An event is a short term occurrence with the objective of gathering people together, either as spectators or participants, to serve the purpose of leisure, celebration or business. The power of event is that it is able to stir emotions internationally. It is able to inspire, create new perceptions and bridge cultures. An event requires a process of designing it. Every such design is unique and different – starting from the blend of management, program, setting, people the concept and the purpose and motivation for it. An event can create hype and bring about transformation through the feeling it creates for its audience.
The reason for why events are increasingly used as tourism promotion strategies because it helps to promote the destination’s image as well as attract investment. Event is used as a main anchor to attract investments and tourists because every event has its own unique characteristics which gives the hosting country a competitive advantage by hosting a differentiated product which cannot be found anywhere else for that current period. Thus, it possesses a fantastic pulling power.
2. THE SELECTED EVENT –THE LION KING the Landmark Musical Event
2.1 Characteristics of the Event
The Lion King Musical is considered as a major event. A major event can be defined as an event that are capable by their scale and media interest, of attracting significant visitor numbers, media coverage and economic benefits. The Lion King is an award-winning musical that has won over 70 major international theatre awards. The event is based on 1994’s Disney’s award-winning animated film directed by an internationally acclaimed musical director Julie Taymor that has won the Tony Award for directing a musical, in addition to a Tony Award for Original Costume Design just for the Lion King Musical itself. The show debuted on 1997 in Minnesota and since then has been seen by over 50 million people around the world before it finally premiered its first Southeast Asian show at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore; making this musical Broadway's seventh longest-running show in history. It has succeeded in breaking the record in Singapore by becoming the best selling show in Singapore history, with the production surpassing 100 performances and attendance of over 170,000 to date. This musical serves the purpose to provide entertainment for its audiences with its redefined theatrical experience and can be classified as an Arts event type. The show initially started on March and was planned to run for a couple of months. However, with the huge demand, full house attendance every show, rave reviews and positive responses from the audiences, it has been extended to August with 8 shows a week. According to Kenneth Tan, Sistic's Chief Executive Officer, the show has been a huge hit and has contributed to Singapore's growing arts and entertainment appeal. Singapore is the latest leading city to host THE LION KING, which continues to sell out in New York, Las Vegas, on North American tour, London, Hamburg and Tokyo; thus showing its significant scale of media interest, coverage and visitor attention, describing it as a Major event internationally.
The musical story, a coming of age parable set among animals indigenous to its setting, the African savanna and tells the tale of Simba, the lion cub who rises to be the King of the jungle through the use of sensational props, remarkable puppeteering, spectacular stage set-up, video design support as well as astounding acting and music by prestigious musicians such as Elton John and Hans Zimmer. The show was successful in bringing the setting come to life. The cast were intensely immersed to the characters and in many scenes, I could imagine myself watching the original film animation with a real tale instead consciously realizing that this was a play.
2.2 Economic and Tourism role of the Event
This event has played some economic & Tourism Roles of events. Firstly, Tourist attractions which mean attracting quality tourists, spread demand and also increase visitor spending and length of stay. From my personal research, many from neighbouring countries, mainly visitors from Indonesia came to Singapore to catch a show of this event. One visitor that I have interviewed, who has agreed to be acknowledged, Henni, came to Singapore for a holiday and extended her length of stay for the reason of wanting to watch the show. Another, is Vega, a photographer, visited Singapore with the main motivation of watching this event. Also, from my personal observation when I attended the event, I have realized a few groups of family from Indonesia attended to watch the show. Secondly, this event also played the role of being an animator which means that it encourage first and repeat visits at facilities, resorts, attractions. A friend that I have interviewed came to watch for the second time with her family and has encouraged her to visit Marina Bay Sands not just to watch the event but also as a place to visit and look around. Thirdly, it is an image maker. With a casino and outstanding and globally known developer, Las Vegas Sands, the event hosting of a prestigious award-winning musical further enhance and polish of Marina Bay Sands. This lion king musical that has continuously garnered overwhelming demands from the public for more than a decade also has combat negative imagery about theatre for those who were previously uninterested in musical and theatrical plays as the show was successful in bringing a redefined image and portrayal of musical by stirring emotions of the audience and change their perceptions. As shown in the picture above, the show has attracted an intense number of crowds and sold-out tickets for shows everyday. (A full house attendance including for the show that I went to despite running for 4 months now.)
