21650-Positioning and Promoting Events Spring

Introduction: 

Polo is a famous sport in Australia, and it attracts a lot of audiences and crowds where people are involved in the celebrating sports activities. The sport helps to get people together and help to develop a sense of ‘bonding’ to the culture, through sports and games. It helps to improve the cultural bonding and create a sense of unity among the people. People can watch the sports and enjoy the time as a community and as fans of the same sporting events. It transgresses the boundaries of social and cultural diversities, where people from diverse backgrounds root for the same team or sportsperson (Longo et al., 2016; Leite & Barreira, 2014)

The aim of the report is to outline the event of Beach Cable Polo that would be held in Sydney,, recommend two customer personas that can attract target audiences and provide recommendations for the event marketing manager to ensure success of the event.

Overview of the event and its market: 

The event will be of a Cable Beach Polo, which would include participants from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Maori communities as well as non Indigenous Australians, thereby involving the members from both Australia and New Zealand. The aim of the event is to develop a cultural amalgamation among the population and increase

The event will be held in Sydney, and will focus mainly on the city population. Participants from the different Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Maori tribes as well as the Non Indigenous population would be invited in the festival. They would form mixed teams that can help to increase the bonding between the communities. The entry fee for the event would be set at AUD 50. The capacity of the crowd would be approximately 5000 people. In the arena food stalls would also be present where a variety of food (from all these communities) would be available that would be prepared by special chefs. The sports event would be held for 4 days, in which the first three days various team will compete in a tournament, and on the fourth day, the final match would take place. The winning team would be given trophies. A percentage of the profit from the sales of food would be used for the upkeep and management of the venue.

Sydney being a very urban and populated sector in Australia has a bustling city life. There is a significant interest in sports activities throughout the city, and sports events draw a huge interest from the crowd. The city has a high cost of living index at 79, 03 and is ranked 47 of 537 cities globally. The monthly cost of living for a single person in Sydney is AUD 1309 and for four people AUD 4732. This means that the population can easily afford to attend the game. Sydney also holds an annual tournament of cable Beach Polo every year and has a massive footfall and media coverage. Additionally, Sydney also hosts many other sporting events such as Cricket Tournaments, X Games and NRL Premiership to name a few. Each of these events attracts a lot of crowd. This shows a strong market for sporting events in Sydney (Baena, 2016; abs.gov.au, 2018; studyinaustralia.gov.au, 2018; moneysmart.gov.au, 2018).

Description of two customer personas: 

To support the success of the event, two selected personals from the target customer profiles would be selected who would represent the target crowds and help to attract more people. The two customer personas selected for the event includes:

Customer Persona #1:

Name: Malcolm Daniels

Income: less than AUD 1000 per month

Age: 18 years

Ethnicity: Aboriginal

Education Level: College Student

Job: Jockey

Household Income: AUD 7000 per month

Attitudes to Life: Fun loving and outgoing. Loves to spend free time with friends going out to cheap restaurants and travel through the countryside. Avid backpacker loves to visit remote tourist places in Australia and try different types of food. Loves and appreciates the simple things in life and loves. He is curious by nature and enjoys the company of his friends and acquaintances. He is serious about his career in polo sports and has made a name for himself in the college circuits.

Attitudes to entertainment: He is active on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. He is followed by a lot of people, who likes his social media updates.

Special Interest: Apart from his passion towards Polo Sports, he loves rock n roll music and often visits live concerts. He also plays polo for his college team has represented his college several times. He loves to try new food, however due to financial constraints is unable to try expensive restaurants.

Benefits of attending the event: Participating in this event can increase his exposure and experience and also attract the attention of professional managers.

Sources on information they use: Internet and friends

Customer Persona #2

Name: Olongya Smith

Income: AUD 5000 to 6000 per month

Age: 40 years

Ethnicity: Torres Strait Islander

Education: Polo Sports Trainer

Job Role: He is a trainer of Polo Sports at a local training facility where he trains college students and young professionals.

Salary: AUD: 7000 per month

Attitudes to life: Angus is very serious professional with a hectic work schedule. He works incessantly for 5 days a week, and he likes to relax on his weekends watching sports, going out to restaurants with his family and travelling at least twice a year. He is a hard worker and supports his family well. He is also very liked in his workplace by both his students and co-workers for his hard work and honest nature.

Attitudes to entertainment: His mode of entertainment usually includes watching sports and is a big fan of the Sydney Swans and the Australian Cricket Team. He also likes to spend time with his family and some weekends he goes to the local sports bar with his friends drinking beer, watching sports.

Special Interests: Loves to try new food. He likes to explore the cultural diversities through food. He likes to travel abroad once in a while with family. He also is very social, and spends few hours every weekend in sports bars watching games with his friends.

Benefits of attending event: Gain experience and increase his reputation. Through the event he can also attract new students and thus develop his business.

Source of information or advice he uses: Newspapers, Television, Internet and Friends.

Recommendations to the event marketing manager:

In order to ensure success of the Cable Beach Polo event, the following recommendations can be given to the marketing manager of the event:

Involving Media partners for the Event:

This will reduce the advertising expense for the event through the involvement of media partners such as radio and television that would be involved in the media campaign and coverage of the event (Van der Wagen & White, 2018). 

Social Media:

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Snap Chat and Instagram can be used for the promotion of the event and to spread the awareness of the event among the target crowd (Felix et al., 2017).

Using existing advertising and marketing campaigns:

Existing marketing campaigns used for other food festivals in Sydney would also be used in order to minimize the costs and maximize the success of the campaign (Villeneuve and Pasquier, 2017).

Event Brochures:

Event brochures would also be printed that would outline the event details such as the participants, customer persona’s who would be attending, the timeline of the events as well as the food facilities in the venue, apart from the cost of the tickets and passes. It would also mention some of the well known Jockeys who would be involved as well as the different culinary cuisines that the people would be able to try in the venue (Van der Wagen & White, 2018).

Involving Press release:

A press release would be held before starting the event, where the main news channels would be invited to spread awareness of the event and maximize its coverage in the newspapers and television (Wesley & Barczak, 2016).

Offering Special Offers:

Special offers such as special passes (for 4 days at discounted price) and discount coupons would be given on early bird bookings for all the 4 days. This can allow some of the sports enthusiasts to attend everyday at lower prices (Felix et al., 2017).

Introduce small sporting competitions at the venue: 

Small competitions would be held in the venue among the audiences, such as tug of war, penalty shootouts, discuss throw and dart games where the audiences would pay for participation and on winning, they would receive prizes (Wesley & Barczak, 2016).

Gifts/Memento:

Everyone attending the event can also be gifted with gifts or mementos that are related to Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander or Maori cultures and history. The cost of the gift/memento would be covered in the entry fee of the event. 

Conclusion:

Sports Festivals are important cultural events that allow the people to experience different cultures and traditions through a common interest in sports. The Cable Beach Polo Festival would help to unify the Indigenous and Non-Indigenous communities from Australia and New Zealand. The event would provide the residents of Sydney to the athletic skills of the sportspeople from the Indigenous communities of these two counties. The event would be held for 4 days, and would attract about 5000 audiences and passes would be available at AUD50 for each day, while discounts would be available for pre booking for all the 4 days. Famous sportspeople from the Indigenous and Non-Indigenous communities in Australia would be invited in the event to ensure maximum attendance which would also be supported through the two customer persona’s who would be invited for the event. Specialty chefs would also be there in the venue, preparing special food items for all the visitors making different traditional and modernized dishes. In addition, small competitions would also be held for the visitors in the venue and special gifts and mementos would be given to everyone attending the event 

References

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