Worldwide Festival

Worldwide Festival is a showcase with an extraordinary range of programs by the top inspired artists of today, lineup by Gilles Peterson the music director for the event, performing their cutting edge grooves in a unique environment.

Gilles Peterson is known as a musical tastemaker to many music listeners around the world through his "Worldwide" radio show on BBC Radio 1 and syndicated to other stations globally.

The concept of Worldwide Festival came together when Gilles accepted an invitation to play at a Freshly Cut event. It was then that Gilles’s interest of creating a “Worldwide” festival to showcase some of the best talents in up-and-coming music surfaced.

“Freshly Cut Events” are organized by SNAPSHOT “FRESHLY CUT EVENTS”, an Event Company based in Montpellier (South of France). Their aim to produce events in the past ten years is: Bringing quality Music to the masses.

Given Gilles’s popularity with artists and DJ community, Worldwide Festival has boundless contact with the most exciting and upbeat talents around, in their search for the perfect beat.

Comparison with similar festival (WOMAD Abu Dhabi)

The event similar to Worldwide Festival Singapore is WOMAD Abu Dubai. WOMAD represents World of Music, Arts and Dance. WOMAD Festival is internationally recognized gathering artists worldwide, celebrating all kinds of music, arts and dance found globally. They aim to excite, inform and create awareness of the value and potential of a multicultural society.

Since its first festival in the UK during 1982, WOMAD held more than 160 festivals and created events in 27 countries and islands globally with more than a thousand artists from over 100 different countries to a live audience of more than one million people.

This is the first time WOMAD visit the United Arab Emirates working with Abu Dhabi Authority for culture and Heritage (ADACH) on an outreach program for schools in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. These children will learn about international cultures through music, dance, voice and visual arts.

Both festivals share a common goal, which is gathering different talented artists internationally and showcase them throughout the world.

We can compare the differences in marketing strategies for both Worldwide Festival Singapore and WOMAD Abu Dhabi through the 8 ‘P’s’ of Marketing Event.

Product

Product in this case is the overall experience obtained from the festival. The experience not only includes the programs arranged ant the performers staged, the service provided also plays an important part.

For Worldwide Festival Singapore, the overall product audience seek for is the experience, fun and the range of musical performance by DJs all over the world, playing different genres of music. Although service is not the main product, it is essential to overall experience of consumer. For example, the crowd control at the entrance of clubs, the serving of drinks, etc.

As for WOMAD Abu Dhabi, participants search for the experience of exchanging cultures with people from all over the world through music, arts and dance. Although it is more “self-serviced” compared to Worldwide Festival, crowd control is still a must as all events face problematic crowds. Other services would be the quality of trainers for workshops and activities specially organized for children.

For both Worldwide Festival Singapore and WOMAD Abu Dhabi, consumers seek for the experience through the performance staged showcasing talents internationally. The difference between them would be the sort of performance. Worldwide Festival, Gilles Peterson sets out to seek for the perfect beat while WOMAD Abu Dhabi search for talents from different culture for cultural exchange.

Place

The physical location of the event plays an important role for the successfulness of the event as first impression usually sets the mood for the visitors. If components are poorly done, it will give visitors a negative experience.

For Worldwide Festival, it is held at Singapore Art Museum (7th May 2009), Home Club, Zirca Mega Club, OverEasy, Velvet Underground, Mimolette (8th May 2009) and Siloso Beach, Sentosa (9th – 10th May 2009).

Reason behind picking Singapore Arts Museum as their kick off site is to showcase an interactive collection of past Worldwide Festival photographic moments in an exhibition within the museum during 7th April – 7th May 09. The festival opening night is also exclusively for all partners, media and ticket holders, showcasing some of their best beat driven DJs.

On the second day of the festival, for the WF Club Invasion, events are scattered among various clubs in Singapore. Their main event is held at Zirca with other DJs allocated to clubs in the town area.

On the last two days of the festival, there is a WF Beach Weekender at Café Del Mar, Sentosa featuring over 30 DJs. It is also the first ever 24 hour party at the beach!

