Rachael and me
*********************Beerfest Asia 2009
The Beer Festival Asia 2009, also known as “Beerfest Asia”, was held from 29 April to 3 May 2009. The event featured more than 100 different brands of beers from all over the world. The main festival marquee was located at the F1 tracks, just behind the Singapore Flyer. More than 25 breweries and beer distributors participates the exhibition including Singapore’s very own Archipelago Brewery. Other than beers, entertainments are also provided during the festivals throughout the 5 days. There were both locals and international artists.
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BeerFest Asia 2009 (BFA) VS Great British Beer Festival (GBBF)
Product
In both countries, the main product of this festival is to experience of process of finding and enjoying the beers that cannot be found locally.
In the BeerFest Asia, there are over 100 kinds of beers from all over the world. It consists of beers coming from as far as Chile and Mexico to traditional beer power house-countries such UAS and Germany.
As for the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF), it offers over 450 real ales, ciders and international beers. Other than the beers, there were also F&B outlets, live performances and souvenir shops available in addition to make this festival a greater success.
Place
BFA in Singapore was located on the F1 tracks itself, facing Marina Barrage behind the Singapore Flyer.
The venue itself was highly accessible as there are public transports nearby and the location is well-recognized by both locals and foreigners due to the fact that the Singapore Flyer is one of the main attractions in Singapore. In addition, it was very meaningful to set up the marquee on the F1 tracks, as a memory for the F1 Grand prix last year.
On the other hand, the GBBF was located at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre. Due to the much bigger dimension compared to Singapore, it required a place which was huge enough to cater to the huge crowd which they are expecting. After all, the westerners do love beer, don’t they?
Partnership
Beer festivals in both countries collaborated with the local government agencies and other big companies so as to add on to the quality of the event. Choosing quality partnership are very important as it determines what kind of benefits the customers can gain and this will indirectly affect the amount of people visiting the event.
The event gets its popularity when these sponsors help to advertise the event through different forms of distribution channels and in return, those names will appear in the event when thousands of people visited the place.
Promotion
Promotion includes advertising, PR and sales promotion. The promotion style in both countries was more or less similar but differs in scale. In Singapore, personally I felt that not much of the promotions were carried out through Medias and the rest of the channels. Radios and Televisions only advertise the festival during those days of the event. However, sales promotion was done on both the admission fees and the beers within the festival. For the admission fees, there were student price and discounts from certain credit cards and early birds. From those tourist that I have spoken to, many said that the beers sold in the event are much cheaper compared the beer festivals held in western country. This is due to the widely promotions from various beer companies.
In the case of GBBF, their festival was advertised globally due to the large scale of the festival. Millions of people visited the festival, on an annual basis and with the mass coverage by the government and media, this festival was known worldwide.
Programming
In terms of programming, both countries included live band performances during their events. BFA features both local and international bands which perform mostly from the late evening. Singaporean artists groups include Beerfest All-Stars Blues Band, together with Goodfellas, Heritage and Reverie & Rene. While Vertical Horizon from USA makes their only stop in Asia at Beerfest on 2 May 2009.
Due to being larger in scale, GBBF consists of live performances which are bigger in groups such as Oysterband and The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
Another programme that was carried out during the BFA 2009 was the Singapore’s 1st National Arm Wrestling Championship. There were 2 categories for men who were above or below 85kg and one category open for all women. I think this is something appropriate as while the customers enjoy the excellent beers, they have some extra entertainments other than the live performances that are arranged for them. Furthermore, other than meeting new people and making new friends, participants in the Arm Wrestling Championship also got complimentary access to the BFA on Sunday (3 May).
Under GBBF, there were also many activities featured during the event. One of them will be the programme called Tastings. By just paying a small amount of money and visitors can attend their tutored tastings. Taste, look, style and other interesting information will be guided through during each session of tastings. Personally I felt that this programme is very meaningful as for those people who are not a good drinker but wish to attend the event, it is something that they can learn.
People
The interaction between customers, the setting, the staff/volunteers constitute a large part of the event experience because all these will affect the customer’s experience directly.People involved in both countries are more or less the same, the only difference is that GBBF needs many more volunteers to help out in the festival due to the lager in scales of the festival.
Packaging and Distribution
Packaging depends greatly on the sponsors. For BAF, buying a ticket to the festival could get a free ride on the Singapore Flyer and a free bottle of beer. In this way, visitors could taste the unique beers and the same time experiencing the unique attraction in Singapore. While for GBBF, they offer a cheaper stay in the hotel which works closely to this event.
Packaging in both countries enables the visitors to save some of the cost and yet could try something extra beside the beers. This is a very good way to market the event as they works closely with attractions and services to convince the visitors to come for the event.
Packaging in both countries enables the visitors to save some of the cost and yet could try something extra beside the beers. This is a very good way to market the event as they works closely with attractions and services to convince the visitors to come for the event.
Price
Price in an event includes admission, merchandise, vendor rental and sponsorship.For the BFA, there are 5 categories for admission tickets cater to different market groups. It ranges from student price which is $10 to hospitality sales which cost $68 to $78, depending on the date.
