The Impact on Event Marketers

Event creation and production is a critical element to an overall marketing and communications program. It can be used to bring the consumer into sensory contact with the brand. The qualities of the event therefore reflect onto your brand, and it is an excellent way to acquire leverage, status and presence.

The event is both an end in itself and a means to a wider corporate event. Importantly, an event is a medium in itself, a channel through which brand information may be passed (Hoyle, 2012).

By including sustainability into the Event, it creates the following benefits for marketers to leverage on:

-The cost may be lowered, an option to attract consumers, or increase profits. 


-Free / reduced tickets to travel to the fair or initiatives for those consumers reducing the carbon footprint would mean that more people are likely to attend the event.

- Can increase good word of mouth due to the sustainability practices employed.

- increased sponsorship and sales revenue: Event sponsorship is generally used as a means of public relations. It allows the brand to be associated with a positive cause, hence it shifts public perceptions and boost sales, for both the sponsors and the event itself (Hoyle, 2012).

Events also create a lot of rubbish, an unpleasant site to leave attendees with as the last thing they see. By employing waste management practices, it ensures that the site almost as spectacular as it did when attendees walked in.  This allows them to leave with a good impression in mind, on not only having enjoyed the event itself, but also the look of the event. 


All in all Sustainability can bring in an extra positive benefit to the Event, Brand, Consumer and Environment without compromising on Event Standards. 

Benefits of Perth Fashion Festival employing Sustainability

As mentioned in previous posts, sustainability can bring in many positive benefits to an event or brand. The Fashion World is moving toward sustainability, though it has been a slow one. Many designer brands, such as Antiform are now creating ethical, affordable and sustainability made clothing.

Many Festivals, such as the London Fashion Week, hosted by Prince Charles, The Berlin Fashion Week and Shanghai Fashion Week to name a few have started to follow the trend of sustainability.

The Shanghai Fashion Week, received many praises from the press stating ‘Shanghai Fashion Week always have their guests in awe of the stunning designs showcased, but this season the closing party deserved a special praise. For the first time, Shanghai Fashion Week held a sustainable fashion show at it’s closing party’ (WeImpact, 2011).

They are arguments in the industry about how the fashion industry can change their clothing to be more sustainable. Fashion is not sustainable, but clothing is a necessity. Consumers, Designers and Retailers need to start looking beyond fads to practicalities of usability and durability (Ballantyne Brodie, 2011). Although this is up to the designers, Perth Fashion Week can encourage designers to be sustainable by setting an example during the Fashion Week by beginning to employ the sustainability initiatives mentioned earlier.

By employing sustainability, Perth Fashion Festival would benefit greatly with enhanced brand reputation, better press coverage, a greater attraction of sponsors, such as Mercedes Benz who sponsored Eco-Fashion Show in Chicago, designers following the sustainability trend, increased attraction of customers, who will begin/have already been following sustainability practices. 

Perth Fashion Festival & Sustainability.

Many of the reasons why other events should consider sustainability are stated in previous posts. Sustainability can bring value to the brand, contribute to market growth, allow for the preservation of licenses to operate, brings in enhanced brand reputation, customer attraction and retention are just a few of the positive impacts stated in earlier posts. 

 A personal predication is that over a period of time, heavy taxes will be imposed on those festivals that do not have a sustainability guideline, which could turn out to be an unnecessary costly expense for the organizers.

Although they are festivals that follow sustainability practices, many do not. Below are suggestions of how Perth Fashion Festival in 2012 onwards can begin to employ some of these practices, following the footsteps of what is done by the Glastonbury Festival.

The Perth Fashion Festival is considered to be Western Australia’s largest annual premier fashion event, done through a program of dynamic, interactive, creative and popular fashion events. The festivals mission is to celebrate, nurture and promote all aspects of Western Australian fashion and style (PerthFashionFestival, 2011).

After a chat with the event organizers, it was realized that very little, if almost no sustainable practices are employed within this festival, other then a little icon on all emails, asking the receiver to consider the environment before printing. Recycling bins are also provided around the office to encourage recycling.

The organizers feel that not only do they not have the resources needed to employ this practices, but also it is also not a major focus. The following suggestions which will not impose too much on the resources or cost or standard of the event.

Gift bags:

The festival provides gift bags to its attendees, with sponsored products such as cosmetics. These bags are either tote bags or paper gift bags.

This can be made sustainable, by handing out tote bags made out of vegetable dye that can still be just as attractive and serve its purpose.