Getting around Singapore was never a problem as the transportation system is easily accessible. Traveling to Sentosa would also be a hassle free as there is several means of transport.

For WOMAD Abu Dhabi, the event take place at Abu Dhabi Corniche (23rd - 25th April 09) and Al Ain, Ai Jahili Fort (24th April 09). Two stages are built at Abu Dhabi Corniche due to massive activities to prevent congestion and make directions clear for visitors.

Unlike Singapore, Abu Dhabi is a bigger city. Thus free shuttle buses are provided running to and fro the Corniche. However, on 24th April 09, two locations are used to hold the event (Abu Dhabi Corniche and Al Ain) and no means of transportation provided between the two locations.
Other than having fun, atmosphere of these two festivals are different as purpose for those going for Worldwide Festival Singapore is to drink and dance while WOMAD Abu Dhabi educational based.

Partnerships

Partnerships are the sponsors or other organizations that fund or support the event in terms of merchandise, labor or funds.

There are a total of 30 partners and sponsors for Worldwide Festival Singapore!
As WOMAD Abu Dhabi is a free festival, there are only a total of 5 partners. Funds required are only to cover the charges of the festival; rental, setup, wages, etc. In this case, media is the most important partner to create awareness.

The distinction between Worldwide Festival Singapore and WOMAD Abu Dhabi is the target market and the event. For example, Tiger Beer is the official beverage for Worldwide Festival but not for WOMAD as they are family oriented.

Promotion (Communications)

Promotion refers advertising, public relations, sales promotions and personal selling. It requires ongoing management and relationship building, not just one-off efforts.

For Worldwide Festival Singapore, 22 out of 30 partners have been granted official rights. For example, the Official Beer: Tiger Beer. This strategy makes their partners feel more exclusive sponsoring the event. The discounted rate given will promote awareness to DBS/POSB Card members. Launching the event at Singapore Art Museum will inform people who are interested in arts through schedules online.

During the launch of the festival at Singapore Arts Museum, partners and media counterparts are invited to the event. This strengthens their public relation ties for future collaborations.
For WOMAD Abu Dhabi, the two main sponsors are Media Company that helps advertise and promote the event. The remaining three sponsors are indirectly related to the event. “We have been working in partnership with ADACH for 18 months and it has been a fantastic team effort to produce such a successful festival. We are already discussing next year’s WOMAD festival with ADACH,” said Chris Smith, WOMAD Festival Director. This shows that both WOMAD and ADACH enjoyed working together, creating a win-win situation.

As both events are international, providing updates on their company website, the website acts as a promotional tool providing updates on up-and-coming events. I personally admire the strategic plan Worldwide Festival Singapore took. Most of their partners can fund and provide them with the merchandise they need for the event. By giving “official” right to partners, they will feel more exclusive and willing to pay a higher price. Whilst most partners of WOMAD Abu Dhabi remained ordinary. Event management might not be able to maximize full use of the partnership and the partnering company failed to leave a strong impact in the visitors as company does not stand out from the rest. Both festivals receive positive reviews from the press and the excellent ratings of the public.

Programming

There is a diverse range of activities for both Worldwide Festival Singapore and WOMAD Abu Dhabi. For Worldwide Festival Singapore, audience can expect surprises from the range of DJs performing through different style of playing, rhythm, beats and tempos will keeping the audience in suspense.

For WOMAD Abu Dhabi, cultural activities from South Korea, America, Brazil, etc. with hands on workshops will certainly be meaningful and educational for the young and old. However, activities and shows timings are quite cramped with no breaks in between considering the next show on the list is on another stage.

Worldwide Festival has no breaks in between and run throughout the night while WOMAD Abu Dhabi has specific time slots for various workshops and activities.

People

People simply mean everyone who is involved in the event. The hospitality received by the audience directly shapes their experience.

For Worldwide Festival Singapore, I crashed the WF CLUB INVASION held at OverEasy. As OverEasy is generally a place to chill out, the indoor seating and dance floor are usually empty. During the Worldwide Festival, the place was packed, both indoor and outdoor. The staffs seem to be shorthanded as they have an unexpected turn up of crowd that day. Situation was not properly handled as they made people wait outside without having queue lines.

