The event I went to is BeerFest 2009 which is held at the Singapore Flyer from 29th April 2009 to 3rd May 2009. The event itself was located at a big temporary tent constructed on the Singapore GP F1 track near the pit lane. Over 14,000 people attended Beerfest Asia 2009 to taste more than 100 different kinds of beers from all over the world. Other than the Beer tasting, there were also awesome performances by world-famous, all-female AC/DC tribute band Hells Belles, double platinum selling act Vertical Horizon who is making their only stop in Asia and many other local bands. On 29th April 2009 at around 6.30, me and my friends reached our destination at the Flyer. We took awhile to walk there as the location was quite a distance from the City Hall MRT and there was very little bus options available there. We spent awhile walking around the flyer before going into BeerFest at about 7. We tried different kind of Beer samples and enjoyed the stage performances. Overall the event was a good experience for us.
Group Photo
2. Similar Events
The event I have chosen to compare with BeerFest Asia 2009 is Toronto Festival of Beer 2009. To compare both of them, I have decided to use the 8 Ps of the marketing strategy.
A) Product
There were 100 over different kind of beers on show at BeerFest Asia 2009. Brands include ChangBeer, Singha, Stella Artois, San Miguel etc. Most of the beers were imported from other countries.
Compared to BeerFest Asia 2009, Toronto Festival of Beer 2009 have more than 250 brands of beers which is more than twice the amount in BeerFest Asia. However, the major difference is that 95% of the Beers on show in Toronto is home-made from Ontario.
B) Price
Beers
There was major differences in the pricing category of both events. Beers were sold at prices ranging from $3 a cup to around $20 a bottle at BeerFest Asia 2009. You would need to purchase $10 to $50 vouchers at the entrance in order to purchase the Beers in the tents. In this case, its good as there are no confusion in the cash exchange during buying of Beer, like a carnival. Its more convenient as well to carry the booklets of vouchers around. However, one major disadvantage is that if you bought $50 vouchers, you would need to use it finish in that day and there are no refunds available.
In Toronto Festival of Beer, pricing for a bottle of beer starts at around US$1 which is significantly cheaper than in Singapore. It is also because most of the brands are home-made in Ontario and no importing fee is needed for the vendors so they could charge cheaper pricing. Also, Beers are more readily available in Canada.
Ticketing
The price of a ticket in BeerFest Asia ranges from $10-$30 depending on concessions while the price of a ticket in Toronto Festival of Beer ranges from US$45-US$50.
Vouchers
Tickets
Handtags
C) Place
BeerFest is held at the f1 track behind the Singapore Flyer, located near to the F1 Pitlane. The setting of the Beerfest is mostly at night as it only opens at around 6. There are various different tents for ticketing, food and the major event itself which is BeerFest held under the big tent.
drinking place
Toronto Festival of Beer took place at Bandshell Park, Exhibition Place200 Princes' Blvd. It is generally an open air event which is the major difference from BeerFest. There were many small tents for the different beer vendors. The people who attend the event buy beers and then sit at wherever they like with their group of friends. It’s a day till night event which starts 4pm and ends at 10pm for the first 2 days which is Thursday and Friday and for the subsequent 2 days on the weekend, it starts from 1pm and ends at 7pm.
D) People
BeerFest hires mainly locals for the tending of booths and the beer girls. There were over 14,000 people who attended the BeerFest including both foreigners and locals. They also recruited various different performers including famous bands from overseas and many local bands.
Beer girls
Band performing
Picture with the lead singer of the band
Similarly, Toronto Festival of Beer recruits mainly locals as well. There were no volunteers involved as their management do not have volunteers position available. The only difference from BeerFest is that it was mostly locals who attended this event as it’s like a cultural thing for them. Also, it’s because it’s a long time since this event is held here. There was a long pause since its inauguration.
E) Promotion
BeerFest marketing department used mainly local media to promote this event. This event was featured in local papers like Today and Straits Times. BeerFest also utilised its website to let people know more about this event as Internet nowadays is one of the most powerful marketing tools available. When we interviewed some of the locals who went for this event, they said that they heard this from their friends so word-of-mouth was used as well.
