REPORT

2008-06-27T01:56:00.016+08:00

INTRODUCTION

Walking into the event itself, the song by popular popstar Gwen Stefani came into my head... "Running running as fast as I can..." This song was ready to get me into the mood for running the marathon. Sadly, I am not exactly a very fit man. However, since I cannot participate, I will get into the event and witness the runners competing.

The adidas Sundown Marathon was held on the 31st of May 2008 at Changi Point (Changi Beach Park). This event was organzed by Hivelocity Pte Ltd and is one of the very first marathon that is organized in the night. The adidas Sundown Marathon had a total of 6029 participants running the race.

Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education, Ms Grace Fu Hai Yen was there to grace (no pun intended) to grace the event. Many other VIP participants were also there to run and enjoy the event. VIP guests such as Mr Teo Ser Luck (Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Minister of Community Development, Youth and Sports and Ministry of Transport), Mr Christopher de Souza (Member of Parliament for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC) and Mr Lim Wee Kiat (Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC).

Many marathon events have also been planned before in Singapore like the Standard Chartered Marathon. Night running is however not very prominent yet in Singapore and maybe around the world. However, I personally believe after this successful event at Singaporeans' very own Changi Point, Singapore is ready to be the trend setter and be the first to hold night marathons yearly.

I would classify this event as a local event as the characteristics of this event fulfills all of a local/community event. Currently, it encourages participation in sports and a healthy lifestyle. I do believe it has the potential to become a hallmark event and make its mark on the international map as the adidas Sundown Marathon was an overall success.

BACKGROUND OF ORGANIZER

The organizer of the event is Hivelocity Pte Ltd. The marketing and events company prides itself on its fiery passion and love for sports. Hivelocity specializes in sports marketing and sports event management. They are also able to do:

Event Consultancy
Logistics Planning
Route Planning

Online registration and payment gateway

Database Management

They had a extremely successful project, Aviva Ironman 70.3 which involved 1,250 participants. The company is headed by Mr Adrian Mok and Mr Jeffrey Foo.

MY WALK AROUND CHANGI POINT

It was a great place to have the event and many people and volunteers were there basking in the atmosphere, cheering on the runners, ushering in visitors and working hard in the adminstrative tents.

MY RATING OF THE

ORGANIZATION OF THE EVENT

I would give Hivelocity top marks for the event as it was a well planned event and it executed very smoothly. The place was filled with plenty of tents and was well organized. There were various departments such as the:

Athletes Circle
Volunteers Area
Massage Area
VIP
Media Centre
Information
Other Sponsors tents e.g. Polar, PowerBar, Oakley and Subway etc.

Photos are shown below of the organization of the event

Though I felt that the organization of the event was good, it was always important to seek another person's opinion, especially the event attendees and volunteers.

INTERVIEWS

Ngee Ann Polytechnic Student Scott Tham, 19 was there to watch his friend run and to enjoy the fresh air. "I think that the event was really impressive.. The tents are there to help the people, especially the runners know where to go. Kudos to the organizers.. I think its a great job!" commented Mr Tham. However, Mr Tham declined to be photographed stating personal reasons.

A group of young volunteers agreed when I asked whether they would give me feedback on the event. Majority of them nodded their head when asked whether they thought the event was successful. Also, they felt that the organization on the whole was of standard as everyone was at the right stations and the people who ran the show were clear. Because they seemed so sure that the event was an extremely good one, my thoughts ran wild, prompting me to question whether it was because they received many freebies e.g. event shirt, meals, token of allowance etc. However, I have no questions about their commitment as they did their job well. Volunteers are an integral part of any event and it is only right that they are treated well if possible.

Though I did not managed to get any more interviews with the other participants, I did however managed to get a even better interview with a few of the VIPs and the Managing Director of the title sponsor, adidas.

The project group with Mr Darren Choy and VIPS Mr de Souza and Mr Lim

My project group mates engaged in a small conversation with Mr Lim Wee Kiat, Mr Christopher de Souza and Mr Darren Choy. They were very responsive to our questions and gave us feedback on the event. Mr Lim said, "It's a good event, with quite a good crowd and I think the organization of the event was great. Also, it is refreshing to run in the night rather than the day." Mr Choy also gave comments like, "I think it was a great event and adidas is proud to sponsor the event. Running in the night is a good idea and I hope it will get better next year." What a way to cap the night off - Photos with MPs and a Managing Director of adidas.

ROLE OF EVENT TO ORGANIZERS

Having met the head of Hivelocity, he proceeded to explain what was the role of the event to the organizers. The role of the event was to possibly promote night running and increase the company's profile. As mentioned earlier, Hivelocity is a company that has a strong passion for sporting activities and events. Also, it is possible to help contribute to Singapore's cause of Uniquely Singapore.

By doing another huge and successful event, main organizer Hivelocity will have another big event on their portfolio that will boost their image as a credible and successful company. Also, Hivelocity's passion for sports means that they will also want to promote night marathons as a means to help people enjoy running, but not under the sweltering heat. Lastly, whoever living in this sane world ever heard of running a marathon in the night? That makes us

UNIQUELY SINGAPORE!!!

