Festivals & Events Management

Objective

The objective of the research is to analyse and produce a report about the event that is the Anime Festival Asia 2008 or AFA08. The detailed report will be broken down into various segments, namely, the introduction, evaluation of the effective use of marketing mix, Discussion of tourism roles and economic value of the event and the conclusion.

Background

The Anime Festival Asia 2008 is an event organized by I-promo and Dentsu that showcase the diversity of Japanese pop culture, specifically Japanese animation. It is the first time such an event is held in Southeast Asia and outside of Japan.

The event is broken down into six sections: Akiba Town, Anime Live, Anime Blockbusters, Industry, Mangaka and Planet Mech, where visitors will gain access to exclusive content, merchandise and live acts.

The nature of the event will rightly suggest to be targeting modern youths and also related people of the industry who are seeking business opportunities, though adult fans are also encouraged to join in. An estimated number of 80,000 visitors are expected to turn up for this event.

The AFA08 is touted to be a prelude for the Japan Creative Centre that is to be opened in Singapore next year. The centre will be a stage where it will showcase Japanese-related content and culture.

The event will hold a variety of prgrammes like music shows from some of Japan’s brightest stars, talk shows from a number of animation directors, manga related exhibitions and also arcade and cosplay competitions.

Evaluation of the effective use of marketing mix

Product

Various products are consolidated into this one event. Here I will break each section down into their respective categories and provide details of each product.

Anime Live

Newest anime movie and anime series – Here, visitors are able to catch up on new animations that will whet up their appetite on these new series. They are also able to update themselves with latest news on existing anime series that they once fell in love with.

Live music performance – Visitors are able to witness various Japanese artistes staging their performance right here in Singapore. Fans will not only witness their favourite artist there first-hand, they will also be greeted with new music releases, some of which openings and endings of upcoming anime series.

Live character shows – Children will also have a great time in the event where they will meet various childhood heroes in the likes of Masked Rider and Power Rangers.

Talk shows – Otaku fans will be able to hear from anime producers and designers about their past works and also upcoming projects they will be working on.

Cosplay mania show – In this event, participants will dress up and change into their favourite anime characters and compete against each other in a Cosplay Mania competition.

BAKUC competition – This programme is a contest where contestants are able to pit against each other on their robot designing skills.

Anime blockbusters

Here, the programme will showcase a number of Asia’s best-selling animation. The programmes include never-before-seen footages, storyboards and character and background designs.

Akiba Town

This section allows visitors to purchase memorabilia of their favourite anime shows and game characters back home. Mega-companies like Bandai and Square Enix will be a few of the retailers that will be bringing out products on sale. And if this amount of merchandise is still not enough entice the craziest of fans, the corporate are ready to put exclusive, limited edition figures and figurines up for sale. Other retail items include DVDs, posters, high-tech drawing devices and game consoles.

Related companies like comic café and Japanese online games will also get the chance to advertise their products here. This creates awareness among the public about what they offer and hopefully, bring in some customers to their retail outlets.

Planet Mech

This section basically showcases the different sets of robot figures Bandai have been designing over the past 2 decades. Visitors are able to enter competitions, or even take up tutorials on designing techniques of their favourite robots. Professionals will also be there to showcase their crafting abilities in building up complex action figures.

Mangaka

Here, budding artists will be able to set up booths to display their various artworks and hopefully, sell one or two good pieces for a good price.

They can also take part in drawing and graphite contests in a bid to win fantastic prizes.

Visitors are also encouraged to display their drawing skills on designated ‘graffiti walls’.

Industry

This section will be where business partners are able to interact with each other and in the process, capable of striking up a partnership with some of other companies. This is also a place where budding entrepreneurs can learn a thing or two from the industry leaders.

From here, we can see that this event had most of the potential target markets covered. From Otakus to Japanese culture fanatics, adolescences to adults, the event planners have some form of entertainment available to them. This allows them to maximize their profits as they are able to cater to these people’s needs in a variety of mediums.

Place

The event is to be held in a central location, Suntec City Convention Hall on a Saturday and Sunday. By locating the event in a central area, people from different ends of Singapore are able to easily access into the area. This maximizes the ability to capture more sales. Furthermore, the event is set during the weekend. This allows more people to visit with more time at hand.

Partnership

The Anime Festival Asia 2008 is organized by I-promo Events & Marketing in partnership with Dentsu, one of the largest advertising agencies in the world. The sponsors of this event are Bandai and The Japan Foundation. The organizers tie up Animax as the official regional media and COMM as the official Japanese media partner.

This clearly shows the statement of intent of how successful the organizers want the event to turn out to be. With a team of stakeholders of big reputation, they are confident in making this event a fruitful one, being the first to be held outside of Japan.