3. STRENGTH AND WEAKNESSES
3.1 The Environment and Venue
3.1.1 Journey to the Venue
Strengths
The event was held in Marina Bay Sands (MBS) which is located in the city area of Singapore near the Central Business Districts where accessibility was fairly easy for public and private transports. Near it are 2 MRT stations – Marina Bay MRT Stations and Promenade MRT with exit A leading to MBS. However, commuters taking MRT has to walk a certain length before reaching the venue. Those coming from Promenade has to cross the bridge that connects Esplanade to MBS (fig 1). While those from Marina Bay has to walk a few hundred metres to get there. However, with the uniquely constructed and well lit designs on the facilities along the walk, and also with scenery overlooking the enchanting Singapore waterfront ( fig.2), the journey to get to the event itself has added some value to the overall experience. Also with a MBS becoming one of Singapore’s popular icon, finding the way by taxi is not a problem. With big roads highways and office buildings with big company name near it, clear road directions are given, making it even easier to get to the venue.
Weakness
Convenience of the visitors is highly important in a service industry. Especially for those who are foreign to the location or those that require extra needs such as the elderly and handicapped. Although public transport or taxi has eliminate possible problems for an easy accessibility to the venue, those taking bus and MRT are at a lesser advantage, most especially for those who have to walk along construction work sites to get to the venue (Eg. Coming from Marina Bay MRT Station). These conditions may not able to cater the needs of those requiring extra attention. For a recommendation, MBS may arrange a scheduled shuttle bus from nearby bus-stops or MRT stations to pick up visitors coming for the event. This service will allow the visitors to have more, improved and better choice to get the venue. This can lead to customer satisfaction which is critical in the service and tourism industry. This customer satisfaction will add value to the whole experience and can help further improve economic and tourism aspect of the country which means that the goal of Event tourism is achieved. This matches with the purpose of attaining organizational goal through creating value for customers.
3.1.2 The Venue – Sands Theatre
Strengths
The Sands Theater and The Grand Theater located adjacent to each other share a box office and spectacular grand foyer, which gives the visitor an atmosphere of grandeur, glamour and importance and most importantly a big and clear entrance of the venue (fig.3). Both theaters boast magnificent interior design with high ceilings, extravagant layout and high-class furnishing to create an experience of a night of elegance for the audience. The theatre is well equipped with the audio visual technology as well as large orchestra pits, seat wagons and trap rooms. Furnished with the latest technology, the theatre hall allows a multitude of stage configurations and an efficient and seamless set-change for all theater performances. The hall can hold the capacity of up to 1,680 guests on two levels with a traditional proscenium style venue. Being a smaller hall, the venue gives the show a more intimate atmosphere for the audience, allowing the audiences to get immersed even deeper to the depth of the show.
Also, being one of the premiere world-class theatres in Singapore, cleanliness and top notch service were guaranteed to provide comfort for the audiences. Accessibility to basic amenities were also clear as directions were given clearly and staff and ushers to assist the visitors were available at many spots at the venue.
3.2 Marketing Events & Event Marketing
Marketing events is the process of employing the marketing mix to attain organizational goals through creating value for customers and other stakeholders. The organization must adopt a marketing orientation which stresses the building of mutually beneficial relationships and the maintenance of competitive advantages.Event Marketing is to describe marketing through sponsorship or production of events.
3.2.1 Promotion
The event itself has a strong brand name and respectable reputation, the news of its debut in Singapore are available from various media resources such as internet, musical sites, newspapers, buzz and television commercials. Sistic itself has played a major role I promoting the event by plastering it on their main page and making it as one of their head events. Brochures of the event are readily available at booths in the airport and posters are displayed at bus-stops. Marina Bay Sands has also arrange a packaged promotion whereby a purchase of ticket to the rooftop garden at MBS will give a $20 off the musical’s ticket price. Thus, MBS use this event as a primary attraction around which packaging are created. In this case, they make use of the event and packaged it with their own resort package to create a more attractive offering. Also available are the selling of Platinum packages, which include prime seat locations, a souvenir gift, S$10 merchandise voucher and a drink. This provides convenience and extra comfort for the audience and will automatically add value for the audience.
