Appendices/References

References

1. http://www.afa08.com/

2. http://www.visitsingapore.com/publish/stbportal/en/home/apps/event_detail.html?pageName=EventDetail&buttom=detail&eid=8931&eventType=2

3. http://www.youth.sg/content/view/5960/28/

4. Brochures, catalogues, etc. (handed in separately in an envelope)

Pictures~

Here are some of the pictures taken at AFA'08!

AFA'08 Official Mascot

Created as a universal symbol of Anime and Japanese Popular Culture for the festival - AFA KUN is designed by renowned Japanese character designer Ryosuke Tei, previously the Creative Director from Furi Furi creative design agency in Japan. Tei is currently the Executive Director with Peach Blossom Media for the multi-media, multi-platform animation production LaMB by Animax Asia.

Gundam Exia from the anime series "Gundam 00"
in front of Bandai's raw space booth.

A cosplayer walking in the midst of the crowd.
She let me take a picture but a lot of people gathered after she allowed
and I was swarmed by them. End up can only take a random picture.

The stage showing a preview of Tamagotchi's anime
that is about to be released.
This is also the stage used for the concerts of May'n and
Mr. Ichiru Mizuki as well as for the Cosplay Challenge.


A gigantic empty space in the middle of no where.
Sigh... wasted.

One of the artist's demonstration.

One group of Japanese who were here for B2B purposes.
They somehow knew I was taking them, thus managing to dodge
my camera before I could take them clearly.

The seminar... How boring~

Code Geass - Lelouch of the Rebellion (above)
&
D.Gray Man (right)

are one of the few anime blockbusters featured in AFA'08

Two pieces of the artwork which I like the most. They were winning entries of a drawing competition whereby the drawing have a theme or meaning to it.

This is the Grafitti wall for people to "doodle" on. During Cosfest' 08 at Downtown East, there was a same thing. I saw a very nice one while I was there. Nice right?!

The Programmes available for both days are on the Programme Board that can be seen just outside the entrance/exit. It is also available through the brochure.

Introduction

Objectives

This field trip assignment's main objective is to evaluate the effective use of the event's marketing mix, how it contributes to tourism as well as the economic values that it brings in to the country organising the event.

Introduction

Anime Festival Asia 2008 (AFA'08) will showcase a wide array of Japanese Pop Culture related content, spanning over 5,000 sqm of space with 6 experience zones: Akiba Town, Anime Live, Anime Blockbusters, Industry, Mangaka and Planet Mech, where visitors will gain access to exclusive content, merchandise and live acts straight from Japan.

The festival targets children, youth, adults and industry visitors both locally and from around the region – with an expected turnout in excess of 80,000 visitors.

The festival, made possible with support from the Embassy of Japan and the Japan Foundation, will be attended by directors, producers, manga artists and creative individuals from Japan’s entertainment industries.

This festival is also a pre-event introduction for the Japan Creative Centre that is scheduled to open next year in Singapore. The Japan Creative Centre’s primary objective is to be a platform for showcasing Japanese-related content and culture in Singapore.

AFA08 will also provide an opportunity for international businesses and anime--related companies and organizations to network and participate in the fair. As interest in the Japanese anime industry increases throughout the world, this trade fair provides businesses and companies in South East Asia an opportunity to preview the latest anime content from Japan.

Richard Tan, Executive Director of I-Promo Events & Marketing and Festival Director of AFA08, said that Japanese Popular Culture in South East Asia currently undergoing tremendous growth in popularity. Thus, there is a need for a global platform like Anime Festival Asia to showcase Anime related content in this region, much like the ‘Tokyo Anime Fair' in Japan, and the ‘Anime Expo’ in the US. It will showcase exclusive footage, artifacts and creative scene materials such as storyboards, character and prop designs at ‘Anime Blockbusters” where fans can go ‘behind the scenes’. The festival also have an ‘Industry’ zone to provide youths who are considering a career in the anime industry a chance to find out more about their opportunities, and there will be a business track for companies in the industry to learn more about content development and distribution.

