Beer Festival Asia 2009 is an event that stretched across 5 days from 29th April 2009 to 3rd May 2009. In fact, the festival is a major event capable of attracting significant visitor numbers (over 14,000 attendees!!), media coverage and economic benefits. The event showcased a wide variety of more than 100 different types of beers from various countries available for tasting and purchase. The 5 day event was definitely enjoyably and an eye-opener with sumptuous food, gorgeous models, heart stopping performances which combined to give a huge adrenaline rush throughout my time there.

Exciting performances by world-famous, all-female AC/DC tribute band Hells Belles and double platinum selling act Vertical Horizon made the trip down to the festival grounds which is located on the F1 tracks (behind the Singapore Flyer), facing Marina Barrage all the more worthwhile. What’s more is that the event is s a completely outdoor, rain or shine event except for shelter provided by the main marquee. This gives the whole festival a more spontaneous and easy-going feel, allowing attendees like me to be totally at ease, relaxed and thus enjoyed myself more in the process.

Main Purpose
Beer Festival Asia is a platform for beer lovers to get to taste great and new beers from various countries and at the same time, know more about Singapore. Also, it is an opportunity generator. Firstly, it allows trading and business opportunities through setting up of stalls and employing. Secondly, it allows advertising opportunities for sponsors and organizations like F1 which set up a booth in the marquee as well. Thirdly, beer brands could gain market share and awareness by exploiting and making full use of this chance.

Beer Festival Asia vs. Oktoberfest Munich

As compared to the Beer Festival held in Singapore, Oktoberfest is an annual 16 days event in Munich, Germany during late September (and running to early October). It is one of the most famous events in Germany and the world's largest fair, with some six million people attending every year, and is an enjoyable event with an important part of Bavarian culture. Other cities such as Hong Kong and Mexico across the world also hold Oktoberfest celebrations, modeled after the Munich event.
Thus, the Oktoberfest is in fact a mega event, by way of its sheer size or significance, and it yields high levels of tourism, media coverage, prestige, as well as economic impact for the host community.

a) Product
What both beer festivals have in common in is that the two provide and offer wide variety and selection of beers for attendees, souvenirs, food catering, toilets for apparent reasons, and performances from various artistes. These went a long way in being able to serve the potential needs and wants of the visitors.

b) Place
The beer festival in Singapore is held in the heart of Singapore, behind the Singapore Flyer under a marquee. Located so centrally, it allows easy access for interested parties and the fact that it is set up behind the Singapore Flyer, it is hard to miss it and could even be a secondary attraction for tourists who checked it out while visiting one of Singapore’s prominent national icon. The atmosphere was real good as well even though I went on the last day of the festival. There were still crowds buzzing with excitement and there were the odd shouts of spontaneity and madness which lifted up the atmosphere of the place. The arrangement of the stalls was quite well-placed and strategic as well. Arranged in a circular setting, it would be hard to miss out on any stalls and this frees up the centre of the marquee, thus allows for benches and tables for people to soak up the surrounding buzz and happenings. Furthermore, if you find being inside the tent is stifling, you could head outside the tent where it is open air with free sitting as well with tables and benches being provided.

As for the Oktoberfest, it is held in Munich and there are many beer tents and halls to cater to the much participation from visitors and participating beer brands. The different tents offer different drinks, food and mainly experience as well. The atmosphere in the city, in the festival should be feverish as according to rave reviews and feedbacks on various forums. In fact, with over 6 million of visitors excluding the locals, it is pretty hard not to have the city come alive with excitement. Accessibility then is compromised with the overpopulation as the streets become congested with people and thus cars and cabs would not be able to travel freely and easily. However there is still public transport to count on if all else fails.

c) Promotion (Communications)
This includes advertising, PR, and sales promotions. In Singapore’s festival, the organizing committee recognized their target segments and markets. This is really important as it would allow for better productivity. This could be seen from the pricing as there are discounted prices for army men, tertiary students and senior citizens. However, not much advertisement was seen leading up to the festival.
As for the Munich event, due to the sheer size of the festival, it was widely known to many, including locals and potential visitors outside of Germany. This could be due to advertisements online and through word of mouth from beer lovers or past visitors. All in all, for both organizing committees, the communication mix requires ongoing management and relationship building, not just one-off efforts.A banner seen in Germany

d) Packaging and Distribution
For Beer Festival Asia, buying a ticket to the festival would include a package of a free ride on the Singapore Flyer as well as a certain number of free drinks in the festival. This is the packaging offered whereas for the Oktoberfest, the packaging allows for cheaper stays at hotels which are partners of the festival.

