Friday, June 19, 2009

Beerfest Asia 2009

1. Event Introduction

Beerfest Asia 2009 was an event about tasting over 100 different types of beers around the world, with countries such as Chile, Mexico, Switzerland, Belgium, USA, Germany and many more. It was held during from 29April to 3May. 6pm to 1am for the first two days, 3pm to 1am for the next 2 days and 3pm to 11pm for the last day. The event was located on the F1 tracks, behind the Singapore Flyer, facing the Marina Barrage. There was shuttle service and parking lots available at the Singapore Flyer for the visitors.

Proof of entry

A similar festival will be Oktoberfest held at Munich, Germany. It was held for 16 days from late September to early October. It is one of the famous events held in Germany and one of the world's largest events which attracts six million people every year.

2. Comparison of the 8 P's in marketing for f&e

A. Product

Beer Fest offered about 100 different kinds of beers. The highlight will be the premium beer, DeuS (Brut des Flandres), the most expensive beer in the world, is available at a special promotional price only at the festival.
As stated in the media release for Beer Fest Asia2009, it is one of the world’s most exquisite beers. Familiar brands will be Singha and Chang Beer from Thailand, Singapore Sling from Singapore, and San Miguel from Philippines.

We tried Magners and Pure Blonde from the 6 Drunk Men distributor/brewery.

Magners Beer, from Ireland, costing $10 available at BeerFestAsia2009.

In comparison, Oktoberfest has beer products from its own country, Germany. Beer from Augustiner, Paulaner, Spaten-Franziskaner, Löwenbräu, Hacker-Pschorr and Hofbräu are available at Oktoberfest. During the Oktoberfest, they drink beer by the litre, eat traditional food such as pretzel and sausages.

B. Place

Beerfest located
on the F1 tracks, behind the Singapore Flyer, facing the Marina Barrage. The Singapore Flyer is located near city hall or you can take a 10 minutes walk from the famous shopping centre, Marina Square. It is an outdoor big tent with beer booths set up inside the big tent for the visitors.

On the other hand, Oktoberfest is he
ld in Munich, Germany. There are many different tents selling beers from different brewery companies to tents that sell food such as roast duck and chicken, sausages and many traditional foods. One popular beer tent will be Hofbräu Festhalle which is the world's famous.

C. Programming

Beerfest has live performances, games & challenges, parties & DJ sessions.

Live performances performed by Vertical Horizon and Hell's belles from USA ; 53A, Beerfest All-Stars Blues Band, Jack & Rai Featuring Eic, Goodfellas, Heritage, and Reverie & Rene from Singapore ; and lastly Swiss Alpine Lions made up of musicians from Switzerland, USA and Singapore.
Lead Vocalist for 53A, Sarah
53A on Thursday night

Beerfest Asia 2009 has games & challenges like arm wrestling competitions, pool, foosball and pinball machines during the 4 days event. Not forgetting DJs performing and parties happening during the event.

For Oktoberfest, there are programmes such as fun rides, carousels and shows at the amusement park. The rides range from comfortable carousels ride to exciting "Top Spin" and from fairytale shows to spooky ghost train rides. Music is an important part for Oktoberfest. Every tent has its own bands playing their own music with no restrictions on what songs they can play.

D. People

The people involved in Beerfest Asia 2009 would be ticketing, security, food stall vendors, beer booth vendors, entertainer, beer girl and performers.
Ticketing would be the one selling entry tickets and the beerfest currency for exchange of beer during the event.

Beerfest Currency

Security would be the one doing the entry check and ensure the security of the event.

Mr Security with my friends

Beer booth vendors would be the one promoting their own beer and try to sell their products to the visitors.

Pure Blonde Beer Booth Man

Singha Beer Girl with my friends

Entertainer went around the event to entertain the visitors. In our case, Mr Guinness (the one below) danced with us, he is a funny guy. Performers had different time slots to perform in the event.

Mr Guinness with my friends

53A!

On the other hand, the main people involved Oktoberfest would be the tent assistants, musicians, and entertainers. Tent assistants would be either serving the beer to the visitors or can be kitchen assistant for the food tents.

E. Partnerships

Beerfest Asia 2009 has partner with many companies for this event. Beerfest Asia 2009 allowed 15% discount for Citibank Clear Platinum card holders and 10% discount for other Citibank credit card holders for the entrance ticket. Another partnership would be with Singapore Flyer. The venue was provided by the Singapore Flyer.

As for Oktoberfest, there's no such discount promotion.

F. Promotion

Beerfest Asia 2009 used internet, media, and word of mouth to reach their marketing objectives.

Before this field trip project, I got to know about Beerfest through my friends. Word of mouth is the cheapest yet the most effective as Beerfest wanted to attract a huge group of visitors at one go thus there was a group package for the entry tickets.

It has an official website, www.beerfestasia.com. It has many related details on the website such as ticket price, types of beers, location, how to get there and many more that helped the visitors to know better about the event.