Marketing Mix

The first "P" of the marketing mix that was used by the event is Product. There are three main product categories; Core product, Augmented product, and Tangible product.

Core product refers to what the customers are actually paying for. It usually refers to the atmosphere, experiences that the product provides them with, something which is mostly intangible. In the case of AFA'08, it is the experience that the exhibition brings about.

Augmented product refers to what the customers THINK they are actually paying for. It usually refers to the things like the exhibits and displays, etc. In this event, the augmented product would be the displays and exhibits of the toys, models and figurines, the workshops provided in the event, even the car park is an augmented product if the person is driving.

Tangible product refers to the things that the customers are able to sense with their five senses.
For AFA'08, the tangible products would be the cosplay mania challenge, the concert by the popular Japanese celebrities, the grafitti wall, etc.

The Product has not been used quite effectively as there is no clear definition between the core product and augmented product. This is because the exhibition is also for B2B, educational purposes, as well as for sale of models and figurines. Thus, most people who went for the purpose of seeing their favourite anime were quite disappointed as the B2B, educational, and sale of items took up almost up to 70% of the exhibition. This is because most of their visitors were youths and children, whereby only a small percentage were business related guests. Therefore, they should have more exhibits which cater to the youths.

The second "P" used by the event would be Place. The distribution of the exhibitors and the products they offer were planned in such a way that there was a particular area for each type of category. The middle left of the exhibition floor is composed of all the manga and comics categories. The bottom left is composed of all of Bandai's exhibits and models. The middle top is made up of all the industry companies and organisations who are there to exhibit and sell their products. The middle consists of exhibitors who are there to sell their merchandises. Finally, the anime blockbusters which showcase the most popular animes are placed at the bottom right corner. However, there were a lot of empty spaces available within the exhibition floor, which would contribute to a loss for the organiser as an empty space could have been rented to exhibitors and improved the organiser's budgeting and helped lower their cost. Thus, "Place" was not very effective. (refer to brochure under "event floor map" which has a clearer layout)

They have placed their exhibits based on their categories, which makes it easier for the visitors to find their way to their desired place to be. However, this may mean that the exhibitors will be competing against each other if their products are similar, which may not be beneficial to the exhibitors. One possible way to resolve this would be to scatter the exhibitors selling merchandise across the whole exhibition floor, locating them near exhibits and displays which have similar or the same products would be beneficial to them as the visitors may have the intention to buy the related merchandise after looking at the exhibits and displays.

The third "P" is Partnerships. I-Promo Events & Marketing is in partnership with Dentsu Singapore, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan's Dentsu Inc. Dentsu Singapore is a ad agency/ communications group which focuses on branding and networking. Dentsu helps to market the event for I-Promo by using its wide asia network since this event targets mainly Asia. This method proved to be effective. While promoting the event, they will also showcase their latest initiatives from their global animation business.

The fourth "P" is Promotion. It includes advertising, PR and sales promotions, etc. As with Partnerships, Dentsu Singapore helps with the public relations as well as the networking with various companies using its list of connections. Advertising is also done with the media, e.g. Straits Times, Animax (Starhub CableTV), 8 Days magazine, Uniquely Singapore website, and many more. It managed to reach out to many people and I believe that they will exceed their expected turnout.

The fifth "P" is Packaging & Distribution. The event itself has two mini concert by two of Japan's most popular singers of anime theme songs, May'n and Mr. Ichiru Mizuki. The premium/VIP passes that allow buyers to have VIP seats near the stage also includes entry for the event for both days. The passes also allows the VIP guests to have an autograph & handshake session up close with the singers. H.I.S International Travel and Manga KISSa comic cafe in Singapore are the intermediaries that sell the VIP passes to locals. This method is effective as there are limited number of passes available to the mass and these two intermediaries are there to help facilitate smooth arrangement and sale of tickets.





The sixth "P" is People. This event encompasses a lot of interaction between the visitors, exhibitors, and the cosplayers. This is because their interests are all the same, animation. Thus, the marketing mix for people is rather effective.