Regarding the Toronto Festival of Beer, the marketing technique they used was mainly through advertising on their website. As this event is already very well-known throughout the whole of Canada, many Canadians will flock to this event when they hear news about it. Word of mouth is a very strong marketing tool used in this case as they spread around the country about this event. From their website, we can also see various information, pictures and history about this event. Their website is noticeably much more detailed than BeerFest as they used this as their main promotional tool.
F) Packaging
BeerFest offers many packages for this event. There were concession for students and elderly, as well as group packages for people who want to buy in bulk. Toronto Festival of Beer meanwhile only offers single tickets of the same type for all ages.
G) Partnership
There were many different partnerships between BeerFest and various supporting companies. One example is City Bank’s partnership. It includes 15% early bird discount for tickets bought by City Bank credit card-holders. There was no partnership for Toronto Festival of Beer apparently from the website. However they do have various sponsors for the event like Bet 365.com, TorontonSUN, Contiki and other food outlet sponsors.
H) Programming
There were many different kind of programmes available on the different days of BeerFest. It was mainly by the different bands performing on stage. There were also F1 simulators for the Beer lovers to enjoy while drinking Beer.
For Toronto Festival of Beer its programming offers a different kind of service. It’s like a separate event from the Beer Festival where bands bids to perform for that event. Besides the band performances, there were also many different parties and games available during the event.
3. Best Practices
The best practice for BeerFest Asia 2009 would be the pricing of the Tickets. They were significantly cheaper than Toronto Festival of Beer. There were also various discounts, concessions and rebates for different people buying the tickets. E.g. City Bank Credit card holder having 15% early bird discounts and students having concessional prices.For Toronto Festival of Beer, the best practice would be the place itself. It is much more accessible than BeerFest, it is bigger and better as well. While BeerFest is held behind the Singapore Flyer, transport services there are scarce. Toronto Festival of Beer was held at a popular open field in Canada where many major events is held there as well. The structure of the place was also better as it gives more space and freedom for Beer drinkers to drink wherever they like in there compared to BeerFest which offers limited tables for the patrons in the tent and some outside the tent.
4. Stakeholders
The stakeholders of BeerFest Asia 2009 are the Organisers (Ublues Group and Timbre Music), the Sponsors (Lowe Refrigeration, Citibank Card, Absolute Vodka, Grand Park, Power98FM, B-YOND, NLX Event Services, D.A.S, CSP, DMC, food & beverage logistics, Bio-Air), the Volunteers, the Participants, the Performers and the Media.
5. Main Purpose
In my opinion, the main purpose of this event is to let Beer lovers or avid drinkers taste the different kind of beers on show. The participating brand will then benefit from the sales of Beer on the event as well as promoting their own brand. So if people taste a brand and love it, then they themselves get good experience from the event and will benefit from trying something new. So next time when they go out to drink they will drink that brand and the brand itself will benefit from this increase awareness of their brand, the increased popularity of their brand. It’s a win-win situation for the participating brands as well as the people going to BeerFest. On one hand this is a very good promotion of their brands for the participating outlets, on the other hand, people try different kind of Beers and change their preference accordingly.
6. Tourism Benefits received by Singapore
There are various of Tourism Benefits that Singapore gained from this event namely:
1) More exposure to the tourists that Singapore have this side of drinking culture, increasing the good image of Singapore among the world.
2) Letting Tourists know that Singapore is capable of hosting many various festivals
3) Many Tourists flogging down to Singapore for this event resulting in increased foreign exchange revenue
4) Revenue earned from the ticketing sales
5) Spending of local goods, spending in attractions etc all increased due to increased visitors coming in for the BeerFest.
6) Jobs created during the BeerFest albeit temporary ones
7) Brought people of different cultural values together to enjoy the event as one group
8) Promote Beer, local and foreign companies earned from the promotions here.
9) Teaches those who don’t know much about Beer how they are created, the history of Beer, the various brands, the drinking culture etc.
7. Conclusion
To sum the entire event up, I feel that BeerFest was actually quite poorly done compared to all the other International Beer events. Of course this is a much smaller scaled beer fest and since it is held for the first time in Singapore, we do not have much experience hosting this event. The organisers have already promised that they have taken all our feedbacks and will look forward to the 2010 event where they will put on a better show, a bigger event and a better BeerFest.
Appendixes
http://www.beerfestival.ca/main/torontos_festival_of_beer_2008
http://beerfestasia.com/
http://www.toronto.com/attractions/event/371947
http://www.nac.gov.sg/