For WOMAD Abu Dhabi, reviews posted by audience on “The National” are relatively positive. Except for Bilal Houri, stating that he missed the entire day of performance staged at Abu Dhabi to catch Dhafer Youssef perform at Al Ain. All the rest of the reviews are positive and they enjoyed programs.

DJs of Worldwide Festival Singapore are only in charge of performing but artists of WOMAD Abu Dhabi have to be trainers for certain activities after their performance.

Packaging & Distribution

Packaging is the bundle of product consumer can purchase. For example, destination can package events with other attractions and services, or events can offer their own. Distribution is the various types of intermediaries used in selling tickets.

For Worldwide Festival Singapore, there are packages such as free flow of drinks on third day of event from 4pm - 6pm within the Live Fresh VIP tent and 1-for-1 after 6 pm exclusively for Live Fresh DBS Visa Platinum Card members. From this example, the intermediary used would be DBS Bank as consumer might be aware of event through them. There are also other packages such as admission fee is inclusive of 1 free drink.

For WOMAD Abu Dhabi, the distribution channel used to reach their audience would be through “The National”, the Media Sponsor for the event.

WOMAD Abu Dhabi is a free admission festival thus packages are not really required to attract visitors. Therefore, there are no packages found on their website. Admission fees are required for Worldwide Festival Singapore. Thus more discounted prices such as early bird price and privileges for their partners.

Price

Every event comes with a price tag, including those events with no admission charge. For example, time, travel cost and lost opportunities.

For Worldwide Festival Singapore, early bird tickets are available for the launch of the event. On the second day of the event, only DBS/POSB Card Members enjoy discounted rates. Tickets are priced at a reasonable rate based on the music, atmosphere and experience.

There is no admission charge for WOMAD Abu Dhabi. However, pricing for merchandises and flights to United Arab Emirates is slightly higher than average.

Worldwide Festival Singapore charges admission for most location whereas WOMAD Abu Dhabi is free of charge. However, if based on tourist point of view, the overall traveling expenditure for United Arab Emirates would be slightly higher than that of Singapore.

Stakeholders

Event: Worldwide Festival Singapore
Host Organization: Snapshot “Freshly Cut Events”, Spin Comm
Host Community: Singapore Tourism Board,
Sponsor: DBS, M Hotel, Hereen, Dr Martens, Element, Nixon, TopMan, The Raw Deal, HMV
Media: MTV, Lush, Junk, Juice, Singapore Photo Blog, Lifestyle Asia, Mesh Radio, Wander
Co-Workers: Singapore Arts Museum, Zirca, Home, OverEasy, Zouk, Velvet Underground, Bacardi, Tiger Beer, GateCrash
Participants and Spectators: Audience, Partners, Media

Event: WOMAD Abu Dhabi
Host Organization: WOMAD
Host Community: Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage (ADACH)
Sponsor: Borders, StarBucks Coffee, Virgin Mega Store
Media: TheNational, twofour54
Co-Workers: Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage (ADACH)
Participants and Spectators: Audience, Partners, Media

Tourism Benefits

When purpose of travel is focused on the Worldwide Festival happening at Singapore, tourists need accommodation, transportation, food & beverage, etc. All these expenditure will lead to an increase in the host country’s revenue.

As Festival take place during the night, tourists have free time during the day to visit other attractions in Singapore. This will boost the sales of tourist attraction and strengthen the economy of Singapore as a whole.

The hotels located in the vicinity of the event location will receive a spike in their occupancy rates due to the festival. When demand for room increase, hotels can increase their room rates for that period. Packages of room with admission tickets for festival could be created.

In addition, the Worldwide Festival will help improve the tourism profile of the event destinations; the various nightclub locations of WF Club Invasion, showcasing other attractions outside the perimeter of Clarke Quay (Tourist nightlife spot).

Local companies can make use of this opportunity to partner with the festival, creating brand awareness and acknowledgment. For example, Tiger Beer, a local company is working together with Worldwide Festival Singapore as “Official Beer”.

When “Singapore” impresses the tourists, they can help promote Singapore as a “living advertisement” through word-of-mouth.