such as banners, posters or indications of the ongoing festival nearby the exhibition areas. Furthermore, little publicity was done through the media.

In my opinion, the SIPF organizers could have made use of social media to attract more audiences. For example, short advertisements to be broadcasted during prime time; collaboration with radio stations to attract target groups of different ages; for example, 98.7fm focus on youths, while Lush99.5 attracts the indie “arty”. Moreover, banners and large posters could have been displayed in areas that youth frequent, or art schools and areas near the exhibition venues. All these could have generated greater awareness for SIPF 2012.

Ø  Packaging & Distribution

In general, SIPF 2012 offered packages such as all artists & curators talk package, three evening presentations package, and eight film screening package at adult and concession prices. For the ArtScience Museum, visitors could gain excess into SIPF exhibition if they purchased tickets to Magnum Photo Showcase. Last but not least, as part of the promotion with Marina Bay Sands Singapore, hotel residences were also entitled complimentary coupons to the Magnum Photo and SIPF exhibitions. 

Efforts had been put into packaging the festival to appeal to potential visitors. However, more initiatives such as: collaboration with surrounding eateries and shopping malls could have been proposed to appeal to larger crowds.

Furthermore, I feel that the distribution channel was not wide enough as tickets could only be purchased at the venues and SIPF website. Since SIPF is a prominent local festival, the organizers could have distributed some of its tickets to SISTIC, which is Singapore’s largest ticketing service provider, to facilitate in the ticketing process, and also promote publicity. As convenience is a key factor that attracts people living in this fast paced society, this strategy could have helped to attract bigger crowds.

Ø  Partnerships

The success of SIPF 2012 was made possible due to the kind support from individual, institutions and corporate companies.

The founding sponsor of SIPF is City Developments Limited (CDL). Being the city’s developer of spaces, CDL firmly believes that art complements and enriches our environment, and SIPF’s mission falls in line with CDL’s commitment to provide regional and international exposure for emerging talents. The collaboration between CDL and SIPF is mutually beneficial, as CDL provides financial aids to support SIPF. At the same time, SIPF enhances CDL’s corporate brand image as a contributor of Singapore’s culture legacy, which also creates goodwill for the company’s future activities.

Also, the exhibition partners and core venue supporters which were – ArtsScience Museum Marina Bay Sands Singapore, Singapore Arts Museum, Singapore Management University Gallery, Selegie Arts Centre, Societe Generale and The Substation Gallery; acted as value-in-kind sponsors to SIPF by providing exhibition grounds and logistics supplies for showcases. In return, SIPF helped increase the venues’ sales and hospitality opportunities, and also generated revenue and visitorship to the ArtScience Museum which charged entrance fees for the prestigious Magnum Photo Showcase – “[Outside] In”.