As compared to GBBF, their admission fee is slightly cheaper, which cost about $17 to $25 or less. This might due to the high beer taxes in UK that leads to higher beer prices. Both countries adapted to the “buy in bulk” strategy in the admission fees so as to maximize the number of people visiting the festival.
Other than the admission fees, prices of food catering, merchandise goods as well as activities organized within the festival are also available at affordable prices.
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Best Practices
Out of the 8 marketing strategies, the best practices done by the BFA are the programming and the partnership.Programmes create the fun and relaxing atmosphere for all the visitors. In this area, BFA had done a great job under just 2,100sqm marquee. Programming schedules are printed on every booklet given to the visitor at the entrances. The decoration of the stage and set up of the lighting creates a very relaxing and enjoyable surrounding in the festival.
Partnership is as important as it determines the activities, discounts and souvenirs available in the event.
By working closely with the sponsors, the admission ticket is accompanied with a free ride on Singapore Flyer, discounts were given for Citibank credit cards, the magazines and radios are mass advertising about the festival.
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In the case of BFA, the participants and spectators will be all those beer exhibitors , performers and visitors coming all over the world. 
“The idea behind Beerfest is the experimentation process of finding and enjoying beers that you may never, otherwise encounter locally here in Singapore. Each brewery and distributor was specially invited to bring their unique beers to the festival where they can introduce and reach out to new consumers.” says Mr. Matt Bennett, Co-Festival Director, Beerfest Asia 2009.
“This is an event for trade as well. We see Beerfest growing in the long run to become the premier marketplace in Asia for industry colleagues to exchange dialogue and promote their products amongst one another. The festival will be something positive during these times to inject trade interest, develop business dealings and hopefully bring a cheer to Singapore behind the backdrop of
a pending economic upturn.”
Not only to try the unique beers, the festival brings all the beer lovers together, enjoy the live performances and have a good time interacting people from all over the world. Most importantly, this festival allows people to know a little bit more about Singapore.
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By being the host city, Singapore has gained many tourism benefits both directly and indirectly. This festival has attracted beer lovers from both locally and internationally. I had also made some observations and striked conversations with the visitors. From that I found that majority of them did not visit the country because of this BeerFest. They visit the BeerFest because the festival just happened to be within their stay.
Due to the small in scales compared to beer festivals in European countries, this festival did attract over 14,000 people. The amount of revenues from these visitors cannot be underestimating, not only through ticketing, but others like food and beverages, activities and merchandising goods. Furthermore, the tourist might spend on other attractions and events as well. If their experience is good in Singapore, this might even lead to higher number of people visiting Singapore, leading to more opportunities in the future.
By working closely with the sponsors, the admission ticket is accompanied with a free ride on Singapore Flyer, discounts were given for Citibank credit cards, the magazines and radios are mass advertising about the festival.
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Stakeholders
In the case of BFA, the participants and spectators will be all those beer exhibitors , performers and visitors coming all over the world. The Co-workers are part timers, volunteers and technological and physical maintainers who help to bring the event to a success.
The host organizations of this event will the Singapore Tourism Board, together with the host communities which include Timbre Music, Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau and Singapore FHM.
The medias involves here will be like magazine such as Singapore FTM, official radio station such as Power 98 FM, and official food websites such as HungryGoWhere.com. The media helps in the advertising of the whole event through different channels and at the same time, create awareness among the public.
Last but not least, sponsor contribute large amount of funds for the event, and at the same time, advertise their brand name and treat it like an investment. Sponsors in this event include City Bank and Grand Park Hotel.
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Main Purpose
“The idea behind Beerfest is the experimentation process of finding and enjoying beers that you may never, otherwise encounter locally here in Singapore. Each brewery and distributor was specially invited to bring their unique beers to the festival where they can introduce and reach out to new consumers.” says Mr. Matt Bennett, Co-Festival Director, Beerfest Asia 2009. “This is an event for trade as well. We see Beerfest growing in the long run to become the premier marketplace in Asia for industry colleagues to exchange dialogue and promote their products amongst one another. The festival will be something positive during these times to inject trade interest, develop business dealings and hopefully bring a cheer to Singapore behind the backdrop of
a pending economic upturn.”
Not only to try the unique beers, the festival brings all the beer lovers together, enjoy the live performances and have a good time interacting people from all over the world. Most importantly, this festival allows people to know a little bit more about Singapore.
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Tourism Benefits
By being the host city, Singapore has gained many tourism benefits both directly and indirectly. This festival has attracted beer lovers from both locally and internationally. I had also made some observations and striked conversations with the visitors. From that I found that majority of them did not visit the country because of this BeerFest. They visit the BeerFest because the festival just happened to be within their stay.Due to the small in scales compared to beer festivals in European countries, this festival did attract over 14,000 people. The amount of revenues from these visitors cannot be underestimating, not only through ticketing, but others like food and beverages, activities and merchandising goods. Furthermore, the tourist might spend on other attractions and events as well. If their experience is good in Singapore, this might even lead to higher number of people visiting Singapore, leading to more opportunities in the future.
Overall i enjoyed the festival to a large extend, this is my first time attending a beer festival and first time in my life, i tried so many different kinds of beers in one night. If there is a chance, i would like to visit the fastival in another country to experience the different feel.