Promotion

The organizers have used multiple forms of communication channels to advertise their event. Firstly, they managed to be able to break the news of the event through the TV media. A website of the event is also set up through the internet, while newspaper reports are also used to promote the event. The press conference also set off online news articles on the World Wide Web. Genre-related magazines were also used to break the news.

The organizers also took the effort to advertise their product through TV channels like Animax. Continuous publicity on the newspaper advertisements, TV commercials, online blogs and online advertising are use to draw the crowd.

Some of the famous animation directors and designers are invited to the event to further attract the number of people to attend the AFA08. Interviews on these people keep the public updated on the build-up to the event.

Programming

Packaging & Distribution

Upon researching on this segment, it is found out that not much packaging is done to offer a more attractive way to offer visitors.

The only package to be identified is a 2-day pass for this 2 day event, sold at a cheaper rate. Only this 2-day pass are visitors able to pre-register for it on the official website itself and collected at the ticketing booth at the venue itself on that day.

All tickets are only available for sale at the venue itself.

Price

Prices of the tickets are at $5 for daily tickets, and $8 on the 2-day pass.

No charges are required for any of the competitions, bar one, during the event.

Artist Alley, where individuals are able to set up shop at the venue to sell their own merchandises will need to pay an amount of $200 for an Artist Alley Space.

A fee is required for contestants to compete in the Singapore Arcade Showdown. No amount was specified on the website.

Music performances vary according to the performance of the different celebrities. The May’N Live concert has 2 categories: The Diamond VIP Pass at $118, and The VIP Pass at $68.

The AFA08 Mizuki Ichirou compromise of only the VIP Pass at $78.

Merchandises consist of all shapes and sizes. Prizes greatly range from a couple of dollars to a few hundred.

Tourism role & economic value of the event

One of the roles the AFA08 contribute to tourism is that it attracts a host of visitors of other countries to visit not only the event itself, but Singapore as a whole. Being the first of its kind to be held outside of Japan, and the first time in South-east Asia, this provides Singapore with an opportunity to pull in a number of other channels in terms of tourist receipts. With tourists coming from all around the region to visit this event, other sectors like accommodation, food & beverage and transport will all be capitalized by these people.

From this, a chain-effect is likely to happen, whereby upon visiting the country, those with positive impression of Singapore will spread information about it through word of mouth to their friends and relatives. This creates awareness among them and turns them into potential visitors to our country.

As previously mentioned, the Anime Festival Asia 2008 is to be a pre-event prior to the opening of the Japan Creative Centre, this may result in a new trend, whereby such similar events will probably be in the pipeline for subsequent years to come. These cultural events may yet attract even more visitors, especially overseas tourist, to visit and take part in such events.

These provide a sharp influx of revenue from the sale of merchandise to the augmenting products. Jobs will also be available for the locals and salaries will be given to them, which increase living standards. Tax revenues will also be a major plus, while sales through F&B, retail, transportation and accommodation will also add to the economic gains.

The animation industry in Japan is arguably the best of its kind in the world. An industry seminar organized by them will undoubtedly attract a number of players from the budding industry in this region. This will allow them to learn from these professionals and apply a thing or two into their works. This will hopefully add some expertise into our own animation industry.

Business associates can also take this chance to interact with one another during Seminars and hopefully, strike up a decent partnership between them. This creates an opportunity for local companies to generate some decent revenue and this will in turn, boost the economy.

This event also allows retail companies to gain profits through selling of their merchandise.

Industry-related companies like Starhub’s animation channel Animax and manga cafes also gain an opportunity to draw in potential customers in subscribing to their products and gain a decent amount of profit.

Conclusion

Overall, I feel that this event has been a massive hit and a huge step towards the introduction of Japan cultural festivals to the outside of Japan. For two days straight, I have witnessed wave upon wave of great exciting atmosphere surrounding not only the event, but also the whole of Suntec Convention Centre. The Anime Festival Asia 2008 has been the event that stood out among all the other exhibitions and events that are being held there during the period. It not only attracted thousands of locals from this country to visit the event, but also tourists and foreign students & workers.

The AFA08 creates a very impressive image of itself and this has made visitors to this event wanting more of the same thing next year, which they gladly obliged by breaking the news during the event itself.

Among all the marketing mix, I feel that the product made the most impact on the turn out of this event. The amount of merchandise available for visitors is extensive and contributed a major part to the sales. A huge amount visitor was seen having either roll after rolls of posters, or bags after bags of goodies home. And the most important outcome of this event was to see all of them leaving with a huge smile on their face.

Being situated in the city centre, the event allows locals easy access to the event. Tourists will also find the event easy to locate, while other tourists oblivious to this event can also be informed about it.

Being partnered with some of the best companies in the world, they ensured that the event is well publicized, well received, and certainly most profitable.

The entrance fee has been very affordable, typically from teenager’s point of view.

To conclude, this event has indeed lived up to its expectations and it can be foreseen that future sequels of it will be welcomed with wide open arms, and also very much well-received.

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