Individual Reflection Journal

ADIDAS SUNDOWN MARATHON


INTRODUCTION
The Adidas Sundown Marathon is the highly-anticipated inaugural night marathon event in Singapore. With the gaining hype amongst the running community, the event is set to be a great event with the support of all running enthusiasts. The Adidas Sundown Marathon consists of four categories comprising of the Ultra-Marathon 84km, Full Marathon 42km, Corporate Challenge Relay (10.5km X 4 Runners) and the Team Challenge Relay (10.5km X 4 Runners) and each had subcategories of men and women (and mixed for the team challenges). This night run will deliver a brand new running experience for the competitors.


BACKGROUND OF THE ORGANIZER
The organizer of Adidas Sundown Marathon is HiVelocity. It is an events company that has a passion and love for sports. This event company is made up of two teams consisting of their ‘Brand Team’ and ‘Event Team’. Their Brand Team markets and distributes top international sporting brands for performance sports and their Event Team specializes in sports marketing and sport event management. HiVelocity is very supportive and enthusiastic in sports and their team is made up of very energetic and driven people who live in the sports realm. They aims to inspire motivate and create a great sporting experience for all sports enthusiasts and they believe in creating great friendships and doing what they love.

“We do what we believe. We bring energy to everything we do. And we are values driven.” Quoted from HiVelocity Website.


ROLES OF THE EVENTS TO HIVELOCITY
The role of the event to Hivelocity is creating a new image in Singapore which is an image maker. It is an event as core attraction which is the launching the first night race in Singapore. As Singapore is paying more attention into putting more life and happenings into the nightlife here, this Sundown Marathon creates and enhances the themes of it. This marathon will bring about excitement and fun that will be happening at night. It will also build the image of exciting night activities here in Singapore. Moreover, the F1 racing that will be coming soon in Singapore is also going to be launch at night, by organizing this night marathon, it will help in creating the image of having more activities and events happening in the night life of Singapore.


STAKEHOLDERS IN THE EVENT
The stakeholders in this event are:
Media – Snap Shots, Straits Times, Channel News Asia, Drummond Printing
Sponsors – Adidas, PowerBar, Polar, Ultimate Direction, 100 PLUS, Ultimate Direction, Oakley, Ice Mountain.
Event Partners – National Parks, Athlete’s Circle
Partners in Sports – Milo, Dell, Field Gear, SGRunners.com, SMU, ELM, Subway, M1, Millenia Walk, Singapore Sports Council, Singapore Pools
Participants
Security
Traffic Police
Land Transport Authority
Volunteers
Contractors
For more details and information, you can click on the link below.
http://www.sundownmarathon.com/index.php?page=sponsors


TARGET MARKET
The target markets of this event are the runners and sports enthusiasts from all over the region. They aim to attract this group of people because this is the first night race in the region where not many have tried. Runners and sports enthusiasts who want to experience and complete in the first night race in Singapore will then register to participate. They also aim to attract special interest travelers and the attractions that appeal to these travelers are their common interest and hobby which is marathon. These people will then travel to Singapore with the interest of participating in the night race which can be pursued here in Singapore.

The event does not include spectators, fans and families of the participants of this night race to be one of their target markets as there are no seating arrangements, big viewing screens and spectators seats arranged for them to witness the race. They have to stand around the finishing point to wait for the runners to finish their race which made the place unorganized. Their main target markets are only runners and sports enthusiasts.


MARKETING STRATEGIES
The marketing strategies employed by Hivelocity are basically focusing on the place, programming, people, promotion, partnerships, packaging & distribution and price. Hivelocity choose Changi Point as a place to launch its event might be because that the place is big enough to allocate the participants and that the place is where the race route can start and end. The place is pretty well set up and the stalls were all located in a very organized manner. The place also brought up the exciting atmosphere of the night race with the presence of the banners, signboards and loud music. The program of the event is the commencing of the first night race in Singapore. This is why it makes the event unique about and attracted so many people to take part in the race.

