Events Management Case Study Big Day Out Essay

Conflicts of Interest and communications between founding partners Ken West and Vivian Lees can lead to internal organisational issues for example misguided and confused management, which could potentially hinder the whole event. (2) Host Community and Event Location: Big day out at the moment have a negative relationship Claremont council with the current councillor and mayor both believing that the music festival bringing more negatives to the region then positives. This also generates bad media for the event displaying it, as â€Å"detrimental† to the community and that it should relocate from the showgrounds. As the showgrounds is the only location in Perth that can safely house 40,000 people and is also close to public transport. Relocating to a more isolated and smaller venue would disinterest punters with greater cost of going to the venue and also a lower cap on ticket sales, which will lead to less revenue and inspire greater scalping margins. (3) New Management: With Lees leaving the event, Big Day Out management have to manage their first event working with new co managers C3 Presents. This is an issue because they will bring new techniques used over in America in the management of Lollapalooza which whilst being possibly effective, if the existing Big day out management isn’t dynamic, confusion and conflict could occur jeopardising the whole success of the event. (4) Maintaining Quality of event: Big Day Out organisers are under a lot of pressure to maintain the quality of the line up while dealing with higher and higher asking prices from headline performers, this makes it harder to obtain a higher number of â€Å"big name† acts as the event use to draw as the asking price of performers has risen greatly. Also because in previous years the Event has scored good quality bug name acts such as Nirvana, for a decent price, the pressure is on for the event to deliver equal too or greater than standards year after year. (5) Financing and Ticket Sales: Financing and Ticket Sales are somewhat complimentary in this case because even though BDO managers paid a lot to get headliner Kanye West it was not enough to spark the required ticket sales, not to mention cutting the line up for the Western and South Australia shows and abandoning New Zealand. Without high Ticket sales there is less profit and therefore lower finances to support the next years bill resulting in less headliners and less ticket sales. If C3 Presents had not bought into BDO this could have been the start of a relentless cycle for BDO, which could have resulted in its demise. (6) Competition: Apart from higher asking prices from performers, bidding against other events such as future and soundwave for headliners makes the asking price even higher. This can then determine who headlines which event, which can turn into a competition for punters. With the main demographic of music festivals being young low-income earners, generally they have to decide which one summer festival they would like to attend. This decision is generally made from how many big acts are on the line up. (7) Fan Loyalty: After completely scrapping the New Zealand leg of the even and cutting some headline acts fro the South and Western Australian legs of the event, Big Day Out managers have to work really hard to keep a loyal fan base and try make the regrettable cuts have as less impact as possible on the events fan bas and ticket sales. Will punters trust Big Day Out if it returns to New Zealand and will Western and Southern Australians pay the same price as the east coast for less of an event? (8) Bad Media: Big Day Out has recently come under fire from Claremont Councilman Peter Browne stated to the media â€Å"The benefits of such concerts are hopelessly outweighed by the intolerable noise, the late finish, the high level of criminal activity and general social misbehaviour in and outside of the grounds. This inspires a bad relationship with Big Day Out and the media because such a quote can trigger the media to produce stories that correlate the big day out with public disruption, un happy residence, criminal behaviour and delinquent youths. Which are all damaging to Big Day Outs’ public image. 3. What alternatives would you offer when recommending solving three of your major issues that you found in question 2? Be detailed in your answer. (10 marks each = 30 marks in total) (1) New Management- The Intro duction of C3 Presents to the management team of Big Day Out could be one of the best or worst things to happen to event. To ensure that it is a good thing a smooth integration must occur. Existing management must be willing to be dynamic and open to change whilst still employing standards and techniques that have shaped Big Day Out into what it is renowned as. Because C3 has shown to be very successful with Lollapalooza in the states they should be given quite a bit of control but given direction not to totally re shape the festivals image jeopardising its reputation and loyal fan base. C3 can bring a lot of good management traits to the table with the main two being effective HR and also industry contacts. With lollapalooza being such a large and successful even the managers at C3 Presents have been able to develop exception management and HR skills which would help BDO excel. The Managers at C3 would also have excellent contacts allowing possibilities for international growth and exposure, not to mention contacts with talent agents, managers and performers which leads to my next recommendation. (2) Competition – With Managers from C3 Presents at the helm of BDO the event can now excel in getting big name headliners at better prices and also reduce the risks of being out bid by other festivals such as Soundwave and Future Music. This is because of C3’s buying power and contacts. C3 can use past contacts from Lollapalooza to invite headline shows from their American festival to also tour as part of BDO. Almost every main headliner that has played BDO in the past has played at Lollapalooza and contract deals could be made where some headliners get paid to play both festivals, also knowing C3’s reputation acts could be inclined