Celebrate 2011 : The Event Of The Year
For our Media Mnagement Principal blog entry 2, we were to choose a media event to attend and note down our observations. Below is my reflection of the event, Celebrate 2011 at The Float @ Marina Bay on 31st December 2010
Celebrate 2011, which took place on 31 December 2010 at The Float @ Marina Bay, is more than a celebration; it is an annual tradition for all Singaporeans. Tickets to this event were sold at $38 dollars.
The objective of this year-end event was to bring together the collective wishes and aspirations of thousands of Singaporeans, unite all in counting down the final seconds of the year, to celebrate the beginning of a new year full of hopes, challenges, changes and dreams.
Started in 2005, The Marina Bay Singapore Countdown is a celebration that connects people from all walks of life through a collective expression of their wishes for the year ahead. Wishes are written on wishing spheres and lit as part of a visual arts presentation in Marina Bay.
The unique annual affair had over 500,000 wishes from the community, penned on 20,000 wishing spheres, set afloat in Marina Bay to form a spectacular visual arts display. Fast becoming an annual tradition for Singaporeans is the signing of wishing spheres for the countdown each year at various wishing stations.
I feel that there is no specific target audience because the main aim of the event is to gather all Singaporeans and people from all walks of life and bring together collective aspiration and celebrate as the year comes to an end. However, based on the artistes who are performing or involved in the event (David Tao, DJ KENNERVE, Sylvia Ratonel and Sezairi Sezali ), I would think that the organizers are looking to attract a big group of the younger Singaporeans.
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| Advertisement for the event |
Before the event, I saw numerous advertisements about the “event of the year” which thoroughly fueled my excitement. I realized that on the official website, there are options for people who enters it to suggest this site to various other portals / social networks like Facebook and Twitter. In my opinion, using social media to publicize the event is very effective seeing that the main target audiences are younger Singaporean who spends substantial amount of time on the internet (e.g. researching and social-networking)
Also, the advertisements on magazines like 8 days reaches out to a wide range of people. TV advertisements of this event were also broadcasted at prime times from 7pm to 10pm on Channel 8, Channel 5 (official broadcaster of the event) & Channel U.
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| Sheikh Haikel |
On that day itself, we went through a series of checks on our Identification card and bag-checks before passing through and entering The Float @ Marina Bay.
The skyline was amazing, clear sky after a rainy afternoon that made the stairs (which served as seats for us) wet. This, contributed to the “failure” part of the event. The camera that broadcasted the event “live” were positioned directly behind the mosh pit seats so the audience had no choice but to sit on the spots that were wet.
The atmosphere hyped up a lil when Jack & RAI, Sylvester Sim & Queen Band and Jill-Marie Thomas performed to a few tunes with the likes of “Forget you” and “21 guns”, which the crowd sang aloud to. However, throughout the event, there were repetitive technical problems and the mikes didn’t work. One awkward moment happened when Sylvester Sim tried to speak but his mike didn’t work. He then tried to make it less awkward by trying to make a joke that wasn’t very classy or appropriate.
The great performances by Sylvia Ratonel, Sezairi Sezali , taiwanese singer David Tao and One Nation Emcees - Malaysian hip hop group, largely contributed to the success of the event. Although the local idols did a good job in keeping the audience entertained, David Tao failed to impress. His songs lacked energy, and bored non-chinese audience who couldn’t understand the songs. Lastly, there were pole - dancing and belly dancing performance by OMG! Contenders.
Overall, I felt that the audience which is mostly made up of younger Singaporeans, some with their family, enjoyed themselves watching the outstanding performances by stellar acts.
The next day, I realized that there were little / no reports of the event which came as a surprise to me because it was quite a well-publicized event. I think the fact that media did not cover the event was due to the angle and approach that they chose to take. Instead of focusing on one event, the news articles focused on the nation-wide celebrations and the ways the different countries ushered in the New Year. However, there was a news report on Sunday times that mentioned a little about the event.
Generally, people are interested in novelty. In order to attract media coverage, I feel that organizing committee could organize something new, something that has never been done before in a countdown event which could attract media coverage.
Assuming I was the manager overseeing this project, I would say that the event has been fairly successful. People of all ages enjoyed the outstanding performances by stellar acts and at the stroke of midnight, gathered with their friends and families, watched the breathtaking firework display. A picture of bliss, this is. Other than that, the amenities like toilets were very user-friendly.
To make improvements for greater success, I would have made sure that seating arrangements as well as technical difficulties are attended to before the start of the event. Another thing I would have done differently as a manager overseeing this project would be to consider the choices of performers with greater consideration. Also, I would talk to the artistes to tell them what to do in case of a technical problem so as to avoid “live” awkward moments.
Photos taken during the event:
Photos of ads (sadly, there weren’t any significant news report about the event)