The seventh "P" is Programming. The programming for this event is quite ineffective. Most people find the programmes provided by the event boring as it did not attract them at all. There are various reasons to it. One is the power rangers debut, which caters to children more than youths. Most of the visitors were youths or young adults, who have already lost most of their interest in power rangers. The seminars were mainly catered to the industry people, which most people were not interested since they have no interest in joining the anime industry. The workshops were also mainly for children below 14. Therefore, the programmes did not attract their mass. One way to improve the situation is to do a more thorough marketing research to find out which of their target audience would have the most turnout, and target them instead.

The final "P" is Price. There were various "price tags" for the event and its programmes itself. The ticket prices were S$5 for 1-day pass or S$8 for two-day pass. The price of the products were also slightly cheaper than those available outside so as to get people to buy them. The main sponsor for the event was Bandai, Japan's leading toy manufacturer. Bandai, being a well-known company, would sponsor the event with quite a large amount of money as this would make their branding known to even more people, representing the success of their products. However, I believe that the price for the tickets were not worth it. As mentioned earlier, the programmes for the event were not attractive to most people, and so were the products offered. When I approached some of the youths and asked if the event was worth paying S$5, majority claimed that it was not worth it. Most of the reasons claimed that the programmes and exhibits were lame and childish. Thus, pricing is not effective in comparison with the programmes and products offered.

Tourism Roles/ Economic Value

The tourism role of the event is to bring in visitors from across Asia. The visitors can be business corporates, people who are interested in the anime industry, fans of May'n and Mr. Ichiru Mizuki or just purely fans who are interested in animation.

Since this is a pre-event for the Japan Creative Centre that is scheduled to open in 2009, this event is to attract visitors and make Japan Creative Centre known to people so that there will be visitors to that event itself. It is a marketing effort so that the cost for advertising for the Japan Creative Centre can be lowered and yet, at the same time, let people know of the event before time. The Japan Creative Centre is a platform to showcase Japanese related content and culture in Singapore. Therefore, AFA'08 will help to market and bring in more visitors for the Japanese Creative Centre next year.

The economic values that AFA'08 has brought to the country would be that it brings about economic spillover for the duration of the event itself. The visitors would spend money in the event as well as the shops in Suntec City whereby the visitors would likely go to use their services, e.g. F&B, shopping, etc.

It also brings about more revenue for Singapore as visitors from all over the world, not just Asia, would be coming for the event. When they are here, they would use the accommodations, F&B, transport, and other services available here, which contributes to Singapore's revenue.

It also aims to bring in more revenue in the long run as this event is also aimed to attract visitors for the Japan Creative Centre in 2009. Visitors for that event will also use the local services, which would bring about revenue at that point in time.

Conclusion

The Anime Festival Asia 2008 is quite successful in using its marketing mix to help promote the event. However, the things that it offers in the exhibition floor could be more interesting for the target audience, and to do that, is to do a more thorough market research. The supporting programmes for the event are still related to the event and did not overwhelm the exhibitors who are trying to promote their things. The concerts also also held near the start or end of the event so as to prevent straying from the event's main objective.

However, more effort has to be put in so as to make the event more successful. I have witnessed a very long queue after entering the exhibition floor but when I asked the people what they were queuing up for, they were clueless. One way to improve the situation is that the staff can inform the queue of what they were lining up for or they could give them number tags so that they can come back later. The queue was very long and it stretched for about at least 50 metres, which blocked the other exhibitors who were trying to promote their stuff. The empty spaces (as mentioned in marketing mix "Place") could have been lessened and helped to improve exhibition floor situations by dispersing the booths more so that there will be more space for people to walk and queuing up.

In conclusion, in order to make an event a successful one, lots of preparations and research have to be done so that the correct target audience can be attracted and the programmes and products provided can be properly delivered. The pre and post evaluations (e.g. surveys) of an event can also help to improve the next exhibition that would be held.