Festival Brochure/Guides

This can be printed out on recycled paper, using vegetable dyes. The cost of this would be approx.$264 for 500 pieces of 6 page DL brochure (Print Together n.d.), cheaper than the $330 it would cost using non recycled paper and inks (Edge Creative n.d.).

Food Stalls:

Similar to the Glastonbury Festival, all food stall owners should make sure that the cutlery they use is FSC assured wood, made from compostable materials.

Recycling:

-       Separate bins for recycling and one for rubbish.

-       Having taps around the area to refill water, as well as encouraging attendees to bring reusable water bottles to refill instead of buying water.

Transport:

Collaborating with Transperth to provide free transport/discounted tickets to those who present their Fashion Festival Ticket as an incentive to reduce carbon emissions.

Research from AGreenerFestival.com indicates that 74% of the respondents said that they “would travel by public transport to a festival if it was provided as part of the ticket price.”

Glastonbury Festivals and It’s Employment of Sustainable Marketing Practices

The Festival’s focus seems to be orientated towards Environmental Marketing: which is practiced when industries favor recycling, energy saving and other environmentally conscious activities. Environmental marketing can go a step further when creating a new environmental consciousness that promotes preservation and conservation in the future

The American Marketing Association, does not specifically define environmental marketing, but establishes that an “Environmental Impact Analysis is the assessment of the impact of a strategy or the decision on the environment, especially the ecological consequences of the strategy or decision” which emphasizes that it is the responsibility of the marketer to do no harm environmentally.  (Jamrozy 2007, 123).

According to Jamrozy (2007, 124), there are three dimensions of marketing sustainability that need to be considered. Derived from Jamrozy sustainable tourism marketing model below, the explanations state how the Glastonbury Festival has successfully employed these three dimensions.

Sustainable Marketing Model (Jamrozy 2007, 124)

Society & Economy:


This is defined a recognizing that although the traditional economic paradigm is followed, with profit as an ultimate goal, it also promotes a societal goal, to provide benefits to all residents.

The Glanstobury Festival promotes a more societal goal, as stated by the following quotes by Michael Evais, Founder of the Glastonbury Festival.

‘The 2010 festival should bring in about £25 million, but almost all that will be swallowed up in staging, bands, security, facilities and other costs. We only make about £2 million profit. This is shared between Oxfam, WaterAid and Greenpeace. The festival is a sell-out. We could charge more but it would spoil the atmosphere and goodwill.” Michael Eavis – 2010

“I am proud that Glastonbury contributes over £100 million annually to the economy, and a substantial proportion of that, £52 million, is spent in Somerset and the south west” – Michael Eavis, Founder, Glastonbury Festival 2011 (Toby 2010).  

Environment:

According to Jamrozy (2007) the objectives of this are promoting healthy connected environments, based on protecting the natural and cultural resources. Marketing would not promote the “use” of resources, but preservation and pro-environmental behaviors.

Within the Festival, this is done through extensive messages and promotion of sustainability initiatives, such as waste management initiatives employed by the festival as described earlier on. 

Marketing of the Glastonbury Festival

The festival has employed an integrated marketing communication, defined as a ‘unified coordinated effort to promote a brand concept through the use of multiple communication tools that speak with one voice.’ (Shimp, 1997).

It has become an iconic brand with minimal direct advertising and approach that is ‘non-commercial.’

Involvement from sponsors is low key. Branding is not allowed on site, and the sponsors, have to remove all logos. The idea is that sponsors are to give something back to the people at the festival.

From a marketing point of view, this works in their favour, as over branding in this environment would work against them. According to Glastonbury Festival Commercial Manager, Hannah Rossmorris ‘the type of people that attend this festival are media savvy and don’t like being told what to buy’ (Virtual Festivals June 26, 2002). 

Integrated Marketing:

-       Flyers – disturbed throughout various unions

-       Editorial and press – interviews, festival line-up and advertising which promotes core message in UK music publications such as Q Magazine, NME, Mix-Mag, Mojo and Kerrang as well as national newspapers such as The Guardian and local newspapers in surrounding areas.

-       Television and Radio: Programming across BBC 2, 3 and 4 (with highlights via red button streaming) over the Glastonbury weekend complimented by radio coverage on BBC 6 music and BBC radio 1 (who also communicate core messages leading up to the festival).

-       Online                                                                                                                         

The Glastonbury website provides up to date information on attending the festival and their various initiatives.                                                 

BBC provides live streaming of the festival.                                                

Orange: Orange, sponsor of the Glastonbury festival took advantage of the social media useage by festival attendees and published a photo on their website of the festival encouraging people to zoom in and tag themselves through websites like Facebook. Over 8000 people tagged themselves in a 70,000 person crowd within days. It become known to be the world’s most tagged photos (Firth 2010). 

