Festival Destination and Special Events Planning

Question: Discuss about the Festival Destination and Special Events Planning. Answer: Introduction Event management and planning could be tricky as event managers have to manage the expectations of various stakeholders. Generally, the event marketing and managers would have to manage the internal and external variables to get the best output from any event (Niekerk Getz, 2016). The event could be a day event or a week event. However, 100 of hours of planning is required to make any event successful. With the latest marketing tools like social media and Internet making, it is relatively easy to reach out to target audience. However, it is important that event marketing managers should make continuous attempt to keep the targeted audience engages. The objective of this report is to discuss the event in terms of various internal and external factors. The report would discuss the goals and objectives of the events and the way event marketing is done. The event under consideration is, Clunes Booktown Festival. The annual Clunes Booktown Festival is back on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th May, with 18,000 people expected to join the most amazing whole town bookshop experience in Australia. This is an annual event where various author talks about their books and there are various panel discussions. This year, Headline authors this year include Clementine Ford, the Hon. Tim Fischer AC, Hannah Kent, Kate Grenville, A.S. Patric and Annie Raser-Rowland. It can be said that this event is one stop destination for all book enthusiasts. In this event, people get the chance to discover the rare books. People also get a chance to listen to live music and watch the street performances of various artists. There is an entry price of $10 for the event. The entry price is $5 for students. The Clunes Booktown Festival is an event to celebrate the books and conversations. It is a platform to get to know the like-minded people and enjoy the various books on numerous topics from art and literature to support, technology, life-sciences and fiction. The purpose of the event is to spread the awareness about the books and create a platform where the interested people can get the access to various books. Event marketing There are various tools that are being used for the marketing of this event. The event planners intend to use a combination of traditional and modern marketing channels. In terms of event marketing mix for this event, it can be assumed that traditional marketing focus of this event is only 10% to 15%. The majority of event marketing happens through social media marketing and Internet marketing (Bruce, 2015). The various modern marketing tools as used in the event can be shown as: The event marketing could also be discussed with reference to the four Ps of marketing. The marketing mix or the 4Ps of marketing for this event can be discussed as: Marketing Mix (Product): It would be correct to say that product element of the marketing mix is one of the most important element. The product of this event is the books that people get to read. In terms of collection of books, it can be said that event provides a great collection of books. The marketing of the event is done with the focus on Product. For example, the social bites like Facebook and Twitter posts highlight the rich collection of books that this event would have (Harris Edwards, 2014). The Facebook and Twitter posts also focuses on the learned authors that appears as guests in the event. It can be said that the product positioning of this event is good. Marketing Mix (Price): The tickets of the event are very reasonably priced at $10. In fact, there is a special 50% discount for students and students can get the ticket for $5 only. It can be said that event planners have used a very effective pricing strategy as people will not feel burden. The event planners would want to focus on the economy of scale as it is expected that close to 20,000 people would visit the event. The event also has provision of few VIP passes and special discounts and offers for people like Army officers, sports person, etc. Marketing Mix (Promotion): Almost 90% of the event promotion is done on social media channels. There are two major platforms for promotions. These are Facebook and Twitter. The event has a strong FB page where users can interact with other users and at the same time they can ask the questions to event planners. The event also has a Twitter handle that is being used to communicate the words and news about the event. In addition to the Facebook and Twitter, the event also uses Internet marketing and e-mail marketing. The people who register themselves with the event gets email with the latest news, information and update about the event. Marketing Mix (Place): The place is an also a critical element of marketing mix. The place of the event is good. The event is scheduled to happen in Fraser street, Clunes. The Fraser street is a happening street in Victoria. The people should not have any problem in visiting the place where event is held (Ruhanen Whitford, 2014). Therefore, it can be said that the marketing mix of place is very well managed by the event organisers. The initial analysis suggests that the marketing managers and the event planners have done a great job to manage the event. It is critical that all the four elements of the marketing mix should be used in a collaborated manner so that events can achieve its desired objectives. Evaluation of event Once the event is over, it is important to evaluate the event. There are various measures to evaluate the success of any event. The three key evaluation measures that would be used to evaluate this event can be discussed as: Users feedback: On the spot feedback, will be collected from the users who will visit the event. This method of evaluation will be the best method as it involves direct interaction with the users (Jones Newsome, 2016). The chances of biasness are very less in this method. Past Data point: The past data points will be used to compare with the current data points. For example, in the last years event, the footfall was 18,000 people. It is expected that the footfall will further increase this year. This data point clubbed with other data points will be a great source of information to evaluate the event. Evaluation against the set KPIs: There would be various Key Performance Indicators that can be used to assess the event. For example, customer satisfaction index and employee satisfaction index. It is important to mention that evaluation will be done from the perspective of various internal and external stakeholders (Buning Gibson, 2016). It is important that people should not leave the internal stakeholders while doing the evaluation. Conclusion The above paper discusses the event of Clunes Booktown Festival. With the above discussion, it can be said that the marketing activities of the event are on track. The paper also discusses the various ways and means to evaluate the event. At this moment, it appears that the event should be successful if the planners and organizers can work in a collaborated and integrated manner as per the event marketing mix. References Bruce, D., 2015. Post incident research-gaining knowledge after the event. Australian Journal of Emergency Management, The, 30(3), p.6. Buning, R.J. and Gibson, H.J., 2016. The role of travel conditions in cycling tourism: implications for destination and event management. 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