Individual Reflection Journal of Events Mgt

1. INTRODUCTION OF ADIDAS SUNDOWN MARATHON
The Adidas Sundown Marathon is a hallmark event (regional) as it has a medium level of value and tourist demand, moreover it provides Singapore with a competitive advantage as the idea is from a local and the route of the run is totally within parks – 42-Km long Eastern Coastal Park Connector Network. This event will be the nation’s third marathon and first to start after sunset. The first Sundown Marathon is set to be the best event with Adidas as the title sponsor. There are four categories for this event; they are Ultra-Marathon, Marathon, Corporate Challenge Relay and Team Challenge Relay. The event promises to provide a brand new and unique running experience for the competitors as they run through quiet streets which they can never feel during the day. This race challenges the mind, body and soul of the seasoned runners as it is usually tough to run in the night due to the quietness and darkness which does not provide any rhythm and motivation to run.

2. BACKGROUND OF HIVELOCITY
The organiser of the Adidas Sundown Marathon is HiVelocity, which is a company established purely on passion, convictions and much enthusiasm in sports. HiVelocity has a common aim of creating different and great sporting experiences. They also want to be involved in the passion of sports enthusiast and extend this inspiration to others. They have a team made up of active and values-driven people who are in the Sports field, providing consultancy, organizing sports events and, marketing and distributing brands.HiVelocity comprises of two units, Brand Team and Event Team. The Brand Team markets and distributes well-known and internationally recognized sporting brands for performance sports, which also promote and sell ideas and lifestyles. The other unit, Event Team, specializes in the areas of marketing and managing sports events. Their main duty is to maximise their client’s budget by using creativity that adds value to the event.Both units work together to motivate and provide everyone with the best and unique sporting experience.

3. ROLE OF THE EVENT TO HIVELOCITY
· Image Maker
The role of the event to HiVelocity is it is an image maker as it creates a positive image for them. Adidas Sundown Marathon also builds its image as they become known and recognized for organizing a top notch event successfully. With this, it becomes a form of promotion of its own company as there will be chances that people will approach them to organize an event in future. The success of this event definitely benefit them as it enhances the ability and capability of the organiser, giving people and participants the confidence and assurance that they will be getting what the organiser promised to deliver. This event promotes the image of the destination, Singapore, as a country that looks after the welfare of its citizens in terms of their health, lifestyle and place for recreation. It also promotes itself in terms of the available space for holding sports events.

· Place Marketing
As the government have been emphasizing and making plans to increase the quality of life of Singaporeans, the use of the 42km long Eastern Park Connector Network creates awareness which let the citizens know there are more places they can exercise and relax. This also enhances the theme of Singapore being a Garden City as people and participants makes the effort to keep the place and the route (parks) clean. It imparts and educates them to keep Singapore clean and green, thus enhancing the theme.

4. STAKEHOLDERS OF THE EVENT
· Adidas
· PowerBar
· Polar
· Ultimate Direction
· 100 PLUS
· HiVelocity
· The Community – Volunteers & Participants
· Snap Shots
· Drummond Printing
· Singapore Sports Council
· Singapore Pools
· Milo
· SGRunners.com
· Dell
· SMU
· ELM
· Subway
· National Parks
· Athlete’s Circle
· Land Transport Authority
· Security
· Traffic Police
· The Straits Times
· Channel News Asia

For more information, please click here .

These stakeholders play a part in making the event successful such as to help to advertise the event, make preparation before the event begins and to wrap up the whole event.

5. TARGET MARKET
The main target markets for this Adidas Sundown Marathon are the sports enthusiasts and runners from all over the region. This is because the main priority of the race is the runners, as quoted by Mr Foo in The Straits Times, “Spectatorship will be poor, but that is not our priority for the race. The race is for the runners, and we want to maximise the experience for them.” I believe that spectators are not included in the target market because this is a race which occurs in the night, which means most people would be asleep instead of witnessing the race. It does not attract a large crowd as it is not possible for spectators to sit in one spot viewing the runner run his race. Moreover, running is not as competitive as Basketball or Soccer where people can cheer and support their team or player by sitting down fixed in a seat, which will attract ardent fans and Basketball or Soccer lovers.

6. MARKETING STRATEGIES
· Experiential Components
Place – The physical place is designed with banners and advertisements of its sponsors and partners. The setting and atmosphere were set by the large starting and finishing point that are equipped with the technology to track and record the timing of runners. The route itself is a destination feature as it was just completed last December.