-       Guardian Newspaper website provides schedule of the festival.

-       iTunes: allows the download of Glastonbury videos with the entire proceeds of the sale going to charity.

-        Advertising on Charity Websites that are sponsored by the Festival.                                                                       

-       Social Media usage:                                                                        

-       Twitter: 87,243 followers, 40,000 mentions the week before the festival.

-       Facebook: 200,422 fans                                                            

-       iPhone App: 100,000 downloads of the official app out.                          

74% of the 135,000 ticket holders.

-       4.9 million texts and 2.7 million calls were made from the site by attendees (Densley, 2011). 

Glastonbury Festival: Transport and Travel

Transport emissions and local congestion are potentially the most significant environmental impacts of hosting an event. Glastonbury use the following tools to encourage festival goers to help reduce the carbon footprint.


Glastonbury Festival Green Traveler: gives incentives to travel by public transport or cycling. The lanyard is given to those arriving at the Festival Coach Park to monitor those using public transport. The lanyard provides access to solar showers and compost toilets, discount on main meals, free yogurt and festival t-shirt discount.


Cyclists are provided with a reserved camping field (Glastonbury Festival 2010).


Using green tractors: running on 100% bio-diesel refined from used cooking oil.                                                                                                


 Reducing road delivery:                                                                          


- Building two reservoirs holding a million liters of water, thus all festival water comes from the mains, therefore no trucks are need to bring in water from other services. The water is heavily monitored and usually tested for quality twice a day:                                                             - 
-Onsite, wholesale market so food and water delivery is hugely reduced.


- Reducing CO2 emissions by investing money into sewage plants, so the Festival sewage waste can now be processed within a 8 mile radius, instead of hauling it to Avonmouth, 40 miles way.

(Glastonbury Festival n.d.)

Glastonbury Festival: Waste Management Practices

                                                                    

Waste Management, in the broadest sense of the term is defined as practices and procedures or the administration of activities that provide for the collection, source separation, storage, transportation, transfer, processing, treatment and disposal of waste (Tamworth Regional Council. n.d).

                                                                                                                       

Waste generated at festivals is one of the most prominent environmental impacts that festivals have, as not only is a great deal of waste generated, it is the most visible impact to the festival goer, can pose health risks and one of the most costly expenses for festivals (AGreenerFesitval.n.d).

Given careful planning, the large quantities of waste generally produced at Events can be avoided, mainly by following the principle of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

                                                                                                                                   

Glastonbury Festival follows this principle by employing ‘Love the farm, leave no trace’ policy using the following initiatives at their events:

Souvenirs: Festival T-shirts and bags printed using water based inks or vegetable dye.

Cutlery: All cutlery used at market stalls must be made for FSC-assured wood, not plastic. Cups and plates must be made from compostable material such as cardboard. 

 Structures are made from using local recycled wood, which is then dismantled and chipped following the event and used around the farm.

 Recycling:                                                                                                

- Bin It, Bag it, Recycle It: Bags, printed with vegetable dye provided on entry, one for recycling and one for rubbish. 

- 50% of all waste, i.e. cans, paper, electrical and electronic equipment, wood and organic waste are separated and recycled locally. 


-Encouraging festival goers to bring their own reusable water bottle to fill at taps around the area instead of buying water.                                                                                                                         

  Solar showers and composting toilets (Glastonbury Festival 2010).


 Green Police at Glastonbury: organized and provided by Save The World Club Charity, sending out the message to use the toilets provided, the bins provided and the cigarette butt bins to keep the festival clean.

(Glastonbury Festival, n.d.) 

The Focus

Although the are many sustainable issues facing Events sector, this particular blog will be focusing on the sustainable practices employed by Glastonbury Festival, one of the greenest and cleanest festivals around and how the Perth Fashion Festival can employ some of the strategies to be more sustainable.

Although the Glastonbury Festival employs many sustainable practices, the focus today will be on Waste Management and Transport. 

The blog will also look at the marketing challenges faced by this industry, the sustainable marketing practices used by Glastonbury and the impact on event marketers. Although they are many types of sustainable marketing practices, and the blog may touch on societal and economical marketing, the focus will be on environmental marketing, also known as ‘green marketing.’