From the two festivals, we see that packaging requires cultivating relationships with packaging partners and intermediaries and that there should be various different giveaways or complimentary deals to attract visitors.

e) Price

Pricing is an important factor for any event as organizers have to take into account the spending power of visitors as well as covering the costs involved. The pricing strategy adopted by Beer Festival Asia is that there would be early bird offers and a lower price for tertiary students, army men, senior citizens and certain credit card holders. The tickets would then seem particularly attractive to these groups. For merchandise like food and beverage and souvenirs, the pricing is not too exorbitant and set at only slightly higher prices which seem reasonable in such a setting. The Oktoberfest has reasonable pricing as well for admission and their merchandise. However, there is no indication that there are early bird offers or any other giveaways other than the cheap hotel deals.

f) People
The interactions between customers, the setting, and the staff volunteers constitute a large part of the event experience. The hospitality received by visitors directly shapes their experiences. I had a great experience with the serving “cast” there as they were friendly and warm quickly to visitors. They were efficient in their service and were quick to clear any of my doubts. I am sure that the Oktoberfest in Munich would adopt the same strategy and attitude as well to ensure visitors to the festival would go away with satisfaction.

g) Programming
Programming within the event is also a marketing strategy, especially by way of creating targeted benefits. Beer Festival Asia, as to what I have experienced succeeded in the sense that the bands invited such as Vertical Horizon to the festival attracted people to the festival and let more people come to know about it. The night that I went, there were no performances, but the music there was great for the atmosphere and adds to the enjoyment. For me, great programming means that there is an urge instilled in people to stay at an event for longer than they had planned and a revisit is on the cards even halfway through the experience.

In Oktoberfest, the crowd pullers are definitely the grand entry of the Oktoberfest landlords and breweries, opening ceremony of the Oktoberfest, Oktoberfest costume and riflemen's parade and Open-Air Oktoberfest Concert. These are the main highlights other than the beer. These performances attract even non-beer drinkers to the festival; therefore good planning and programming are almost much appreciated.

h) Partnerships
This is important for any event as it promises greater budget and better quality. Both festivals in Singapore and Munich have sponsors and partners which helped to create a better event with more pulling power.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders can generally be categorized into 6 groups: host organization, host community, participants and spectators, co-workers, media and sponsors. Participants and spectators would definitely be the many beer brand participants and visitors. Co-workers would then be the many employees and volunteers. Media involved in the event are Power 98FM as official radio station, and many other magazines which all serve as vessels for transmitting information on the event itself. Sponsors are Citibank, Singapore Flyer, Grand Park city hall, Timbre which helped to give financial inputs or services.
All 6 categories of stakeholders are equally important as the lack of any would cause any event to be a utter failure.

Tourism Benefits
The impact Beer Festival Asia has on Singapore appears to be much. In fact, the event is not limited to locals but even tourists and beer lovers from overseas. This would help to generate tourism receipts and create an economical spin off to other financial sectors of Singapore. Firstly, there would be people staying in hotels, tourists visiting secondary attractions since they are here, locals would even contemplate going on the Singapore Flyer since they are already there and many others such as employment opportunities.
Socially, since the event would attract people from all over the world, locals would get to interact with fellow beer lovers from outside of Singapore, observing and getting to know their cultures. This would serve to widen our horizons.
Furthermore, a visit down to Singapore for tourists would even lead to more tourists if they had a good experience here. They would then spread good publicity about Singapore through word of mouth and thus, creating more potential tourists and visitors. Other than tourists, good publicity could even lead to more known and recognised festivals committees to decide to hold their event in Singapore, leading to more opportunities in the long run.