to take lower offers to play the event due to exposure and the chance to be asked to play at Lollapalooza after BDO. 3) Host Community – Although most venues are welcoming to the event, Claremont Council forced the event to relocate last year to Victoria Park. This venue is smaller and more isolated then the previous location of Claremont Showgrounds. To reclaim the Showgrounds as the venue for Big Day Out relationship with the mayor, council and local residents need to bee improved. Making the event more sustainable is a start as then there would be less environment al impacts on the venue itself. Improved Crowd controlling would also play in favour as most complaints come from how patrons of the event act outside the venue before and after. More external security and police presence should be employed after the event to make sure that public nuisance is reduced to a minimum and that the neighbouring community is kept safe. If the BDO managers can prove that they have a fortified and planned event that minimising impact on the host community they may have a chance of re hosting the event at the Claremont showgrounds, which would result in higher ticket sales due to the size and capacity of the venue. 4. Identify at least five main differences between marketing a product and marketing an event such as BDO (5 marks). Discuss and analyse five only in detail. (5 marks) (1) Lifetime of Marketing – The marketing of an event is only relative in its marketed regions until the event has ended and is marketed months before tickets go on sale sometimes even up to a year before the event is held. Marketing lifetime for a product is different because only some products are marketed before they are actually on sale and lifetime depends purely on the type of the product where the lifetime of a market campaign of events is generally similar. 2) Use of Media – Events are mainly marketed through newspaper magazines, social media and Internet, billboards and flyers with less frequent television advertisements. Products on the other hand generally have a lot more TV and catalogue advertisements placed. (3)Type of Marketing- Event marketing is normally very forward and will show part of an event or samples performers and activities where product marketing is generally more creative in use of characters, settings and narratives to help personify the inanimate objects. 4) Marketing Events – Events marketing especially in the case of music festivals employ the use of pre-events, for example stereosonic music festivals has a number of launch parties in venues with copious amounts of ticket and merchandise giveaways, this generates a lot of hype about the event and can increase ticket sales. Product marketers on the other hand generally don’t hold a lot of â€Å"Launch Party† type events to create hype and increase sales; although promotions are employed they are more of a rarity in product marketing. 5) Repetition of campaign – Events will use the same advertisement for the life of the campaign where several different advertisements can be produced to market one product 5. When it comes to planning for an event such as BDO, list at least ten aspects that event organisers need to take into account? Be as specific as you can. (10 marks) 1. Human Resources and Management. 2. Location of event 3. Marketing of Event 4. Auditing and Bidding for the Event 5. Event Insurance and Liability 6. Crisis Control and Crowd management 7. Sustainability 8. Host Community 9. Stakeholders 10. Financing and Sponsorship . From question 5, choose two aspects and go into detail with specifics relative to BDO. Topics can be chosen from the first 4 weeks of lecture topics and readings. (10 marks each = 20 marks in total) Sustainability of Big Day Out: In today’s day and age sustainability is one of the most important aspects in large scale event planning. Sustainability reduces the environment al impact of an event, which as a hole reduces the carbon footprint, reduces rubbish and waste litter, leaves less impact on the venue flora and fauna and also helps generate positive media and perception about the Event. Below I have listed ideas in detail, which would help make Big Day Out a more sustainable Event; Mobile App – This would include an E ticket QR code, event timetable and also an interactive music trivia app about the festivals band (to encourage use). This is app would reduce the use of printed tickets and timetables. Public Transport Tickets – Include public transport in the cost of ticket (as used for Suncorp Stadium events) reduce the amount of people who drive and cab to the event. Cup system- Make a system where either for every 6 cups you pick up off the ground and return you get a free refill or introduce a system where if you hold onto your cup you pay a cheaper rate for refills. Recyclable products – Make sure all disposable goods available from vendors, besides merchandise, are recyclable and have majority of bins at the festival recycle bins. Human Resource Management- Human resource management at a large-scale event has to be employed exceptionally for the event to run as smoothly and risk free as possible. The importance of HR’s contribution to the successfulness of events is shown through precedent such as case studies of the Sydney Olympics, which was deemed to be the most successful Olympics ever. For BDO managers and HR staff would be employed professionally, hopefully using staff from previous years. General vendors bar and cleaning staff would all be qualified volunteers working intermittent shifts allowing them to enjoy the festival after there shifts as there pay. A free festival ticket for a few hours work should be enough incentive to keep the workers motivated. Those who work till end of event would have monetary incentive, also enthusiastic employed managers should be able to keep their workers motivated. Crowd Controllers would be professionally hired, preferably those with experience, although they ask a higher wage one experienced festival crowd controller would be more beneficial then three rookies thrown into the mist of the Big Day Out. Police and professional Medical team will also be employed as per state law requirements.