STAKEHOLDERS OF EVENT

Stakeholders of this event were mainly:

Organizers - Hivelocity
Major sponsors - adidas, polar, PowerBar, Oakley etc
Volunteers
Runners
Supporters
VIP participants
Spectators and event critics

TARGET MARKET

The target market for this event would be for runners in Singapore as Jeffrey Foo, general manager of Hivelocity states that his marketing strategies are mainly to attract Singaporeans to run the marathon. The aim is to get more people to experience night racing.

MARKETING STRATEGIES USED BY

HIVELOCITY

Hivelocity spreaded the message of this event through:

Word of mouth

Emails
Online Newsletters
Advertisements
Bus Stop Advertisements

Considering the above marketing strategies used and the positive turnout, I would say that marketing strategies of appointed media group - Strategic Public Relations Group - could be improved. The turnout of 6029 participants surpassed the expected target of 5,000 but I felt that this event could have been more publicized to attract more people to run.

Many of those who came from overseas to run were mostly corporate employees who heard it from word of mouth or by emails. Other runners came from Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong. In a study done by World Health Organization (WHO), Singapore is not even in the top ten of the world's healthiest countries. If more promotion could be done to attract foreign sports participants from countries such as Japan, Australia, France etc, I am positive that Singaporeans will benefit from this economically and physically. Singaporeans would be motivated to participate in this event if there is more hype and more overseas participants. Also, it could benefit the nation's tourism numbers.

The use of online newsletters and emails reached out selectively. Emails and online newsletters are generally thought of as junk unless people have an interest in that subject. Bus stop advertisements reached to the masses in Singapore but did not attract more Singaporeans. I felt amused when seeing more foreigners than Singaporeans at the race. This shows that the marketing did not reach out to more Singaporeans. It is not that having 1,000 more participants than the expected number of 5,000 isn't good, but rather that with Singapore having a population of over 4 million, a paltry 5,000 is not enough.

My recommendations is that emails and online newsletters should continue to be sent out to overseas companies and citizens who maybe interested in running in the marathon. Also, the marketing focus should not be too much about night running but on the emphasis of healthy living which would appeal to more Singaporeans. Due to this cultural aspect of most Singaporeans which is "kiasi-ism" (afraid to die), I believe that emphasizing on healthy lifestyles would benefit them. This is especially true in recent times as many people are signing up for gym memberships, yoga classes, pilates etc. More media coverage should also be assigned to the event so as to increase hype.

Strategic Public Relations Group has incorporated price, place, programming, people, promotion, partnerships, packaging and distribution and price in its marketing strategies. However, with these recommendations, I believe that the next adidas Sundown Marathon will yield a greater number of participants.

POTENTIAL OF EVENT TO MEET

TOURIST DEMAND

There is a huge potential of this event to be successful and meet tourist demands as many countries especially in the ASEAN region enjoy marathons. The fact that there were many people enquiring about the adidas Sundown Marathon showed that foreigners had an interest inthis night race. The event had the 10.5km (Team/Corporate) Challenge which boasted a total of 126 teams under the Corporate Category and 197 teams under the Team Challenge. Individual races had 310 participants competing in the 84km race and 4427 participants competing in the 42 km race.

If more promotion is done overseas, there will definitely be more tourists arriving in Singapore next year to partake in this fun marathon event.

RAISING VALUE OF THE EVENT TO ALIGN

WITH TOURISM MISSION IN SINGAPORE

"We develop & champion tourism, so as to build the sector into a key driver of economic growth for Singapore." -STB

Currently, there is a low tourist demand for this event as it is a local event that happens periodically. To enhance the value of this event, I would suggest:

Increasing promotion overseas

Market Singapore to be a sports oriented country

Appeal to Singaporeans so as to promote the run

Sustain the event

By doing this event, there is a possibility that it will become a future hallmark event that occurs periodically. To develop and champion tourism, we have to instil that sense of winning and perservering mentality into Singaporeans. The adidas Sundown marathon can be used to challenge many Singaporeans to rise to the occasion and keep fit. Singapore's tourism sector is rapidly growing and it will continue to grow if the government puts in effort and markets it so that it will become a part of our culture. Say for e.g. The Great Singapore Workout and Aces Day were something most Singaporeans in the previous generation would encounter.

LAST WORDS...

The event was a successful one and can be improved. Though the work of Hivelocity were extremely impressive having notched an extra 1,000 participants instead of the targeted 5,000, it is important to improve and progress further. Tourism is all about current affairs, trends and interests. Will the adidas Sundown Marathon be better next year? Let's find out.

Thank you.

THE NIGHT BEFORE THE RECKONING

2008-06-26T22:24:00.000+08:00

Hi to all,

Damn. I am looking at everyone's blog and no one has posted a thing? Hmm. Me neither! WOOHOOO! This is to test how blogger works alright. Ignore, hate or revere this post - This is Jon's first ever blog post. YEAAAAAAAH.

Guess what. To all you people, did you realized that according to the Singapore law, making wrong comments on your blog could actually land you in trouble with the authorities. Come on! Where's the freedom of speech! And there can be no creativity in my events management blog especially with guidelines such as no vulgarities, racist, religious, sexist comments etc.

Alright. Ignore the rest. I am no racist, sexist and definitely do not hate another religion. But what about the vulgarities. Damn. $%#*^*&*%^&$Q&

My Events Management Journal

REPORT

THE NIGHT BEFORE THE RECKONING