Beerfest also used the media to advertise the event. It was on the newspaper, Straits Times and Business Times, and radio station such as Power98FM.

As for Oktoberfest, there is an official website, http://www.oktoberfest.de/en/. It has details of the event, counting down to the coming Oktoberfest, ways to get there, rules and regulations and many more.

There was special weekend train ticket from the
Deutschen Bahn. With this ticket, five adults can travel on a Saturday or Sunday until 3 am the next day wherever they want. Once they reached Munich, all transportation (bus and train) would be free of charge. The Oktoberfest can easily be reached from the main train station via public transportation, or a 10-mintues walk.
Thus it means that it was advertised through train stations and many people would be aware of the event.

G. Packaging & Distribution

Beerfest Asia 2009 had entrance tickets packages. It has discounts for concession like NS men, SAFRA members, senior citizens, and tertiary students. In additional, early bird get discounts for entry tickets. There were packages for bulk purchase for 50 or more tickets.

As for Oktoberfest, they have special promotions for the hotels near Oktoberfest for the accommodation of the tourists.

H. Price

Beerfest had over 100 beers from $3 onwards. Currency is bundled up in $10 and $50 booklets and is available at the booth just at the entrance of the event. The beer booths would only accept beerfest currency and not cash to exchange for the beers.

Tickets to Beerfest Asia 2009 are on sale from BYTES TICKETING on the website, www.bytes.sg. The prices of early bird tickets and on the door tickets are different as Beerfest wants people to confirm their attendance for this event. And also more expensive ticket pricing on 2nd May as there was a concert by Vertical Horizon. The ticket pricing for
Tertiary students, SAFRA members and senior citizens was $10. Hospitality ticket costing $68 have a free ride at the Singapore Flyer, beer runner service, and reserved seat at the main marquee with a minimum booking of 8 tickets.

As for Oktoberfest, beer tokens are sold at the tents and only beer tokens can be used during the event. In similarity with Beerfest, beer tokens are like beer currency can be exchanged for beer in the tents.

3. Best practices

The best practice for Beerfest will be the product. The product was just amazing because it have over 100 beers and all at a cheaper price. There are beers that only cost merely $3. Not only that, Beerfest have the world's most expensive beer, DeuS sold at the event at special price. Beers from all over the world were featured in the event thus the product is the best practice for Beerfest.

The best practice for Oktoberfest will be the place. The place is held in Munich, Germany. With the large crowd expected for the festival, they come up with special weekend train promotions. Each brewery company have their own marquee and each have 8000 seats each. One unique point will be they have the world's largest tent.

4. Stakeholders

There are 6 different roles of event stakeholders. They are host organisation, host community, sponsor, media, co-workers, and participants & spectators.

Host organisation was the ublues group that owns timbre music.

Host community were the Singapore Flyer which allowed usage of the area, Singapore Tourism Board, Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau and Australian Government.

Sponsors were Citibank, absolut vodka, Grand Park, Time Out magazine, FHM, Power 98FM, B-Yond, CSP productions, DMC music centre, LOWE refrigeration, BIO-AIR and many more.

Media were the newspaper including Straits Times and Business Times and Power 98FM.

Co-workers were including volunteers involved in the event and all the organisation staff planning or working for this event.

Participants and Spectators were the visitors that come for the event.

5. Main purpose of this event

The main purpose of Beerfest Asia 2009 would be bringing all the beer lovers together to share their love for beer and also try the different types of beer under one roof. For the brewery, it is to promote their beers, and to create a new market group for its product. For the people, it is to try beers that never be found in Singapore unless certain festivals such as Beerfest brings them in. Another purpose would be able to relax with your friends, have a drink and listen to live bands at a very reasonable price.

Have a drink and relax with my friends

6. The amount of tourism benefits received by the host city of the chosen event

The amount of tourism benefits received by Singapore is not much. Visitors to Beerfest would be mostly locals and only a few of them were tourists. Beerfest is not heavily advertised through overseas media but only local media. Most visitors I saw were teenagers, and office workers having a drink after their stressful work at the event. Thus the amount of tourism benefits for Singapore is not much.

7. Conclusion

I think that Beerfest is a great success. It has over 100 beers at special price only at the event. Visitors can taste many different kinds of beer and even those beers that you have not heard before. From my own experience, I had tried a few beers that I had not heard before and it turned out to be a very pleasant experience. With performances and the great company by your friends, Beerfest is not to be missed.

8. Bibliography


1. BeerFest Asia 2009 Available: http://www.beerfestasia.com/index.php

2. Oktoberfest Website Available: http://www.oktoberfest.de/en/navitem/About+the+Oktoberfest/

3. Muenchen.de, Germany Tourism Available: http://www.muenchen.de/Tourismus/Oktoberfest/Beer_Tents/7558/index.html





Tuesday, May 5, 2009

hi hi testing testing