I feel that one of the most impactful promotion methods are through buzz and television Commercial. The buzz creates a hype for the public. Fans of the animated film and the musical will create a buzz knowing that Singapore is the chosen spot to host the debut of the Southeast Asian show. This hype will continue to increasing interest and curiosity for the general public. With positive and rave reviews, many would be attracted to the event. The TV advertisement further enhances this buzz. With sneak peak and reviews from respectable critics, the public gets a glance of the event experience and will further motivate them to catch the event. The reviews from the critics will also add credibility to a fantastic performance. The image and portrayal of the play that the advertisement clip depicts will also attract the attention of the viewers emotionally. Also, with award-winning songs and a globally known storyline, it gives familiarity to the audience which many are very comfortable with. Therefore, I believe that these 2 mediums have played a huge rule in promoting this event.
3.2.2 The Programming
The show was divided into 2 parts – ACT I followed by after a short break ACT II.
The transition from one scene to another was smooth and subtle. The feels that the casts portray on the characters were also perfect. Props were prepared with intrinsic details to ensure that every part of the show is run with an excellent flow. The music was live, with an orchestra at the front of the stage and two other band players on the sides of the stage for extra special effects. The live music gives a real beat for the experience of the audience and automatically we are immersed to every music and lyrics of the songs they performed.
The actors played to the core of their characters. And everything that I had watched was more than a musical play. I see the cast as what they depict their characters to be instead of actors acting on the stage. The emotions of the characters are delivered successfully and so were the personalities of each character.
The audio visual technologies were also put to excellent use to depict a flashback or a “deeper message” to the story. The stage was beautifully set up to support every scene. The show was successful in giving us a ride to the lives of the characters. With a lengthy show time of approximately around 2 hours 30 minutes, the placement of the break was good to allow audiences to get some refreshments and really reflect on the storyline thus far.
Extra casts enter from the back near the audience seats and that provides the experience and the imagination that we were at the savannah like how the characters were. The experiential factor allow greater sense of satisfaction for the audience because this feature provide the need of belongingness which not all shows can offer.
Weakness
The scheduled time of the show is 8 at night. However, the show only starts half an hour after a scheduled time. Although this to some extent is good because it serve some waiting time for all audience to arrive on time to watch from the beginning of the show, it results in the show ending at a later hour. This is inconvenient for some watching on the weekdays. Also with some transportation issues mentioned above, this may be to some extent a problem for the elderly audience who are not staying at the MBS hotel.
3.2.3 Manpower Allocation
The event has a front desk line that provides the customers with any issues or ticketing inquiries. From what I’ve observed, 4 staffs are allocated in the front desk to ensure effectiveness and efficiency for the customers.
There were also the security line, with staffs checking contents of bags for the purpose of bringing safety, security and comfort for the rest of the audience. They were also the ones in charge of checking the tickets for the show with barcode readers for a faster and easier ticket checking method. I believe that this I a good way of checking tickets because neither the customers nor the staff will be troubled caused by manual checking and queue line is ensured to be short, providing the customers convenience and better comfort.
There were also staff in charge of the Food and beverage booths serving them with a wide range of refreshments and snacks from chocolates, candies to popcorns and wines. This provide the customers the service if they need any light refreshments in between the show.
The ushers were one of the most important lines. They escort audiences to the seats and were at the service of providing any assistance for any enquiries. The strength for this is that communications among them are well planned and clear as they are each provided with a walkie talkie. Late comers for the show were assisted to the seats and service provided was good with their friendly yet professional disposure.
3.3 Partnership
THE LION KING's presenting sponsor is OCBC Bank, while MediaCorp TV 5 is the Official TV Station, Class 95 is the official radio station and Showbiz Asia is the official packaging partner; Singapore Airlines is the official airline, and it's proudly supported by the Singapore Tourism Board.
With the support of a world-class airline, the opportunity of marketing is grown. Also with the help of the national tourism board, the marketing for this event can be intensified to ensure that full potential of the marketing reaches out to all the public.
4. FUTURE CHALLENGES
With an intense working hour of 8 shows a week and ongoing shows running for around 6 months, some actors may lose the passion in bringing out their full potential in portraying the characters. This may cause the production to suffer because interest rates may decline due to this problem. Thus, the people in charge must account for the needs of the actors. They must be ensured constant motivation and the aim for showcasing this production – to bring a value entertainment for the audience who have paid good money. To motivate the casts, incentives and rewards system can be introduced for best performances after every a few number of shows. This can help to encourage them to give their maximum effort in their work and refresh them of their passion. Their interest should also be considered because a person working in a good working environment with a good spirit and enthusiasm will guarantee a spectacular performance.