Programming – There were booths selling their own products to those who were at the event. Other than that, there were not much programmes happening during the race, which means once the race starts off, everyone were just waiting for the runners to reach the finishing line. I believe the organiser can do better in this area of their marketing strategies, for example, they can have games regarding running or sports and those who answered correctly will be given products by the sponsors. This will increase the awareness of the sponsors and organisers.

People – The participants and VIPs were well hosted by the organiser’s staff. There were VIP booth for them to stay in to have interactions with the other guests and, food and drinks were served to them while they were socializing. However, the spectators did not receive any attention and interaction from the staff or volunteers. This could be due to the fact that their main priority and concern are only the runners and VIPs, so they neglected the visitors who may have interest in the event.

· Facilitating Components
Partnership – The event is marketed with the help of many partnerships; this includes partnership with sponsors, media and volunteers. Sponsors such as Adidas helped to increase the value of the event by associating the event with sponsors that are well-known.

Promotion – Promotion of the event is only prominent in the event site itself, where there were banners along the route to the starting point. Participants walking around wearing the race tee also helps to promote the event in a way, people who happen to be at Changi Village Hawker Centre may come down to take a look at what is going on, thus creating awareness that there is such event occurring. The media had helped in promoting the event which increase the level of awareness and response, the number of audience participating and reaching out to the target audience. However, there was not much of promotion elsewhere in retail shops of the sponsors. I believe the event can be made bigger if they are able to explore other distribution channels, for example, placing advertisements in all the shops of the sponsors, print the advertisement on the products of the sponsors, promoting it in Adidas websites and advertising it in other countries through the media.

Distribution – There are 2 distribution channels which the organisers uses, they are, Online Registration and Signing up in-person at Athlete’s Circle. They should consider other distribution channels as some may not be computer-savvy and may not have the time to go down in-person.

Price – The pricing are priced differently, such that participants can choose to register in bulk of at least 15 people, where they will get a discount of 5%. They can also register early to be entitled to the Early Bird special. However, visitors are able to view the events for free.

7. PERSONAL RATING OF THE EVENT
Crowd Control
My personal rating in terms of the crowd control, I will rate it rather high as the event organisers are able to handle the crowd of over 6,000 runners and the other partners of this event. There was not any overcrowding in any particular area or pushing here and there.

Accessibility & Traffic
The accessibility to the place was good as there are many public buses going there. However, for those who are driving there would find it difficult for them to reach the place because there are too many cars going there (traffic jam), and there are not many carpark lots available. The only carpark lots available are the ones behind Changi Village Hawker Centre.

Logistics
The logistics planning were excellent as they are well-organized with different stations serving different purposes so as to prevent confusion and time wastage of having to lead participants to the correct booth. Usually, during the collection of goody packs, there will be much of a problem as everyone will be rushing to get theirs. The organiser planned a different date for the participants to collect their race pack, which had saved a lot of trouble and time. Additionally, this also saves the problem of runners having to find space to keep their race pack and litters of the race pack contents.

8. THE POTENTIAL OF MEETING TOURIST DEMAND
The potential of meeting general tourist is rather low, however, as this is an event which specializes in sports or rather in running, there will be a higher potential of meeting special interest tourist who are keen in this area. In addition, this event emphasizes on its uniqueness which is a marathon during the night, and there are many who have not tried running competitively in the night. Hence, the potential of meeting the demand of sports tourist is high. Also, sports tourists likes challenges and they would go for something which is different from what they usually do. This event meets their demand as it promises to provide a different experience that will challenge their body, mind and soul.

The potential of meeting the demand of general tourist is low because general tourist are usually not interested in running events as it is a common sports. Moreover, they do not have any programmes that can entertain the tourist if they were to go to the event. As tourist demand are usually to have different and unique experience other than the running itself which will make it fun to them, this event will not meet their demand as there are no other activities that could bring them a different experience which they will not be able to get at their home countries.

9. SUGGESTIONS TO INCREASE THE VALUE OF THE EVENT
Making the event a core attraction to the country will definitely benefit the event, as it means that no matter where the event is held, the people will follow it, instead of the event following the people.

Improvements can be made that will increase the tourist demand in general. One such way is to make this event internationally recognized and having programmes which cater to all walks of life, hence the participants can bring their family to the event without worrying that there will be nothing for them. For example, they could include water parade, workouts by fitness instructors for the children, health talks for the elders, games and entertainment programmes while the event is going on.

P.S: Please refer to the next entry for the appendices. Thank you!