As the event is a night marathon, they only market their events in accordance to the target market. They only aim to attract and serve the participants that will be participating in the race. Their promotion tools are by advertising through the media, signboards, posters, and the internet. The Straits Time and Channel News Asia also help to promote this event through publicizing and promoting. Signboards and posters can be found at bus stops and bus terminal and participating partners and sponsors’ shops. All these serve as promotion tools for Hivelocity to advertise and promote the event. Partnerships with other stakeholders participating in the events will make the event more attractive as there are more prizes and more sponsor sponsoring the events. With joint marketing, the sponsors and partners will also help to advertise the event which at the same time reducing the cost of the event. In addition, by associating the event with well known brand like Adidas will also increase the awareness and the publicity of the event.

The distribution network is through registering online at the website itself http://www.sundownmarathon.com/ or signing up in person at Athlete’s Circle. These are the 2 distribution channels that the organization uses. The price of participating in the race increases over time as there are the ‘Early Bird Period’, ‘Special Period’ and the ‘Normal Period’ when registering for the race. If they were to register earlier during the early bird period it will be cheaper.


RATING OF THE EVENT
If I am a sports enthusiast, I will certainly rate the organization of the event very high as they give me a brand new running experience to run and complete with other runners at night. As it is also the first night race in Singapore, I will feel proud to be one of the participants that took part. In addition, it will also be the first time that we, runners can select our preferred race identification numbers through a meaningful and unique auction where all amount raised will go towards a special sports fund for the children at Beyond Social Services. It is really commendable to come up with this fresh and unique idea. The staging and logistics were pretty well organized as the all the stalls were located in a very organized manner. The stalls were well allocated and it is very easy to locate. Toilets and baggage deposit signs are also easy to be notice as they are hanging on the lamp posts.

However, the place was not very accessible and the crowd control is bad. The event was located at Changi Point and there are very little buses that go there. The buses are normally terminated at the bus terminal at Changi and it requires us to walk for 10-15 minutes to reach there. Thus, I feel that the place was not very accessible. The crowd control was bad. There are many people crowding at the finishing point which I think the management can do something to it by organizing it in a better and more organized way instead of having the whole group squeezing and pushing there at the finishing point.

Moreover, if I am not a sports enthusiast, but just a spectator or a fan of one of the runners, I will rate the organization of the event very low. There are no seating arrangements and big viewing screens arranged for us. It is difficult for us to support and to view the runners by standing at one particular place and without knowing where the runner’s location is. Big viewing screens that record the whole race should be place at the stage where all spectators and fans can view. Thus, I feel that the event did not take into consideration of the spectators and families and fans of the participants when organizing the event. Therefore, I will rate the organization of the event very low if I am a spectator, fan or a family member of the participants.

POTENTIAL OF EVENT IN MEETING TOURIST DEMAND
Personally, I feel that the potential of the event to meet the tourist demand is low. This event does not appeal to a normal tourist but rather to a special interest tourist. A normal tourist like me would not travel to Singapore to witness this night run. Only special interest tourists with the interest of running marathon will travel here for this event. Moreover, this event main target market is the runners and sports enthusiasts but not the tourists. I feel that if they want to increase the potential of the event in meeting tourist demand, several measures and changes will have to be done. They have to think of ways to attract tourists there and the programs that should be provided at the event. For example, they can come up with package tours for the tourists, attractive prizes and providing live bands, games and other entertainment programs at that event itself. This will cater to the tourists, spectators and fans of the runners after the runners set off for their marathon and making the event livelier.


VALUE OF THE EVENT
The tourism mission of Singapore is “We develop and champion tourism, so as to build the sector into a key driver of economic growth for Singapore.” The value of the event is rather low to be aligned with the tourism mission. As the aim of the mission is to boast the economic growth of Singapore, events should be indirectly or directly contributing to the country’s economy. However, this event did not contribute much to the country’s economy. As this is a local event, a very small percentage of foreigners actually come over to Singapore for the purpose of witnessing and participating in the event. Thus, the event did not contribute much to the economy. We can improve on it by making the event an international race where all runners representing their countries are invited to take part in the race. With representatives from different countries, they are bound to be fans and family members that will be tagging along. With a higher number of them coming into Singapore to witness and complete in the race, there will be a higher percentage of the tourists contributing in our economy as they will spend money here.

Please refer to the next entry for the appendices.

Appendix