A Background of The Green and Clean Festival: Glastonbury Festival

Glastonbury Festival began in 1970, with 1500 guests and is now considered to be the largest Greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world with approximately 140,000 attendees over a five day period.

The festival aims to encourage and stimulate youth culture from around the world, in all its forms, including pop music, dance music, jazz and all the creative forms of art and design, including painting, sculpture and textile art.

A large area of the festival is set aside for complementary and alternative medicine, demonstrations and displays of environmentally friendly technologies and techniques, various forms of religious expression and a forum for debating environmental social and moral issues. The festival organizes market places, selling an enormous range of wares and places particular emphasis on offering high quality prepared food and hand made goods, including clothes and jewelry.

                                               

The festival is aware of its impact on the environment and since 1970 has been working with various environmental groups such as AGreenerFestival.com, Greenpeace and many others to adopt environmentally efficient methods and keep up its reputation to be one of the ‘greenest and cleanest’ festivals around (Glastonbury Festival n.d). 

The Image of Events & Sustainability

Events have an image of a hedonistic, resource gulping and garbage producing model but have the potential to change this image into one of a harmonious balance between human activity, resource use with minimal environmental impact (Jones). Some have even began to set the standard for sustainable events.

More and more festival organizers believe that their festivals environmental credentials have an influence on ticket buyers as 48% would pay more for a greener event, 59.4% stating it was an important factor when considering which event to go to and 36% state green as an important factor when buying a ticket and that it is the festival-goers opinions that are encouraging the move towards greener festivals rather than artist pressure (O’Neill, 2009).

The challenges of Marketing Sustainability

Research suggests that events are target by governments as a way to reach public and influence attitudes (AGreenerFestival. n.d.). Sustainability values, therefore can be a successful differentiator. Many marketers and festival organizers find that integrating sustainability values into a brand can contribute to market growth (Marketing and Sustainable Development. n.d.), preservation of license to operate, enhanced brand value and reputation, customer attraction and retention to name a few (Sustainable Event Solutions. n.d.).

Marketing is central to global society and when harnessed responsibility can encourage to recycle, reuse, save energy and support good causes (Gordon, Carrigan and Hastings 2011, 144). The sustainability approach adopts a holistic, integrated view of marketing, considering social equity, environmental protection, and economic livability (Jamrozy 2007, 117).

The challenge however, lies in a resulting deluge of skepticism - dubbed as ‘green wash’ (Ottman, 2011) due to a lack of awareness, understanding and trust about sustainability issues within consumers (Gordon, Carrigan and Hastings 2011, 145).

Marketing managers struggle to translate sustainability ideas in viable propositions. Sustainable marketing is viewed as an oxymoron and marketers have often faced criticism for being part of the problem – for encouraging unsustainable patterns of consumption (Marketing and Sustainable Development. n.d.). Telling people they can no longer drive everywhere or consume as they see fit is undoubtedly popular. The important message to deliver is that seeking more resource efficient ways of meeting our needs and aspirations does not mean a reduction in well being (Gordon, Carrigan and Hastings 2011, 146)  

Why is Sustainability Important?

The world is moving towards a common agreement that doing nothing about sustainability issues is no longer an option and the need to adapt our societies and economies to sustainable patterns of consumption is a pressing one (Purt 2011).

Social, economic and environmental imperatives are directing both governmental and corporate policies in the international sustainability agenda (Wong, 2009). The UK government and many others are increasing their policy frameworks for environmental protection and also believe additional emission charges and taxation should be considered (AGreenerFestival. n.d.).

Many organisations, find that along side the laws, their performance is now judged not only by the impact they have on human and social wellbeing, but also the natural environment (Sustainable Event Solutions. n.d.).

Sustainability : What is it?

There is a growing awareness of the importance of delivering and hosting environmentally sustainable major events (Marquardt et.al 2007).

Sustainability, is defined as considering the social, economic and environmental impacts to meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own (Kates, Parris and Leiserwoitz, 2000).

Environmental sustainability, the focus of many events is described as an event that has successfully minimized its impacts on the natural environment (Marquardt et.al 2007).

Events and Sustainability

                                                                                                                                   

We drive to an event, when we could use public transport, we throw away bottles of water instead of refilling them, we print tickets instead of using the technology available to us…. It is not wonder that wastefulness is considered to be a byproduct to holding events (O’Connor, 2010).  

Land pollution from waste generation, air pollution from carbon dioxide generated by heating, cooling, lighting, pollution from diesel and petrol vehicle, noise pollution from the event, water pollution from spillages and administration office waste are some of the many sustainable issues facing the Events sector today.