Date: 29 - 30 December 2015
Venue: Outside Old Shopping Arcade
Time: 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
About the Event: The Royal Carnival was a mini roadshow that sold British confectioneries and novelties that were directly imported from UK and rarely found in Singapore. As the name of the event suggests, it was a roadshow that carried the ambience similar to one that could have been found at funfairs. Not only were there snacks and drinks to be bought, there were interactive games made available for patrons and not forgetting attractive prizes to be won!
With the products being directly imported from Great Britain, we were inspired to take on the English Theme. As the roadshow was happening during the low peak of the year, the team made a decision to incorporate a game segment in hope to boost the response of the crowd. The colors of the entire event, from our dress code to the aesthetics of the booth, revolved around colors that would remind one of the flag of Great Britain. The red, blue and white was also a representation of our partner, Tuck!
Our Roles and Objectives:
- The introduction of directly imported British products that are rarely made available in Singapore.
- The creation of a platform for the team to gain experience in the planning and execution of a mini-roadshow.
- The boosting of brand awareness of our partner, Tuck, who had joined the market not too long ago.
The team focused on providing all materials for the publicity by creating interactive activities for the patrons to participate. Our partner has also generously agreed to sponsor our attractive freebies, ranging from candies to crisp and even $10 vouchers, to be given out as gifts for our games.
Pre-Event: Prior to the event, the team members were mainly engaged in the Advertising and Publicity segment. The team was split into 2, each led by the 2 In-Charges for our A&P.
1) Lynette's Team
1.1. The production of Flyers
KJ working on Adobe Photoshop
1.2. The production of the Menu Board
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| Printing and laminating the words/pictures for the board... |
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| Arranging the words and pictures for the board! |
1.3. The creation of the Banner
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| Finding the right positions for the words on the Banner |
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| Our banner (without the poles) |
2) Hee Tian's Team
2.1. The production of Posters
Our finalized poster!
2.2. The production of the interactive activities:
(i) The Dizzy Clown (Lucky Wheel) |
Work-In-Progress: The Dizzy Clown! |
(ii) Toss & Win
All that we had needed were masking tapes and red papers for the rings.
Not forgetting recycled Soya Bean glass bottles from Cheers!
(iii) Match & Win
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| The famous childhood "Snap" card game to get the "Match & Win" going! |
Trial Mock Up:
A day before the event, the team made a trip down to the venue to do a trial set-up to ensure the feasibility of the fixtures, in hopes to highlight and minimize any possible hiccups on the actual day. During the trial, there were a number of improvisations that we had to come up with:
1) Positioning of the banner
- The initial plan to lean the banner against the wall had made it inconspicuous, putting the event at a disadvantage. Thus, we spent the rest of the day working on the banner, shortening the distance from one pole to another to a 1.2m, allowing it to fit perfectly to the sides of the table.
2) Arrangement of the tables
- The layout that we had earlier agreed upon had made our booth look cramped and fixtures heavy, degrading the overall aesthetics of our booth. With the advice of our supervisor, Ms Quek, the team reshuffled the arrangements. With the change, our set-up definitely looked neater and we were even able to insert another table for the games segment, which was also facing spatial restrictions which would have had become a safety hazard.
3) Spatial limitations for game booth
- It was only during the trial that we had become aware of a lapse in our logistics for the game segment. We started off with the thought that one table was enough to conduct the games, namely "Toss & Win" and "Match & Win". However, we decided to anticipate a situation where the 2 games could have happened concurrently. The tossing game would have created a safety hazard if the bottles had fallen or had the rings hit the participant of the other game.
4) Inability of the glass bottles to be secured
- During the trial, we had planned on covering all the tables with the red-fitted table cloth. However, this had imposed a challenge on us when we tried to secure the glasses as the bluetack was not able to stick onto the cloth. A decision was then made to cover only the tables at the main booth with cloth.
All in all, the trial mock-up had benefited us in the execution of our actual event as it had allowed us to gauge the overall look of the event. From this mock-up, we have learnt that our initial floor plan was not feasible hence, we had ample time to make the necessary changes.
Event Day 1:
We had started the day with a morning briefing conducted by the Overall-In-Charge (OICs), Sabrina and Rebecca. We were split into 2 teams, excluding the 2 finance ICs who were responsible for the retrieving of the POS system and overlooking all other financial matters.
The first group was responsible for bringing down the banner, stationery and stocks from level 4 while the others were tasked with withdrawing the necessary logistics from the fixtures room. The allocation had expedited the process of getting our paraphernalia to our venue. However, there were no proper allocation of roles for the setting up after the transportation. Thus, there were areas which had an overcrowding of manpower, causing a negligence in other areas. In addition, there was a sudden improvisation for the games booth. The elimination of the red cloth had caused a plain and naked look. Hence, we decided to utilize our leftover colored paper flags to beautify the perimeters of the table. With all of this taken into consideration, we started sales at 1100hrs instead of 1030hrs.
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| Putting up the decorations to beautify the games booth section |
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The Royal Carnival!! Up and ready!
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| Firefly drinks |
Terms and Conditions for the games:
1) Spend $5 or more, have a free game of your choice ("Toss & Win" or "Match & Win")
2) Spend $10 or more, patrons are entitled to the "Spin & Win" in which they stand a chance to receive freebies or even a $10 Voucher*.
3) Spend $20 or more, patrons are entitled to a $10 Voucher*.
*Patrons have to take a picture with Tuck's logo that is affixed to a portable Photo Booth that the team has prepared.
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A cherry coke to accompany a lecturer's quick lunch!
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| Jia Cheng trying to sell products during mobile selling |
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Hee Tian manning the games booth
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Event Day 2:
We started the day with a briefing conducted with the Logistics ICs and the OICs. This time, we had ensured that everyone were allocated a task during set up. Our set-up was faster as compared to Day 1. However, due to our carelessness, we had pressed the "End of Day" key in the POS system. This meant that we had to do manual recording for the entire day. In addition, our float was locked in the system and the Supervisor-In-Charge was caught in a meeting. Thankfully, we had excess cash from Day 1. Each mobile-selling team was given a starting float of $4 while the main booth tried to request for exact cash amounts from our customers. Business resumed as per normal when our supervisor came down to unlock the cash drawer for us.
Despite the overwhelming sales from Day 1, the team had decided not to be complacent and we pushed to hit our initial target for Day 2 that was set at $500. We emphasized a lot on mobile selling as the crowd was relatively smaller than the previous day. At about 1300hrs, the team had discovered that there were a few duplication in the manual records of the sales. Nevertheless, we kept calm and pushed on, agreeing to leave the financial matters to the end of the event.
More pictures to do the talking...
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Pushing hard for Mobile Selling
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| Games to liven up the atmosphere for those who had to be back in school during the holidays! |
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| One of the winner for the $10 Voucher: Mavis! |
We ended the day by doing our stock count and we spent the following day reconciling the differences by identifying the duplicates.
Conclusion:
The event was a success despite minor discrepancies in cash with the POS system and sales memorandum for Day 2. We met our objectives and it was gratifying to watch the team apply the lessons learnt from our previous event - The Christmas Sales. We have grown!
We were surprised by the overwhelming demand for majority of our products, causing it to run out of stock by noon of Day 2. At the end of the event, we were able to exceed our sales target of $1,255.00, earning a final amount of $1,677.00!
Most importantly, it was beautiful to see the team made up of different individuals coming from various courses, contributing to the event with our own expertise! We have had our fair share of ups and downs throughout the event, from planning to the end of the execution, but we proudly declare that we made it (of course with the help of our loving supervisors) and we will miss our time in EMRS!!!
With love,
EMRS Team 3
